We must have heard over and over again that there is a vacuum that only God can fill. And many of us as believers, have come to this understanding and know where to source ourselves; which is in God. We have also learned to come daily for refilling from God because the filling of yesterday cannot carry us for too long. I am sure many of us also know that the depth every one of us can go with God is inexhaustible. It’s from one dimension to another. And many believers, children of God yearn for more, more, more. So, I believe that our consideration today “Beholding the glory of God” will serve to still stir us in the right direction. For us to continue to go into depths with God, there is something we must keep beholding, that is the glory of God
First of all, what does this glory mean? It means brightness, light, excellence, and radiance.
I want us to see an example in the old testament. I am sure it’s a story many of us are very familiar with in Exodus 33, verses 12- 23. We are going to pick out some verses from there for our understanding of this subject matter.
Exodus 33: 12-23 NKJV
12 Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ 13 Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.” 14 And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.” 17 So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.” 18 And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.” 19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 20 But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. 23 Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”
In Exodus chapter 3, Moses encountered God through the burning bush, and after that, he spoke continuously with God in delivering the people of Israel from Egypt and through their journey in the wilderness. The children of Israel even told him to keep talking to God on their behalf. So, Moses had a relationship going with God, like many of us. The bible says the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend
But in this chapter 33, we could see the way the conversation was going, there was something else Moses was yearning for, there was something else he wanted to experience beyond the encounters, beyond the manna, the water from the rock, even the conversations. Moses was seeking deeper revelation, deeper experience than the ordinary. Moses had communed with God often, and here, he was having a conversation with God. I want us to specifically look at what he was asking of God in some verses of Exodus 33.
Moses asked God for several things, firstly in verses 12 and 13,
12 Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ 13 Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.”
God answered the request he made in verse 12 and said, My presence will go with you, but there was no answer to the request in verse 13. So, Moses requested again even more specifically, in verse 18, “Please, show me Your glory.” And God responded to him, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 20 But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. 23 Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”
In Chapter 34, after Moses came down from the mountain after his encounter with God, in verse 30, So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.
Moses wanted to see something that’s why he said show me. He saw to the extent that God in His mercy revealed to him. This was a physical manifestation of what he beheld. Remember, God covered his face and yet the skin of his face shone. But beyond the physical manifestation, he got a spiritual experience. Why do I know this?
Remember the request he made, “show me now Your way, that I may know You” was answered. That’s why the bible declared that the Israelites knew the acts of God but Moses knew His ways. Because he yearned for something from God and he was able to get that experience.
Psalm 103:7
7 He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.
Moses asked, show me now your way that I may know you. Embedded in beholding is a desire to know And we should not take likely that word ‘know’ because we may begin to see it on the surface. “Knowing” that Moses was speaking of here is a deeper revelation. We must not forget that this, Moses who asked for this experience was not a stranger to God. He was practically on the mountain with God all the time.
Phil 3:10
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
This was Apostle Paul speaking here, ‘that I may know Him….” Telling us again, that as believers that having a working fellowship with God, we are not out of place to ask, I want to know you Lord again and again. Knowing means I want more than what I have currently. I want a deeper revelation. There is someone I must keep beholding.
I want us to see another scripture,
In John 17:3 Jesus says, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
There is a life you encounter when you know God. The good part of knowing God is that it’s a two-way thing because God desires that we know him also. That we behold his glory also.
That’s why He sent Jesus. In this, God proved his longing to be known by us. Jesus took on flesh not just so he could save and redeem us, but so he could usher in a better, truer revelation of who the Father is. Moses couldn’t see the face of God but Jesus came to us as God face to face, to tell us that I am giving you free access, to behold me, face to face. It’s a spiritual experience so let’s not try to gain that access in the flesh.
John 5: 19-23
19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. 20 For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, 23 that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
If you can behold me, you have beheld the Father. If you can acknowledge the things I do, you are acknowledging the Father, if you see me, you have seen the Father.
2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Exodus 34:34-35
34 But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take the veil off until he came out; and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had been commanded. 35 And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with Him.
Now Moses’ face had to be covered, but after Jesus came to show us the Father, the bible tells us that we can behold without a veil. That tells us that Moses can have a special kind of experience even with a covered face. How much more we with unveiled faces?
2nd Corinthians 3:7-8
7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
The bible says that the glory Moses beheld was a fading glory but here we are with a rare opportunity to behold for ourselves. We are not like the children of Israel who needed someone to speak to God for them. We can by ourselves behold and be transformed. We can by ourselves have the will of God written in our hearts. We can see God for who he is by ourselves. We can all be on the mountain and get individual experiences, and the glory of God is not diminishing. There is something we must keep seeing as we grow in depth with God, go deeper and deeper.
What does beholding the glory of God do for u? When we come to that place of asking, again and again, Lord, show me your glory, certain things happen
• Beholding the glory of God brings us to a place of worship
Exodus 34: 8
8 So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.
He hurriedly fell to worship. There was awesomeness he saw that made him worship. He was not forced to do it.
The glory of God is the revelation of himself, in his fullness. I wouldn’t know how you would want to define your worship of God but it brings you to a place of surrender, casting your crowns. Knowing that you cannot stay in that atmosphere and remain the same. There is a glory that transfers to you. Moses saw the glory of God and what did he do? He made haste to worship. Beholding God for who He is will move us to worship.
The bible says in revelations that the four living creatures and twenty-four elders bow continuously, saying holy, holy. There is a compel to worship that comes from beholding God. Moses made haste.
Rev 4:8-11
8 The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!” 9 Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: 11 “You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will, they exist and were created.”
• There is a change that happens, a shedding, a continuous renewal, a transformation
2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord
When you look in a mirror, you have an intention, and if you see something that you don’t like about what you wore or how you look, what do you do? You go back and do something about it and come back again to look to ensure everything is perfect. So, looking in the mirror compels a change in your appearance, the way you want to appear outside. That’s the simple logic. Beholding God as in a mirror is for a change. The mirror brings you to a place of continuous looking and checking.
• There is a physical manifestation in beholding the glory of God
Where there is light, there is a manifestation, a revealing, it brings to the open. There was a glory that transferred to Moses for a physical manifestation. The same thing can happen to us if we behold. In doing the will of God, this is very important because if people will see the glory of God on us then, we must have beheld that glory which translates to a physical manifestation.
Is. 60: 1-3 NKJV
1Arise, shine, For your light has come. And the glory of the Lord risen upon you 2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; But the Lord will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you. 3 The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising
Kings will come to the brightness of your rising because there is a glory that has covered you. Will your face shine like Moses’ face? No! it may not physically shine. The kings and Gentiles are not coming to see the light shining physically on your face. They are coming to experience a physical manifestation of your beholding. They are coming to see a physical manifestation of your spiritual experience, the glory of God over you will not be hidden. You are the light of the world, a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden, but there is a place you must come from, beholding an Almighty God. We must keep beholding if our lights must shine through
• The glory of God is the opening of a portal of his ways, his will, his instructions
God opens us up to his instructions after beholding him. In exodus 34, God gave instructions to Moses while he was with him after he had beheld his glory, and Moses could pass across the message to the children of Israel.
• In beholding the glory of God is satisfied, that’s why God said come all ye who hunger and thirst and I will fill you. There is a filling that God gives that satisfies.
Exodus 34:28
28 So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
He was there, the bible didn’t record that God told him to fast or he intended to be there for that long but he was there and when he came down, his face shone. He was refreshed. He was alive, renewed. The bible recorded that he didn’t even know that he was glowing. The people looking at him saw the change, that this man has seen something.
To behold the glory, we have to come. God is calling us to come. After Moses made his request, God called him to come to a place. So, for us who desire and yearn to know God, and seek this experience. God is saying come to this place, it’s an open invitation. Come to our place of fellowshipping, it seems like the usual place but if you asked for more, then, come and receive more.
God had given Moses his word that he would grant his request, so I believe when Moses was presenting himself to the Lord that day, he was coming for his answer.
But the starting point was his desire to know more, his deep longing, which translated to an invitation to come, then the life-changing experience he got.
Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Benedicta Apeh!
Feel free to share your thoughts or testimony in the comment box below. I promise to respond to them as soon as possible!