Exodus 33:20-23

My face shall not be seen.

God’s glory must be veiled from human sight

If God had revealed all His glory--if He had not put the shadow of His hand upon Moses, if He had not revealed merely His skirts, as it were, as He passed by--Moses would have been overwhelmed. And this explains to you what is often said in Scripture, “No man can see God and live,”--not because God would destroy the man, but because the glory would be so intense that it would overwhelm him. Moral grandeur may be overpowering, and we learn in history that there have been cases where mental emotion has struck dead the physical economy. A celebrated American astronomer was watching the transit of Venus over the sun’s disk; he believed that that transit would take place at a specified moment; and when he saw the shadow of the planet appear on the disk of the sun, such was his excitement or gratification, that he fainted away from excess of joy. Sir Isaac Newton was so overcome by the sense of the magnitude of his discoveries, or of the extent of what he saw in consequence of the great principle he had laid down, that from excess of feeling he was unable to carry out his own grand calculations, and others had to do it for him. Now, if excess of knowledge, of joy, or prosperity, have these powerful effects upon the human frame, we can conceive that too grand an apocalypse of God would be unbearable now; just as the eyeball would be blinded by excess of light. But you can conceive what a splendour and majesty we shall behold when we see God, not through a glass darkly--the smoked glass or lens through which we look at great brightness--but we shall see Him face to face. And what a change will have passed upon us when we can bear to look upon Deity and not shrink! (J. Cumming, D. D.)

There is a place by Me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock.

The believer’s standing place

To those who like typical texts, there is a peculiar charm in such as this: “a place by Me,” and “a rock” for a standing place. What suggestions--

1. Of the believer’s firm foundation--the “Rock.”

2. Of the believer’s fellowship with God--“a place by Me.”

3. Of the believer’s favour with God--a vision of His glory. (A. T. Pierson, D. D.)

The place by God, or the right standpoint

The guide-books name the time when rainbows may be seen on some of the many waterfalls which abound in Switzerland. One day, when I was at Lauterbrunnen, I went to the famous Staulbach Fall (980 feet), and sat down by the flagstaff, and waited and watched. Others did the same, and we all went away disappointed. Next day one of my friends said he would show us how to find the rainbow. So I went again, and saw a most lovely one, and stood almost in the centre of it. Then I found that not only were sunshine and spray necessary to produce a rainbow, but also that those who would see it must stand between it and the sun, i.e., it could be seen only at a given point. Then I perceived that those who would see the glory of God could see it only in the face of Jesus Christ, and that the reason why so many fail in this respect is because they do not take the right standpoint. (Gavin Kirkham.)

The standpoint of the Cross

I was talking about Christ to an impenitent neighbour the other day. He said: “Why can’t I feel about Him as you do? I have read the Bible a good deal. I have heard a good deal of preaching. Yet I can’t get up any enthusiasm in regard to this Saviour that you talk so much about.” I said to him: “You make me think of my visit to the White Mountains some years ago. We were told that there was a wonderful piece of natural statuary there--a man’s face, chiselled, as it were, out of a granite cliff. We went to see it. We found what we supposed was the cliff, but there was no appearance of human features--no form or comeliness such as we had been told of. We were about to turn away disappointed, when a guide came along, and said, ‘You are not looking from the right point.’ He led us up the road a few rods, and then said, ‘ Now turn, and look.’ We did so, and there was the face as distinct as any of ours, though of gigantic size. Until we reached the right spot we could see only a jagged rock, and not a symmetrical face. The vision of the form and comeliness depended upon the angle of observation. And it is so with you, my friend. Come with me under the shadow of the Cross. Come there as a penitent sinner. Look there upon that ‘visage so marred more than any man.’ Realize that the mangled, thorn-crowned Sufferer is dying for you, and you will see in Him a beauty that will ravish your soul.” (T. L. Cuyler.).