Exodus 33:18-19

Exo. 33:18, 19. "And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." Moses, from his finding his great acceptance and favor with God in the power that his prayers and intercessions had with him, so as it were to appease God's wrath against the congregation of Israel, which was so great for their making the golden calf; and from his obtaining, by prayer, the promise of so great a favor as that God's presence should go with them, which promise was made with this gracious declaration made of God's favor to him; "For thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name;" and from God having in all this spoken to Moses, as a man speaks to his friend: this great mercy of God to him has two effects on Moses.

1. It gives him a sense of God's excellency and glory, especially the excellency of his mercy and free goodness from this manifestation of it to him and his people after their great sin, and makes him long for a full sight of the glory of so excellent and good a being.

2. It encourages him to ask for this exceeding great mercy of seeing God's glory. God's mercy and favor being so very great in past instances, encourages him to ask farther and more exceeding favor; and we do not find that God rebukes Moses as being too forward and presumptuous in such a request, or as not being content with so great mercy as he had received already, but on the contrary seems to manifest an approbation of his making such an improvement of mercy already received, for he grants his request so far as is consistent with his present state. Several things are observable, concerning the manner of God's showing Moses his glory, wherein, though it was extraordinary, it is agreeable to the manner of God's discovering himself to the souls of his people in this world.

1. It was not face to face, which is reserved for the heavenly state; 1 Corinthians 13:12; but it was as it were a view of the back instead of the face.

2. It was as passing by. Herein is a great difference in the manner in which the saints have the discoveries of God's glory, and that wherein they shall see him hereafter. Hereafter they shall dwell in his presence, they shall be fixed in an everlasting view of the glory of God, their eye shall be perpetually feasted with a full vision of his face; but here, when the saints have extraordinary discoveries of the glory of God, they are transient and short; sometimes it is only a glance; Christ stands behind the wall for the most part, and when he shows himself it is through the lattice as passing by a window, but hereafter they shall be in his presence-chamber with him. Here the saints see God as passing by before them, and then he is gone.

3. Hereby is properly represented how imperfect are the spiritual discoveries which the saints have of God here. They see God as it were when he is gone by, they have somewhat of a sight of him, but yet very imperfect, as of the back of one that is just gone by, giving of them a sense that he is indeed an infinitely glorious being if they could but have a full sight of him: they can see so much as to give an idea of what might be seen, if they could but come at it. They seem to be as it were on the borders of seeing it, and their appetite is excited to see it; but while they are admiring and longing, and reaching after it, it is gone and passed away.

4. The discovery of God's spiritual glory is not by immediate intuition, but the word of God is the medium by which it is discovered: it is by God's proclaiming his name. So God reveals himself to the saints in this world, by proclaiming his name in the joyful sound of the gospel.

5. It is by causing his goodness to pass before him, which is agreeable to the way in which God discovers himself to his saints by the gospel, which in a peculiar manner is a manifestation of the glory of divine grace or goodness. Divine grace is the leading attribute in that discovery, which God makes of his glory by the gospel, wherein God's goodness is revealed more than any; wherein, and wherein especially, it is revealed as free and sovereign; and which is another thing that is a peculiar glory of the gospel, it is a mutation of free and infinite grace, as consistent with strict justice in punishing the Son; and therefore both are mentioned together in that proclamation God makes of his name to Moses, as in the 5th, 6th, and 7th verses of the following chapter.

6. While God draws nigh to Moses, and he is in God's presence, Moses is commanded to hide himself in the clefts of the rocks, that God may not be a consuming fire to him, and that he may be secured from destruction, while the burning blaze of God's glory passes by (as Watts expresses himself), which typifies the same Redeemer who is as the munition of rocks, and as a strong rock, and the hiding-place of his people; who is compared to a great rock to secure from the burning heat of the sun by its shadow, and was typified by the rock out of which water was fetched for the children of Israel. God's people can be secured from destruction when they are in the presence of God, and in his approaches and converse, no other way than by being in Christ, and sheltered by him from being consumed by the flames of God's pure and spotless holiness.

7. God covered him with his hand while he passed by, not only that he might not see more of the glory of God than he could bear, but also that his deformity and pollution might not be discovered, to bring on him destruction from the presence of that infinitely pure and holy God, and from the glory of that power that passed by. So in Jesus, God covers our deformity and pollution, he beholds not iniquity in Jacob, nor sees pollution in Israel; he turns away his eye from beholding our transgression; therefore it is that we are not consumed in our intercourse with God.

8. Moses beholds God's glory through a crevice of the rock, as through a window at which he looked out; which represents the manner of God's discovering himself to his people in this world, which is as standing behind a wall and showing himself through the lattice.

Another reason why God makes all his goodness to pass before Moses, seems to be, that this was the attribute that God had wonderfully been exercising towards Moses, and the congregation of Israel, whereby Moses was now especially affected with that attribute, and especially longed to see the glory of it, as was before observed. And at the same time God tells Moses that he will be gracious to whom he will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom he will show mercy, because he had wonderfully manifested the sovereignty of his mercy in forgiving, as he had done, a people that had so exceedingly transgressed as the congregation of Israel had done in making the golden calf; and also that Moses might not be lifted up by God's bestowing such unspeakable favors on him as he had done, and now promised to do in answer to his request, but might be sensible that it was not for his worthiness, but his own sovereign pleasure. And another reason is, that the glory of God's goodness is that part of God's glory, of which such a poor, feeble, corrupt creature as man is can best bear the sight, while he lives and remains such; for it is the most mild and gentle attribute, and the manifestation of it affords a cordial and support to enable him to bear it. Exo. 33:18-23