A Kindergarten teacher told all her class to draw a picture of what was important to them. In the back of the room Johnny began to labor over his drawing. He was really into it too. Everybody else after a short while had finished their pictures and handed them in, but not Johnny. He was still working feverishly on it. The teacher graciously walked to where Johnny was and put her arm around his shoulder and said, “Johnny what are you drawing?” Johnny never looked up he just kept intensely working at his picture. He said, “God.” “But Johnny,” the teacher said gently, “no one knows what God looks like.” Johnny answered, “They will when I’m done.”
Little Johnny was convinced he knew what God would look like?
Revival preacher Leonard Ravenhill tells of a humorous experience that occurred years ago as he walked by a Sunday school classroom filled with little children, five or six years of age. They were sitting on chairs of such a height that their feet dangled above the floor. Just as the preacher passed they began to sing the words of the much-loved hymn entitled At Calvary. They sang the words, "Years I spent in vanity and pride!"
Like Ravenhill many of us are likely humored at the thought of small kids singing about spending years in vanity and pride. What can such inexperience know about years of vanity and pride?
When it comes to knowing God personal experiences can leave us mistaken about His nature and character. It is not that difficult to misread God based on circumstances and consequences etc.
The kindergarten teacher was only partially right in a sense, but she left out the man who lived who knew what God looked like. Her statement was more in keeping with what God said to Moses on Mount Sinai when Moses asked to see His glory.
Exodus 33:20 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."
God knew how difficult it would be for us as human beings to capture an accurate glimpse of Him and understand it so He offered a solution.
John 1 tells us,
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me. And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. (John 1:14-18 NKJV)
We also read in,
2Corinthians 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
In this one passage alone we discover that God, in His great mercy, put the light of the knowledge of His glory in our hearts.
He revealed this glory in the face of Jesus Christ. So now we find that when it comes to the very glory of God we must look unto Jesus to truly understand it and appreciate it correctly. John testified that we they beheld His glory when they encountered Jesus.
What is glory? Moses asked God in Exodus 33:18 "Please, show me Your glory."
How did God respond?
Exodus 33:19 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."
In response to the glory question God makes a declaration about Himself. Now the question we should ask is, “Do we see this declaration at work when Jesus shows up on the scene?” After all it says we beheld His glory in the face of Christ.
The answer would be yes!
Jesus demonstrated the goodness of God towards those who were humble of heart and needy, and the willingness of God to meet them where they were at. Jesus would say things such as, “if you have seen me you have already seen the Father.”
Jesus showed compassion to people that caused the merely religious of his day to cringe. He demonstrated the very nature of God that is gracious to whomever He wishes to be gracious to and showing compassion on whoever He wishes as well.
A great example is the woman caught in adultery, the thief on the cross, the prostitute who washed His feet with her tears, Zaccheus a tax collector, ten lepers needing healing, a man born blind from birth and on and on we could tell of this nature of God on display through Jesus Christ.
Jesus also proclaimed the Father to His generation. To proclaim the name is not merely speaking a name out loud, it also involves a demonstration of the nature of the one being proclaimed. There is generally a specific aspect of that person’s nature and character declared and demonstrated as a result of the proclamation.
Jesus would often say, “I speak what I hear the Father speak and I do what I see the Father doing.”
So what was the specific proclamation made to Moses regarding the glory of God?
Tim Atchley
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About The Author
- Tim Atchley
- Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
- I currently serve as Senior Pastor of Harvest Church in Knoxville, Tn. I was sent out from Trinity Chapel of Knoxville in 1993 accompanied by my wife Sheila our four children Sarah, Hannah, Josiah & Isaac and a handful of bold, brave and committed believers determined to plant our first church. Pioneering is hard work but well worth the journey. That is why we desire to make disciples of Christ who will, like us, also embrace the call to plant churches.
