I recently have been working through the story of Moses. I spent over a week camped out studying Exodus 33 and 34. Moses and God's interaction in these 2 chapters is very interesting to me. Moses in Exodus 33:11 is said to have spoken with God "face to face". Verse 17 hints at the fact that God and Moses have such a special relationship that God knows Moses by name. Then in verse 18, Moses asks to see the full glory of God. Moses by the end of chapter 33 wants to experience God in all of His fullness. Moses wants all of God, wants to see all of God, wants to be allowed to be in the full presence of God. Apparently, up to this point Moses has never been in the full presence of God. But in a bold move of true intimacy Moses wants to fully be wrapped in all of God.
But how does God respond to Moses request? God makes it clear with Moses that he will never be able to experience or be in the full presence of God. What does God do with Moses? God, in Exodus 34, hides Moses in the cleft of the rock and allows Moses to get a glimpse of His back. As God says to Moses (one who has experienced Him more intimately than any other human), "if you were to see my full glory Moses, you would immediately die". So God hides Moses, protects Moses, shelters Moses, from Himself and only allows Moses a split second of experiencing the glory of God from the shadow of His back passing by. This is anthropomorphic imagery to say, "Moses only got a split second of roughly 1% of God's glory and majesty.
Yes, Moses was in intimacy with God. Yes, Moses experienced God face to face. Yes, Moses was in a very close relationship with God. Yet, Moses had much to fear of God, even in that relationship, because to experience God fully would be immediate and certain death.
This story of Moses and God teaches us an important point about God. We are to fear God becasue we know that to see and experience the glory of God would bring about our deaths. Just being in the presence of God (without His protection) would kill us. God's glory, majesty, holiness, and transcendence would bring obliterating death to any human that was in His full presence. Even for all eternity, we will only experience the fullness of God in Jesus. We as created creatures will never be able to stand in the fullness of all that God is and survive. This is God and a God that we must fear.
Yes, God is knowable. Yes, God is experienceable. Yes, God is our God who we can be in relationship with. But God stoops down, to form a covenant relationship with us, becasue God is almighty and we as humans are no where close (we are simply dust). God has to come down to the human level so we can be in a relationship and know Him. But it is always God coming down, to a manageable, protected level to interact and be with humans.
Sadly, God coming down, God being in covenant with us, God even protecting us from Himself, has created a people that take God for granted. We no longer fear God becasue we have been lulled to sleep with His manageable parts. We no longer revere, respect, and stand in awe of God becasue He has protected us from His fullness and we think God is manageable as a result. Even we as God's redeemed people have begun to think little of God or worse think God is fully known in the human thoughts.
The Bible is clear. We must fear God. We must stand in awe of God. We must revere and respect God. All becasue God has only given us a small glimpse of who He is, even who He is in Jesus. God is to be feared becasue of who He is in the fullness of His majestic being. A majestic holy being that would obliterate us on the spot if we ever got even 10% of who He is.
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