In Exodus 33 the time was ripe, in both Moses’ life and the lives of those stiff-necked Israelites, for God to reveal where his glory truly lay. Was it, as Moses had requested, in seeing God in his actual person (like us “seeing him as he is” in 1 John 3:2)?
Instead, God left Moses with a bit of a riddle, that in fact his glory would be best seen in knowing what he meant by “I will have mercy on whom I’ll have mercy, and compassion on whom I’ll have compassion” in verse 19. In reality, though, it wasn’t much of a riddle for Moses, because his entire life up to this point – and the lives of all the Israelites – was founded and preserved on God personally selecting them as an example of his mercy and compassion (3:7-12).
The Israelites, for instance, escaped sure death because “God heard their groaning” as slaves in Egypt (2:23-24), and he was “concerned about their suffering” (3:7). His compassion for them then led to him doing “mighty acts of judgment” on their behalf to free them (6:6).
The Israelites then escaped sure death again in Exodus 32:9-10, when God was about to wipe them out and start afresh with just Moses, but following Moses’ appeal God “relented”(14). It was a close call but this time it was God’s mercy that kept them alive.
God was dropping a huge clue here, that his plan through Israel would never have got started, nor would it have continued, without his compassion and mercy. Moses would learn the same lesson too, because when he brought God’s plan through Israel to a grinding halt in the next chapter (33:15), God didn’t tell him off or threaten to wipe him out; instead, he answered Moses’ need, “because I’m pleased with you and I know you by name” (17). God took into account the trying circumstances Moses was in, and how well he knew Moses himself. Moses too, then, was an example of pure mercy and personal compassion on God’s part.
Which fitted in very nicely with Moses asking God back in verse 13 to “teach me your ways,” because at the heart of “God’s ways” – and his glory – is knowing about his mercy and compassion, that he will have mercy when mercy is needed for the furtherance of his plan, and likewise his compassion.
But why did Moses need to know that God’s glory was in his mercy and compassion? Because God had promised Moses in verse 14, “I will give you rest”….(next blog)
Buck To Basics 