The Glorious Presence of the Lord
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My kids have a special relationship with Katherine. She’s at home with them every day, all the time.
Whenever they’re sick, hurt, they go to mommy...
There’s also something special when daddy walks into the room… even the dog gets excited
Especially Bennett… he will start to babble and yell DADA just to get my attention.
When catches me looking at him, he breaks out into a huge smile.
One of their greatest joys is to gaze into daddy’s eyes. One of my greatest joys is to gaze back at them.
1) The best time spent with God will be the time when we simply BEHOLD His glory.
1) The best time spent with God will be the time when we simply BEHOLD His glory.
SIMILARLY, Gazing upon God is the most wonderful experience that any person could possibly have.
We come into the world with a deep spiritual longing for the knowledge of God.
We want to know him as he is—in a word, to see him.
Our highest aspiration is to behold the person of God in the glorious face of his Son.
We catch a glimpse of this blessing in Exodus 24.
The chapter began with God inviting Moses to come and meet him.
First the prophet confirmed God’s covenant with his people.
Then he climbed God’s holy mountain:
9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up,
10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.
11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.
This episode is one of the most surprising in the Whole bible.
It is surprising because looking at God was supposed to be fatal. Later God said to Moses, “no one may see me and live” (Exod. 33:20).
Yet here we are told—twice—that the leaders of Israel “saw God” and then lived to tell about it.
They looked at him.
They beheld him.
These men fixed their gaze upon God.
The Bible is well aware of the difficulties this raises because it adds the following editorial comment: “God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites” (Exod. 24:11).
The raising of God’s hand implies divine judgment through some disastrous display of supernatural power.
By saying that this didn’t happen, the Bible implies that it certainly could have happened, and would have under normal circumstances.
Israel’s leaders were in real danger.
A visual encounter with Almighty God put them in jeopardy of sudden death.
Yet the Bible indicates, almost with a sense of surprise, that they did not die.
By acknowledging the danger, the Bible confirms that these men really did see God.
What, exactly, did they see? Strangely enough, the Bible does not describe their vision of God at all.
Nothing is said about his divine appearance.
The Bible only mentions his surroundings, especially what was under his feet.
And even this was hard to put into words. Moses says it was “something like a pavement made of sapphire” (v. 10).
The Hebrew word for “pavement” refers to flooring made of brick or tile.
The word “sapphire” probably means lapis lazuli, a brilliant blue stone that is usually opaque but on this occasion was as clear as the blue sky.
Why doesn’t the Bible say more about what God looked like?
Maybe because the elders never looked much higher than the bottom of God’s feet!
They seem to have become most intimately acquainted with the floor, which suggests that they fell on their faces to worship.
They took one look at God and immediately they lowered their gaze.
THE FEET OF GOD WERE SO BEAUTIFUL THAT THEY COULDN’T GET PAST THEM!
THEY FELL TO THEIR FACES BEFORE THE LORD AND COULD ONLY GAZE AT THE GROUND HE STOOD ON
This is the posture we should take every time we come into God’s presence. He is a great God, and we bow before him in humble adoration.
There’s nothing like being in the presence of God.
Even Moses had a difficult time explaining the floor!! … using words like “AS IT WERE” and “LIKENESS”
SADLY, MANY OF US TRY TO MAKE A LESSER GOD FOR OURSELVES SO THAT WE CAN PERCEIVE HIM.
in just a few short weeks the Israelites would do exactly the same thing, fashioning a god into the form of a golden calf (Exod. 32).
They were not content with the distant glory on the mountain; they wanted a god they could lay their eyes on.
Rather than waiting for God to reveal himself, they wanted to see him right away.
But this was not God’s plan.
God wanted to keep himself hidden from their view, as he often does.
Skeptics often say, “If only I could see God, then I would believe in him.” But the skeptics have it backwards.
God has revealed enough of himself in his Word and in creation for us to know him and love him.
1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
But his existence still has to be taken on faith, and the gift of seeing him is only given to those who believe.
When it comes to religion, people often say, “I have to see it to believe it.” But God says, “You won’t see it unless you believe it.
If you believe, then you’ll see! You’ll see me in the person of my Son, when he comes in glory at the end of days.”
Israel’s elders were granted the exceptional privilege of seeing that glory in advance.
God gave them a sneak preview—a glimpse of his majesty.
This was to show them what it means to be saved.
The events of Exodus 24 tell the story of salvation.
Moses and the elders started at a distance.
They were separated from God by their sin.
But then God invited them to come into his presence.
He gave them his word.
He atoned for their sin through the blood of his covenant.
Then he brought them into his presence, where they could gaze upon his glory.
It was a foretaste of Heaven.
In the New Testament, things change, yet they stay the same.
18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
Looking at John 1:18 again, we see that, although no one has seen God, Christ has—and he makes God known to us.
There is a clear tension in John 1.
We cannot see God, yet Christ makes him known.
Moreover, Christ is the Word who was both with God and was God from the beginning (v. 1).
He is also the one in whom we see “glory” (v. 14), a clear reference to the many passages in the Old Testament that speak of God’s revealing his glory.
So, the tension remains. In Christ we see the glory of God himself, yet we cannot say that we see God in the fullness of His glory.
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
Seeing God is a matter of knowing Christ.
God cannot be known or seen apart from Jesus.
We cannot “jump” to seeing God if we bypass the only means by which he has made this possible.
There is no unmediated gaze of God apart from the Word, who is the glory of God and who makes God known to us.
To put it another way, Christ is the standard by which we come to see and understand God.
When we look at Christ, we can say, “This is what God is like.” As Jesus said to Philip, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
As straightforward as this sounds, we often labor under the opposite impression.
Do we not often hold an idea in our minds of what God is like, one formed perhaps from childhood images (as a child I used to equate God with beams of sunlight), hearsay, or some other vague notions we have conjured up?
The question is not what we think God is like, but how God has chosen to reveal what he is like.
This, according to Scripture, is through Christ.
What happened to Moses and the elders is a glimpse of our own salvation.
There was a time when we were separated from God by our sin.
Like the Israelites, we were lawbreakers.
But God atoned for our sin through the blood of his covenant—the blood that Jesus sprinkled on the cross.
Soon he will welcome us into his glorious presence.
Then the longing of our hearts will be satisfied, and we will see God face-to-face.
2) The best time spent with God will be the time when we DINE with Him.
2) The best time spent with God will be the time when we DINE with Him.
Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw God.
It was the most glorious thing they had ever seen or ever would see.
The famous Puritan theologian John Owen rightly described seeing God as “one of the greatest Privileges and Advancements that Believers are capable of.”
To catch even a single glimpse of God is to behold a beauty that is dazzling beyond all imagination and perfect beyond all thought.
Therefore, seeing God was all that these men could ever want.
However, they were given a further privilege: “they saw God, and they ate and drank” (Exod. 24:11).
11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.
Few things establish a greater sense of fellowship than sharing a meal.
There is something about eating and drinking with other people that fosters friendship.
The theme of eating and drinking with God runs all the way through Scripture.
The Bible often describes our relationship with God in terms of sharing a meal.
The idea is present already in the patriarchs.
The earliest example is Abraham, who welcomed a divine angel to his tents for dinner (Gen. 18).
King David said, “You prepare a table before me” (Ps. 23:5a).
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Isaiah promised that one day God would sit down with his people at a great banquet: “On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines” (Isa. 25:6).
6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
This prophecy was about the coming of God’s kingdom, when people from every nation would find a place at God’s table.
Then Jesus came to be the King, and he described his kingdom in terms of eating and drinking.
He said that it was like a great banquet: “many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 8:11).
11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,
Jesus was saying that the prophecy had come true: There is a place for everyone at his table.
He is not only the King of Israel—he came to rule the world. So his covenant meal isn’t just for Moses and the elders anymore, or even for the Israelites. It’s for people all over the world.
Even now the final preparations are being made.
While we are waiting for the announcement that dinner is ready, God has given us a special meal to remind us that we belong to him by covenant.
This meal is the sacrament of The Lord’s Supper.
The worship service in Exodus 24 included the ministry of both word and sacrament.
This has implications for Christian worship, and especially for our celebration of the Lord’s Supper.
In much the same way that sprinkling the covenant blood pointed to baptism, sharing a covenant meal pointed to Communion.
Both sacraments are connected to the covenant.
“For Christians, the sacraments serve as ‘signs and seals of the covenant’—they are sacred ceremonies that substantiate and confirm the covenant relationship between God and his people.”
Baptism marks our entrance into the covenant community through faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Baptism is our Public Profession of Faith.
The Lord’s Supper marks our continuance in the covenant.
We eat and drink around the table to show that we have fellowship with God.
By establishing a new covenant in Christ’s blood, he has welcomed us into his love.
God is always busy handing out invitations to his feast.
Every time the gospel is preached, people are invited to eat and drink with God.
God is getting ready to throw the last and longest banquet of all, what the book of Revelation calls “the wedding supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:9).
9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
The way to RSVP for that great banquet is to believe in Jesus Christ for salvation.
One day God will welcome everyone who trusts in Jesus to sit down at the feast that will never end.
This is salvation: to eat in the presence of God (as we also saw in Exodus 18:12).
This is what we are looking forward to.
At the Last Supper Jesus said, “I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfilment in the kingdom of God” (Luke 22:16).
16 For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
Salvation is described as a perpetual feast with God
Every time we celebrate communion, we look back to the shed blood of Christ, which reconciles us to God;
therefore we are able to look forward to the eternal meal which embodies that reconciliation, enjoyed in the full and glorious presence of God.
We will not stand at a distance—we will sit with him.
Blessed are those that shall eat bread in the kingdom of our Father!