On God's Glory

God's Glory and God's Name

Moses asks to see God's glory. God proclaims to him his name. In other words, if you grasp the name of God, you have seen his glory. God is not playing games with Moses when Moses cries out, "Show me your glory!" and God answers, "This is my name!" The names of God are the manifestations of his glory.

The name in verse 19 is Yahweh, (the LORD, in your versions). This name typically means I AM, or I WILL BE, but this time the name is given a different explanation, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy to whom I will show mercy."

In Exodus 3:14 the name Yahweh was explained with the words, I AM WHO I AM. Here it is explained with the words, I WILL BE GRACIOUS TO WHOM I WILL BE GRACIOUS. Notice how these sentences are both built in the same way. In Exodus 3:14 the focus was on the existence of God—that he is what he is without anything outside himself determining his personality or power. In Exodus 33:19 the focus is on the gracious action of God—that he does what he does without anything outside himself determining his choices. This is what God reveals about himself when Moses asks to see God's glory.

The Glory of God Is His Sovereign Freedom

And so, I would draw out this doctrine: It is the glory of God to be gracious to whomever he pleases apart from any constraint originating outside his own will. Or another way to put it would be that sovereign FREEDOM is essential to God's name.

God is utterly free from the constraints of his creation. The inclinations of his will move in directions that he alone determines. Whatever influences appear to change his will are influences which ultimately he has ordained. His choice to show mercy to one person and not to another is a choice that originates in the mystery of his sovereign will not in the will of his creature. And Exodus 33:18–19 teaches us that this self-determining freedom of God is his name and his glory. If God ever surrendered the sovereignty of his freedom in dispensing his mercy, he would cease to be all-glorious, he would no longer be Yahweh, the God of the Bible.

Moses' Astonishing Request

Before we unpack some of the practical implications of this doctrine, let's put the context into better focus. This will help us see just what implications this doctrine had for Moses.
Back in chapter 32 the people of Israel had rebelled against God by making a golden calf to worship. God says to Moses in Exodus 32:9, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people; now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them."

Moses responds to God (in verses 11–13) with a desperate prayer for the people. He makes his case not on the basis of Israel's worth but on the basis of God's worth. "Your name will be profaned among the Egyptians, and your word to the fathers will fall." God relents. Instead of destroying the whole people, he appoints the sons of Levi to kill 3,000 men (32:25–29) and sends a plague among the people (32:35).

Then God resumes his purpose to send the Israelites to the promised land. In verse 34 God says to Moses, "But now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you." But Moses will not be satisfied with an unknown angel. In 33:15 he says, "If thy presence will not go with me, do not carry us up from here."

This is an astonishing request. For God had said in 33:3, "I will not go up among you, lest I consume you in the way, for you are a stiff-necked people." In other words God had said that if he goes up with them, he will wipe them out along the way. But Moses says that if God will not go up with them, he won't go either. Moses is holding out for something unspeakable—that a holy God will have so much mercy upon a stiff-necked people that he will not only go up with them to the promised land, but also, as it says in 33:16, that God would make them distinct among all the peoples of the earth.

If Moses' request was unthinkable, God's answer in Exodus 33:17 was doubly so. He simply says, "This very thing that you have spoken I will do; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name." In other words, God says Yes, he will go up with this stiff-necked people. He will let the grace that he gives Moses flow over onto this rebellious people. You can see from Exodus 34:9 that this decision of God to go with the people is pure grace. There Moses says, "If I have found favor in thy sight, O Lord, let the Lord, I pray thee, go in the midst of us, although it is a stiff-necked people." The people do not deserve the blessing of God's presence. They are stiff-necked. But in mercy God is going to give them another chance to follow him in obedience.
Why Does Moses Request This?

Now the question rises why in 33:18 Moses prayed to see God's glory? "I pray thee, show me thy glory." I think the reason was this: Moses knew that his request for God's presence with a stiff-necked people would never succeed if it were based on any qualification in himself or in the people. (In 34:9 he included himself in the sin and iniquity of the people.) So for Moses to have assurance that God would actually be this gracious to Israel, he needed to see some basis in God and not in himself or the people. He needed a glimpse into the nature of God.

He knew God was an all-glorious God. But was this glory of such a nature that it would encourage Moses to believe that God would really be gracious to a stiff-necked people? So Moses says, Show me your glory. Let me have a glimpse into your divine nature. Let me see the meaning of your great name. Show me the foundation of this amazing promise. Give me some assurance that you will indeed grant your saving presence to this stiff-necked people!
To this God responds in verse 19, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name YAHWEH; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." In other words, when Moses asks to behold God's glory, God reveals as of first importance his name, which he explains with the words, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious."

So in its Old Testament context the declaration of God's absolute freedom to be gracious to whomever he pleases is intended to give Moses hope and assurance that God indeed can and will be gracious to the stiff-necked people of Israel and go with them to the promised land.

Theology and Everyday Life

The Bible never gives us glimpses of God's nature merely for intellectual discussion. It opens the name and glory of God to our understanding in order to help us revere God and love him and trust him and obey him. So when God stands before Moses and uncovers his innermost soul—the glory of his absolute divine freedom—he is doing it for a very practical purpose, namely, to give Moses encouragement to get on with his mission of leading a stiff-necked people on to the promised land.

The deepest doctrines of God have to do with everyday life. Theology is the most relevant and practical of all the human disciplines. If that isn't our experience, it's either because our theology is untrue, or because we go about it in a spirit of irreverence and make a game of it. The doctrines of God revealed in the Bible are of immense personal, practical, and eternal importance. O how we need to study the name and glory of God. The God of Exodus 33:19 is virtually unknown in popular American church life today.

The practical relevance of God's freedom for Moses leads to some practical implications for us too. But before we unpack some of these, let's define our doctrine more precisely and survey its wider biblical foundation.

The Doctrine of Unconditional Election

I've stated the doctrine of this text with these words: It is the glory of God to be gracious to whomever he pleases apart from any constraint originating outside his own will. Or: God's sovereign freedom is essential to his name. When this doctrine is applied to the salvation of individuals, it is called "unconditional election." "Election" refers to the choice God makes of whom he will save, and "unconditional" refers to the fact that his choice is not based on any condition or qualification that individuals have. It comes from the mystery of God's sovereign will.

I've tried to ask the question why God is the way he is, and the answer I received from him was, I AM WHO I AM. There is nothing outside God that makes him the way he is. His being originates in himself. He simply is who he is from everlasting to everlasting. We can worship in awe, or we can rebel in unbelief.

This week(especially after the things God has done in my life) I try to ask the question why God was gracious to me, and the answer I receive from him is, I WILL BE GRACIOUS TO WHOM I WILL BE GRACIOUS. There is nothing outside God that constrains his gracious election of me. His choices originate in himself. He chooses freely apart from any conditions in us. We can stand in awe of his sovereign freedom and worship with gratitude. Or we can rebel against this absolute authority and confirm that we have been passed over.

The doctrine of unconditional election is rooted in the nature of God. His very name, his innermost glory, is this: I WILL BE GRACIOUS TO WHOM I WILL BE GRACIOUS. If God were not free in the grace he gives, he would not be God. This is his name!

Here's to this beautiful doctrine.

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