Exodus 33:19-20

There are days when we feel like everything is broken and we’re sort of stumbling along.  Between busy work and demanding children and faithless friends, they’re the days that can make us want to cry out, “Lord, have mercy!”  But not always in the way we say it in church...  Rather, sometimes it comes out more like a demand, hands thrown up in despair.  

It might be tempting to read Moses’ words in Exodus 33 in that way: as though he’s fed up with Israel and demanding things from God, hands thrown up in despair.  However, that’s not the way Moses is addressing God in this chapter.  The context makes that clear.  This conversation happens after God had threatened to punish Israel for their idol worship at the foot of Mt. Sinai.  So, instead of demands, Moses presents what Israel needs from God.  He asked God to help him lead the people, and he pleaded for the Lord to be their guiding presence.

We have idolatrous baggage similar to the Israelites.  Whether it’s the idol of “me” or the idol of the moment’s desire, there are sins that show we’ve not always followed God.  But we can speak to God with the same kind of confidence Moses did.  God is the one who gives out mercy to those who don’t deserve it.  He gives it out freely.  He is the “Lord”.

Think of it this way.  God told Moses that no one sees God’s face and lives.  His holiness is overwhelming to sinners.  And yet, we have seen the face of God.  The Bible says that we have in our hearts “the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).  We’ve seen what Moses asked for.  In Jesus God’s glory has been revealed in love and mercy.  For us Jesus died to forgive our sins.  God had compassion on us by his own choice.  

His choice to show himself in love through Jesus allows us to confidently speak to God like Moses did.  We can say, “Lord, without you I’m lost.  Show yourself to me in your Word and teach me to love and serve you.  Strengthen me through your Son, Jesus, that I may know your unchanging love for me no matter what my day may bring.”