What do you want from God?
If you could ask anything from Him, what would it be?

Moses talked with God.
A lot.
Since the day he saw the burning bush on the back side of the desert, Moses had been meeting and talking with God.

So I’m a little curious, a little intrigued that Moses wanted more.
How much more could a person want than to talk with God face to face?

I think there’s a truth inside this mystery.

. . .Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’
Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight.
Exodus 33:12-13

The Bible tells us Moses was the most humble man on earth.
But here he seems pretty bold, don’t you think?
He’s reasoning with God saying, “You say you know me personally, by name, and that I’m in Your good graces—if that’s true, then show me what you want me to do and let me know You.”

So a person can be humble and bold at the same time.
God said OK.
Well, He didn’t say the word OK , but He did agree to let Moses get to know Him better.

All through the Bible God reveals Himself to regular people.

There aren’t any other kind of people.
Moses was a great prophet, a servant of God, but he was a sinful man like every other person that ever lived.

God said yes to Moses and He’s invited you and me to come close and get a better look.
To draw near to Him and He’ll draw near to us.

Have you found that rock?
That place where God can tuck you into a hallowed place and show you His glory.

And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock.
So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.
Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”
Exodus 33:21-23

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Close your eyes and imagine yourself on a high mountain sheltered by the two sides of a split in the rock.
You feel God’s presence draw near and His hand covers you, shielding your eyes from the full force of divine glory.
Now as He is just past, His hand slips away and you see a trail of glory, like the blazing light of a comet still 14 million miles away.
And God describes Himself to Moses.

He proclaims His name by revealing the way He acts toward people.

• First, He’s merciful and gracious.
  He doesn’t give us what we deserve, He gives us what we can never deserve, never earn, never be worthy of receiving from Him.

• Second, He is exceedingly patient with us.
  He suffers our sins, our ignorance, our blaspheme, our arrogance, our callousness, our indifference with a constant goodwill and an open longing for our friendship.

• Third, He shows us goodness in the simple things like rain and the earth’s bounty.
  He’s told us the truth about Himself, about us, and about His plan for mankind.
• Fourth, He forgives sin and iniquity for those who ask, but His holiness demanded a sacrifice.
  Which is why Jesus had to die on the cross.
• Fifth, He limits the influence of sin in family lines to several generations.
  Do you know someone who is the first Christian in their family. That’s a work of God. His love seeks to disrupt a heritage of unbelief and beginning with one person His love slowly captures heart after heart. Faith displaces unbelief and sinners become saints.

Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.
And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.
Then he said, “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people;
and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”
Exodus 34:5-9

Have you seen it there in your Bible?
Look for His mercy and grace, His patience and goodness, His forgiveness and love.
It’s all there, a trail of glory that should make us fall on our faces before Him in worship.