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The View from Mars
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The View from Mars
'Have you ever wondered: ‘What is the significance of God showing his back and not his front or face, to Moses?’
Yahweh in Life's Rear View Mirror
January 2025
Friends, Exodus 33:18-23 reads: ‘Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” 19 And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” 20 But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” 21 Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; 22 and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”
Have you ever wondered: ‘What is the significance of God showing his back and not his front or face, to Moses?’ We learn from the passage that seeing too much of a perfectly omnipotent, wholly righteous and overwhelmingly majestic Maker is bad for our health. In fact, it’s downright lethal! An unfiltered glimpse of ‘Yahweh’ (the old testament word for God) would simply be too much for any finite and fallen human being to endure.
Yahweh hides Himself not because He is stingy but because He is merciful. Think of it this way: God as holy flame, us as moth. So, being merciful, God showed just enough of ‘His glory’ for Moses to admire but not enough to vaporize him.
Think of it as a solar eclipse which allows us to see a tolerable fraction of a sun that would render us blind were we to see a greater portion. So far so good.
One rabbi suggested, however, that there was a second reason why Yahweh showed Moses His back rather than His face/front and it was this: Might it have Yahweh’s way of telling us that, we typically don’t see God’s provision and protection, WHILE it’s taking place…. but only AFTER it’s finished?
Lemme Repeat that: Might it have Yahweh’s way of telling us that, we typically don’t see God’s provision and protection, WHILE it’s taking place…. but only AFTER it’s finished?
In other words, we see Him AFTER, and not DURING, his intervention, moving on, going ahead of His people, to the next thing.
In short, the rabbi was suggesting that Yahweh is more discernible in our rear view mirror than through our windshield.
Can you relate? Can you think of any instances in which God seemed absent AT the time, only to see that He was very much at work the ENTIRE time?
- A. Retrop
Quote of the Day'Christianity is always out of fashion because it’s always sane; and all the fashions are mild insanities. The church always seems to be behind the times, when it’s really beyond the times. '-GK Chesterton
Quote of the Day'Christianity is always out of fashion because it’s always sane; and all the fashions are mild insanities. The church always seems to be behind the times, when it’s really beyond the times. '-GK Chesterton