Making war on negativity has made me realize how subtle it
can be. After learning to reframe my
circumstances and look at life through new lenses, it has become easier and
easier to state things in the positive.
It’s not that I am turning into Pollyanna, but I am truly changing my perspective. I recognize my old propensity for habitually
choosing a downer outlook, and I find it harder and harder to approach life
from the limitations of a situation. I
am practicing moving into the sufficiency of God in everything I face. The natural progression of that is a growing
awareness of how negatively I have been viewing scripture; even when some
amazing things are happening in the Word.
Take for instance the story of Moses. When he entered a dialog with God in Exodus 33,
Moses says, “See, You say to me, Bring up this people, but You have not let me
know whom You will send with me. Yet, You
said I know you by name and you have also found favor in My sight. Now, therefore, I pray You, if I have found
favor in your sight, show me Your way, that I may know You.”
I used to think Moses was whining and complaining because he
had no one to help him lead this people.
Could it be that he was just stating a fact? Could it be the light was dawning on him that
God could be the one and only partner he needed? After all, he is recognizing he has favor
with God and that God knows him by name.
That means he realizes God knows everything about him: every strength,
and every weakness. In all of that, he
has favor with God.
In this passage, I believe Moses is taking his favor in his
hand, and offering it to God. He
stretches that hand to God and seeks to put a concrete experience around the
favor he has. He dares to ask God to be
the one to show him the way so he can enter into an experience of progressively
getting to know Him in a new way. He
knew Him as the God of the plagues who defeated Pharoah, He knew Him as His
mouthpiece, He knew Him in the tent, He knew Him as the Divine Architect of the
tabernacle, he knew Him in many aspects, but now he was going to know him in a
new way; on the move, leading a nation into the promise. All the other ways were facets of God’s
nature, but now there was going to be a new way to relate and enter into a
process.In this place, Moses eventually puts a demand (in the broadest sense)
on the favor of God, and asks to see God in His glory.
So, again, I have been taught, or picked up something that
is based in a negative. Every
explanation I have ever heard approaches this section with a tinge of the
negative. The sense has always been that
God put Moses in the cleft of the rock, covering him with his hand to protect
him so he wouldn’t fry in the glory.
What if we looked at it as if God gave Moses ALL of the
desire of his heart which he had the capacity to receive at that time? He filled Moses up with everything He
possibly could in those moments, releasing realms of glory that brought Moses
into a new understanding of who he was and Who God was. It prepared him for the next phase of his
life, where God and he would be leading the nation together. He put Moses into a place beside Him, on the
rock. It was a new side by side
positioning.
Yes, God covered him with His hand. Yes, the scripture states that “you cannot
see My face, for no man shall see me and live”.
But, all that means to me is, there was a beginning of a new process and
a new way that would lead to the fullness of Moses’ heart’s desire.
The scripture goes on to record all kinds of events and
interactions Moses had with God. Each
one was a marker and a learning experience of Who God was in a new dimension,
and who God called him to be. He was
learning more and more of the nature of God and Who He wanted to be for Moses. This was working to enlarge Moses’
understanding and expand his capacity to receive God in a new way.
This wonderful process led to the transfiguration in the New
Testament, so while we are reading of the other significant events and people
in scripture, Moses is in a process that leads to the transfiguration where we
see that he obtained what he asked for.
He got to see Jesus in His glory.
Sometimes we have to read between the lines. We can do this when our lens begins to change,
and we see God differently. God told
Moses He would proclaim His name, “The Lord” before him. That word was proceeding right through the
generations into the New Testament preparing the Way for Moses to know Him in a
new dimension; in His glory. He was picking
up bits of revelation all along the way which expanded him and his capacity to
receive what his heart was asking for.
When we are overwhelmed in the presence of God we sometimes
pray prayers that are too big for our present ability to receive in fullness. That’s okay.
I believe it is just the Spirit of God initiating something He wants to
give us, so He prompts us to voice it so He can grant it. How brilliant!
