God’s Glory is an Awesome Power !

By Joyce Webb 2022

Exodus Chp. 33 and 34

Moses had asked to see God’s glory and presence.

God told Moses “ I will do what you asked. You have favor with me. You are my friend.”

God let Moses see his back side—his glorious presence.
God told Moses that no man had ever seen God’s face—and lived.

God is so holy, powerful, and full of glory —-that man’s body and brain could not look up on God and live—God is so powerful and holy—-to look upon Him would kill a person. A human body could not stay alive.

God put Moses into a space (cleft)— in the rocks of the mountain—then God covered the opening with His hand.

God passed by the opening—then God took His hand away from the opening—and Moses was allowed to see the back of God. Even then—God’s presence was so powerful !!

What an experience !! Only a few humans had such an experience like that. And no one else had an experience exactly like that.

Man has never looked full upon God the Father’s face.

Moses saw only a small part of the back side of his glory.
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In John 18:3-6 Judas came into the Garden of Gethsemane to betray Jesus with a kiss.
With Judas, came a band (group) of men and officers from the chief Jewish priests.

((copied from the website Bible Hub)
Better, the band, and officers from the chief priests and Pharieess.

The other Gospels tell us of a “great multitude” (Matt.), or a “multitude” (Mark and Luke).

St. John uses the technical word for the Roman cohort. It was the garrison band from Fort Antonia, at the north-east corner of the Temple.

This well-known “band” is mentioned again in the New Testament (in John 18:12; Matthew 27:27; Mark 15:16; Acts 21:31).

The word occurs also in Acts 10:1 (“the Italian band”) and Acts 27:1 (“Augustus’ band”).

The Authorised version misleads, by closely connecting in one clause two distinct things, “a band of men and officers.”

The band was Roman; the “officers” were the Temple servants, of whom we read in John 7:32; John 7:45.

These were sent, here, as there, by the chief priests and Pharisees, with Judas for their guide, and their authority was supported by the civil power.)

Other Bible teachers say it may not have been the whole “cohort” or “band” but perhaps part of them—who served as the temple guards.

Verses 4-6 Jesus asked them, “Whom do you seek?” (Who are you looking for?)
They said, “Jesus of Nazareth”. Jesus answered, “I am he.”

When Jesus said, “I am he.” they went backward and fell to the ground.”

Wow !! At the words of Jesus, “I am He.” They fell to the ground !!

Philippians 2:10—says: “That at the name of Jesus—- every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Isaiah 45:21,  22,23 ….For I am god, there is none else, ….That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear..”

Some day—-in heaven—before God’s throne—-every person who has lived,
—– the angels in heaven, and the fallen angels chained under the earth—waiting for their judgment—–all will fall down before God and confess that Jesus is Lord.

Think of people in history—kings, and rulers—who thought they were “God”. Think of people who say “no one will tell them what to do”.

Think of people who say there is no God. Think of people who have ignored God and thought He was not important enough to give attention to.

Hitler will bow down. The Old Roman rulers will bow down. The long ago kings– who made people worship them—will bow down.

You will bow down. I will bow down.

I will do so willingly. I will be glad to bow down. I have already confessed my sins,—and I have already called Him my Lord.
It will be a happy day for me !

For others—it will be a terrible day. It will be a day of judgment.

It will be a day of terror—of tears—of huge regret and sorrow.

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At the time God spoke to Moses. God said, ”I am the Lord. The Lord God—in Exodus 34: 6,7 —God said:

I show mercy and grace. I am slow in getting angry.
I am patient. (long-suffering)

I am full of goodness and truth.

I keep giving mercy to thousands.
I forgive iniquity, transgressions and sin.

(These are all words meaning sin against God. Sin is sin to God.

To our human minds—some sins are worse than others. In using, these words, God covers all the sins—-“little to big”.)

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Then God said, “I will not clear the guilty.” King James Version

Meaning—He will not let those who are guilty go without being punished for their sin.

God forgives sin. But God does not “ignore” sin and skip over it.

Sin will be punished by eternal death. Hell.

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God has made a way for us to not have to be punished for our sin.

In the Old Testament—the people killed a perfect lamb—and put its blood on the altar. The lamb died for the person.

In the New Testament—God’s Son—Jesus—died in man’s place.

If man follows what God has given—for a way to escape death—then man can be forgiven his sin. If he ignores it—-it will be a sad day.

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Then God said to Moses—that the sins of the fathers will be “visited” upon the children until the 3rd and 4th generation.

This does not mean that the children are to blame or are guilty because their fathers sinned.

It does mean that the sins the fathers did —-will put an influence on their children’s lives for generations. The sins of the fathers will cause things to happen—that will have an effect on the children’s lives for several generations.

We know that happens. When a child lives in a home of someone who abuses them—by doing sexual things to them, or beats them—that child will have a hard time being “normal” and have a healthy way of thinking and feeling.

When they are adults—they often do the same things their parents did.

Fathers who get drunk and are mean to the family or uses the money for drink and there is not enough for food— leaves a “mark” in the mind and feelings of a child—-even to when he is grown up.

Children who live with parents who sin—-either learn to sin in the same way—or they have deep feelings that hurt them for years.

When we see the bad things people do—on TV –or in the paper—if we knew what their childhood was like at home—-I think we would see the “sins of the fathers (mothers)—-and we would see why that person did that thing.

People’s sin—makes problems for other people. And not to just the people in your family—even to people outside your family.

The Good News is—-right living and obeying God—also has an influence on others.

My parents loved God. They obeyed God. They taught their children about God. Their children—now adults—love and obey God.

My grandparents, and great grand parents loved God and obeyed God. They taught their children.

Blessings have come to me because of the people (who lived before me) in my family—–obeyed God.

If you want your children to have the blessings of God—-you need to obey God and teach your children the same.
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Moses had a very special look at God. No other person has had that.

Jesus told the disciples—when I go back into heaven—I will send the Holy Spirit to live in you.

Today, those who are Christians can have the Holy Spirit living in them.

The Holy Spirit is part of God. He will live in us.

What a wonderful thing !!

The Bible tells us not to grieve (make sorrowful—sad—hurt) the Holy Spirit that lives within us. Do not do things—do not think things—-that will grieve the Holy Spirit in you. Ephesians 4:30

When we understand how awesome and powerful God is—-we will have great respect for Him.

When we understand how much He loves us—we will not want to hurt Him.

(Do you like to see hurt in the eyes of someone you love?)

For those who make God the Lord of their life while they are on earth—
when they go to heaven and have a new resurrected body—they will see God’s face !! Revelation 22: 4 What a day that will be !!

The Bible says that God is a Spirit—so what will we see?? It is all a wonderful mystery—all of it will be beyond what we can understand and imagine now.

We will see Jesus—as He still has a human body shape that has become a new resurrected body –fit for heaven.

The Trinity itself is a mystery. Hard to understand how God is 3 in 1.

We do not have to understand it all now—on earth. It is okay for God to be more than we can understand.

We can believe. We can accept what the Bible tells us. We can believe Jesus paid our punishment for sin—by dying in our place.

We can obey what He tells us to do. We can make Him Lord of our life.

Someday, when we get to heaven—our understanding will be greater.

We will be so glad we believed.