Manifestation of what makes God tick

"In Exodus 33, God says to Moses, 'I'm going to send my presence,' but that doesn't make Moses very happy, so in verse 18 Moses says, 'I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.'

"You see the connection between God's presence and His glory? When God manifests His presence there's an outshining, a demonstration of His glory. Moses wants to see it.

"So God says to him, [19] And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.'

"The passage continues: [20] And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

[21] And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:
[22] And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:
[23] And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.

"Notice, He's going to cause His glory to pass by in front of Moses. He's going to hide Moses so it doesn't blind him, but He's going to allow Moses to see the result of that glory passing by; the back parts.

"What did He show Moses when Moses saw the glory go by? Exodus 34:5: [5] And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.

"Now, that's what He told him He was going to do back in Exodus 33:19. What does He do when He proclaims the name of the Lord? When you proclaim the name, it's, 'I'm going to show you who I am; the essence of who I am.'

Verses 6-7: [6] And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

[7] Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

"What's that all about? He said, 'I'm going to show you my glory,' and when He did, what He did was He started telling him what He's like. He's gracious, He's merciful, He's just, He's forgiving, He's longsuffering, He's full of goodness and truth.

"He began to describe the essence of the character of God. When you talk about being merciful, gracious, forgiving, just and so forth, you're talking about how God thinks and how He relates to His surroundings-- How He relates to us, how He relates to others.

"The glory of God is just the manifestation of what makes Him tick. The glory of God is what God wants you to see about He operates, how He lives, how He thinks, how He relates.

"There's a fascinating thing about God's glory. Ezekiel sees the glory of God. Ezekiel 1:28: [28] As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.

"You go back in Exodus and it talks about the glory of God filling the tabernacle. That glory was a light, but it wasn't just a white light shining; it's a light like a rainbow. What is a rainbow? It's light refracted through a prism of water where you see all of the various colors of the rainbow.

"God's glory is not just that He wants you to brag about Him; it's that He wants you to see why He's worthy of being honored. He wants you to see the facets of His character that make Him someone to stand in awe of. He wants you to understand how He thinks, how He responds, how He lives.

"The reason for that is in John 17. This is the Lord Jesus Christ the night before He dies and this is what would probably be called the Lord's Prayer:

[1] These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
[2] As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
[3] And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

"Now, that's a good verse to remember. You want to know what eternal life is? The gift of God is everlasting life to everyone who believes. You want to know what you got when you got saved? That verse tells you.

" 'That they might know thee . . . ' That word know is an interesting word; it doesn't mean just, 'Hi, I know you.' That word know is used back in Genesis 4. It said that 'Adam knew his wife and she conceived and had a son.'

"They had a personal, intimate relationship where they knew one another. That's that word. It's to have the ability to personally know Him in a personal intimate communion and way where He becomes your friend; your lover, if you want to say it that way. Eternal life is to know Him in a personal, intimate way, so that you have a connection with the Father through the Son."