"KNOWING HIM FACE TO FACE"

MAY 16, 1999 am
MF Blume

Exod 32:35  And the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.

Exod 33:1-2  And the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, [and] go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it: And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:



Moses and the children of Israel were on their way into the Promised Land of Canaan. But Moses did not want that. Moses said that he did not even know the angel that God would send to lead them. During Old Testament times, God appeared so judging and cold. He wanted to KNOW GOD. God put Moses in a clift of the rock and covered Moses with His hand as He passed by, only to remove it as the back parts of God's glory were then in view. Years later, Paul said that the glory of the Old Testament was lesser than the glory of the New. But even the afterglory was powerful!

When God showed Moses His glory, this is what occurred.

Exod 34:6-7  And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 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].
The glory of GOD IS HIS MERCIFULNESS! The reason God looked so cold in those days was because His glory was VEILED. David committed adultery and murder, but did not die the death penalty because he caught God's glory and forgiveness. God was ready to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, but met with Abraham before doing so. When Moses said "That I may know thee," He wanted to see the GLORY. Israel only saw what God did. God so much wanted to show His true nature, but Israel were not sons of God. But one day Jesus Christ died on a cross.
Mark 15:37-38  And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
Moses was on the mountain 40 days and nights, cloistered away with God. God's true nature is merciful and forgiving. When they crucified Jesus, the people did not truly know what they were doing.
1Cor 2:8  Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known [it], they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Jesus knew they did not know what they did. Notice what He called God. Learn about a whole realm of reality you never knew about. If your perception of God's nature is limited to that which the Old Testament Hebrews knew, then you will be veiled from His true nature. The only way to know God as Father was for God to come as SON OF GOD and tell us.

If you are a child of God, the father thinks as much of you as He does Jesus Christ.