"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.
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They had left Egypt and arrived at Mount Sinai where God gave Moses the
Ten Commandments.
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When Moses descended he found that the people erected a golden calf and
had worshipped it, thinking Moses' long departure from them for forty days
meant he was dead.
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God's wrath burned and he sent a plague.
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Many people died by the plague and by the sword of the Levites as punishment.
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And God told Moses that He would not lead them into the land but would
send an angel to lead them.
But Moses did not want that.
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He rallied up all his ideas to change God's mind.
Exod 33:11-15 And the LORD spake unto Moses
face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into
the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed
not out of the tabernacle. And Moses said unto the LORD, See, thou sayest
unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom
thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name,
and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore, I pray thee,
if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may
know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that
this nation [is] thy people. And he said, My presence shall go [with thee],
and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy presence go not
[with me], carry us not up hence.
Moses said that he did not even know the angel that God would send to lead
them.
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Moses spoke to God "face to face".
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This meant INTIMATELY.
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God is not physical so it is not literally "face to face."
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He then said, "You know me by name, God. I want YOU to show me the
way into Canaan. I want YOU to lead us."
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"I don't know this angel you wish to send to us, but I WANT TO KNOW YOU."
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Moses made the same statement that Paul the Apostle made much later in
the New Testament.
Exod 33:13 Now therefore, I pray thee, if
I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may
know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that
this nation [is] thy people.
Phil 3:10 That I may know him...
During Old Testament times, God appeared so judging and cold.
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That was because His true nature was not revealed.
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There were no sons of God at that time.
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All was so veiled.
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Moses face was veiled, and Paul indicated in 2 Cor 3 that it meant that
the people could not look to the fulfilment of what God was doing at that
time.
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Anything to do with God was veiled.
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His glory was behind a veil in the Tabernacle.
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But Moses wanted to KNOW GOD.
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He wanted to SEE GOD'S GLORY.
Exod 33:18 And he said, I beseech thee,
shew me thy glory.
He wanted to KNOW GOD.
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He wanted to SEE GOD'S GLORY.
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He wanted to get past the veil.
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.
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Many think the "back parts" of God speak about the history that occurred
before Moses' time.
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They say that the information Moses wrote about Adam and Eve and so on
was given to him when God showed Moses His back parts.
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I disagree.
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I do not believe God was giving Moses a history lesson whatsoever.
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God showed Moses only an afterglow of HIS GLORY.
Years later, Paul said that the glory of the Old Testament was lesser than
the glory of the New.
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The glory Moses saw was only afterglory.
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But we now have the full glory.
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!
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It is His grace.
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His forgiveness.
The reason God looked so cold in those days was because His glory was VEILED.
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All these attributes of God's glory that Moses saw were veiled.
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Unknown to 99.9%
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Moses saw it!
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David also saw it!
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Abraham saw it!
David committed adultery and murder, but did not die the death penalty
because he caught God's glory and forgiveness.
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And David had a Son who would build the temple.
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Solomon.
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And Solomon was called God's son (2 Sam 7:14).
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That makes David a picture of God!
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And that is why God called him a "man after my own heart."
God was ready to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, but met with Abraham before
doing so.
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And Abraham convinced God that if only few be righteous, God would spare
the entire region.
When Moses said "That I may know thee," He wanted to see the GLORY.
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The true nature of God that was veiled.
Psal 103:7 He made known his ways unto Moses,
his acts unto the children of Israel.
Israel only saw what God did.
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But Moses understood WHY God did it.
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He saw God's nature.
God so much wanted to show His true nature, but Israel were not sons of
God.
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Nobody knows a man as father except the children.
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God is a Father.
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But without children His true nature is not known.
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The veil covered His glory.
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His glory was merciful, forgiving, and patient.
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.
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Only he was there.
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But in the New Testament, the veil had been rent, and Jesus spoke openly
to His disciples for forty days (Acts 1).
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He was not veiled like Moses was either.
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True sons of God would be born.
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And we read so much of God's mercy and love in the New Testament because
the New Testament age is the age of the glory of God revealed.
God's true nature is merciful and forgiving.
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But if you look at God as a hard and cold God, then you are not intimate
with Him.
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Your gut feeling about Him is not peaceful but fearing.
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You think He is so quick to judge.
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And some preachers who rarely preach from the New Testament, but mostly
preach the Old, will make God look hard and cruel.
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And the world looks at God as hard and cruel and are afraid to live for
Him thinking life for Him is hard and dreaded.
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How can they know?
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They are not His children.
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.
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They were deceived into thinking He was wrong.
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That is why Jesus said,
Luke 23:34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive
them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and
cast lots.
Notice what He called God.
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FATHER
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His true nature is FATHER.
Luke 11:11-13 If a son shall ask bread of
any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if [he ask] a
fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg,
will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give
good gifts unto your children: how much more shall [your] heavenly Father
give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
Learn about a whole realm of reality you never knew about.
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He is Father.
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If your earthly father was not a good father, you do not have to look at
God as something you relate to other than a father in order to think of
him as loving.
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He wants you to know what a true FATHER is.
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Don't miss His true nature simply because your earthly father was a bad
example.
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He is so full of love that even when your heart condemns you, God is greater
and knows you did not mean to do it.
1Joh 3:20 For if our heart condemn us, God
is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
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.
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If you spend any time at all in the New Testament you will quickly see
He is love.
Hebr 1:1-2 God, who at sundry times and
in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by [his] Son, whom he hath appointed
heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
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.
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You are in Christ, anyway!
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Sinners say that God is cold.
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They would say that.
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They are not His children.
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But we are!
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KNOW HIM AS FATHER!
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FACE TO FACE!
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INTIMATELY!