The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
Moses had been up in the mountain to get the first set of the Ten Commandments. However, upon return, he and Joshua discovered that Moses’ brother, Aaron, had made a golden calf and that he and the people were worshiping the idol. In anger, Moses throw the first set of the commandments on the ground, shattering them. One of those broken pieces contained the inscription to not worship idols.
Now God wanted Moses to return to the mountain to get a new set of commandments, re-written, version two. As Moses approaches the mountain the second time the above scene unfolds. God is about to show Himself to Moses. God wants Moses and the people to see His glory and splendor. Appropriately, Moses falls to the ground to worship. Moses, as he does many times, offers a prayer for him and the people. His intercessory prayer is for God, despite their sin, to dwell among them. This is the prayer of all the saints. We simply want to confess to God our sins and failures and ask Him to dwell among us. John, the disciple and Gospel writer, said it this way:
John 1:14 (ESV)
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
That is why Jesus came. For us to see the glory of God:
Hebrews 1:3 (ESV)
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Jesus is the one who gives us a living example of the glory of God. He came to dwell among and died for us and now indwells in us by the Spirit. Again, John the writer:
John 14:15-17 (ESV)
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Moses, John and the rest of the writers of the Bible all make it known, God wants to dwell in us and with us, if we but confess our sins and invite Him to do so.
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