Episode Transcript
PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Abba, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Abba, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Exodus 33:18–23
Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
CONSIDER THIS
Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
Here’s the lesson for me today: God will reveal the glory of heaven, which is his presence, to all who are willing to be hidden in him on earth. Hiddenness is one of the essences of humility.
Moses was hidden from birth. He was hidden in a small ark of reeds and pushed out on the Nile River. Later, he was hidden in the wilderness for forty years, herding his father-in-law’s sheep. Of all the people in the world, this is who God chose for this assignment. Later in this wilderness, the Bible is careful to tell us, “(Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth)” (Num. 12:3).
Here’s the kicker: Moses turns out to be one of the most well-known people who has ever lived. It brings me to the second part of my learning here. The antithesis of hiddenness is fame. The opposite of fame is not obscurity but hiddenness. We now live in an age whose core value is fame. When people do not have a deep inner validation as a person, they clamor for adulation on the surface.
It is one of the darker values of the misuse of social media. Look at me. I am somebody. We are all made for the glory of God, but short of that, we will accrue all manner of glory for ourselves. And the worst permutation of this happens when people accrue glory for themselves in the name of God. It’s why “famous saint” is an oxymoron (or at least a nonsequitur).
These are such massive constructs of thought I can hardly wrap my mind around them. It is also quite fascinating to contrast the concepts of hiddenness and humility with those of hiding and shame. Hiddenness does not mean hiding. Hiddenness is the gift of God to the humble ones, who have traded in their own quest for glory for the pursuit of beholding the glory of Another.
For a long time in my life, I think I wanted to be famous. I believe God continues to save and deliver me from this desire. He has shown me something infinitely better than being famous. It is being known; not well-known, but known well, deeply known. I want to be known by God and by my family and friends (whom I consider you to be). I want to be known simply and completely as I most truly am. And that’s how I want to know God and others. I think that’s what we all want. The thirst for fame is simply the broken longing to be known.
“When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
This is a one-of-a-kind event here, reserved for Moses alone. What if I told you there is a better word for us—an even richer vision?
“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:6)
We can see the face of God and live. In fact, the tables have turned. No one can really live who does not see the face of Jesus Christ. And the most marvelous thing of all is the way his face can be reflected in our very faces. Others can see him when they look at us.
THE PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE
Lord Jesus, you are my Deliverer.
I receive your deliverance from my quest for self-actualization, for the realization of what I think is my best and highest self and usefulness in the world. I receive your deliverance into the actualization of my baptism, my old self and sinful nature being buried with Jesus in his death, and my new creation life being raised to life with Jesus in his resurrection.
Now I receive your deliverance into the actualization of this reality: "I am crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Jesus Christ lives in me. The life I live I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).
Now I receive your deliverance into the actualization of this reality: “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3).
It will be for my good, for others' gain, and for your glory.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be. World without end, amen! Amen!
