Christmas Gives a Full View of God’s Glory

Text: Exodus 33:17-23; Exodus 34:5-7

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Exodus 33:17-23

Exodus 34:5-7

Jonah Albrecht

Christmas Day 2024

Exodus 33:18-23 & 34:5-7

Christmas Gives A Clear Picture of God’s Glory

Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” ¹⁹ And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. ²⁰ But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” ²¹ And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, ²² and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. ²³ Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. ⁶ 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, ⁷ 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.”

Now to Him who loves us and has made us to be His very own through His precious blood, to Him be honor, glory, and dominion forever and ever Amen.

INJ in Whose birth we rejoice and have revealed to us the full glory of God DFR:

Dedekind numbers. If your immediate thought was, “what in the world is that?” I’m right along with you. Dedekind numbers are a rapidly growing sequence of integers named after Richard Dedekind, who defined them in 1897. The Dedekind number M(n) is the number of monotone Boolean functions of n variables. Again, if your reaction to that is, “What??” You are in the same spot as I am. I’m not going to try and pretend to know what these numbers are or how they work. But I do have a reason for bringing them up.

The only known Dedekind numbers are 0-9. For example, 0 = 2; 1=3; 2=6; 3=20…etc. Up until 2023, the value for 9 was thought to be incalculable. Two mathematicians came up with the same value and thus solved it. The value for the Dedekind number 9 is over 286 Tredecillion. That is 286 followed by 42 zeroes. Now experts say that the value for 10 is truly incalculable. It would take a supercomputer with the power equivalent to the power produced by the sun in order to calculate it. Go far enough into the future, and we might have the technology available to compute a number that complex, but for now it remains impossible.

There are not that many things in our world today that are impossible. It goes to show how God created human beings to be very intelligent. The more we butt our heads against something, there is a pretty good chance we will figure it out.

Moses finds himself in an impossible situation in our text today. God had told him to lead the people from Mt. Sinai into the promised land, a land in which there were many strong and well-equipped nations. Think of the history of the Children of Israel so far. They were a fickle people who worshipped false idols with God right before them, complained every step of the journey, even when God provided food via a miracle. And this was the people Moses was supposed to take over the Promised Land with? An impossible situation.

Moses takes that impossible situation and makes an impossible request of the LORD. To see His glory. Moses did not know what he was asking for when making this request. If God had revealed His full glory to Moses, it would have been to his immediate death. Instead, God showed to Moses, His glory that had passed by. Moses was able to look back and see all the times the LORD had shown that glory, His love and compassion to His people and. No, he didn’t get the full image, but he received what he needed to move forward in faith.

Have you found yourselves in Moses’ shoes? Desiring to see the glory of God; wishing that just once you could see what God is doing, why He is letting all these things happen to you or your loved ones? To understand the whys about evil, sadness, or to just have the future all laid out clearly before your eyes? To our reason, that sounds like the best thing we could ask for, but is it?

The question we need to ask is why do we want to see God’s glory? Is it because He owes you for something you did for Him? Does He owe you answers for everything that has happened to you? That is what we like to think, isn’t it, but what does God owe us? What does He owe to a people who continually kick against the goad, disobey Him at every turn, and want nothing to do with Him? There are things that we all would like to have answers for, but He doesn’t give us those answers by a show of His power, He does so by showing us His grace. Something that we don’t even deserve.

And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. ⁶ 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, ⁷ 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.”

Notice how extensively the LORD talks about His goodness, grace, and mercy. He does so to direct Moses, and us, to something far greater than the answers we think we need. That something is Christmas, and specifically Jesus.

At Christmas, God did reveal His glory. Not passing like it was for Moses, but His full glory and majesty in the unassuming baby in the manger, the Incarnate Son of God. How does He show His glory? Well, the birth of Jesus our Savior brought peace between you and God. He came to remove the separation that existed between us and God, a separation that was caused by our sin and our rebellion against Him.

John writes in his Gospel, 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. We get to see the same glory that Moses saw of God, but more fully because God’s plan of salvation had been brought to pass through the birth of His Son. Moses saw dimly because the Law revealed the passing glory of God which was a picture of the One to come. When you look back on the pages of Scripture, you are looking at God’s glory. You are seeing His love in action for His people, and yes, for your life. God is acting, not because you did something to earn this grace and mercy, but rather because His grace and mercy is directed towards you despite your wrongdoings and mine.

It has been said that Scripture holds 365 passages with variations for the words, “do not be afraid.” One “do not be afraid” for every day of your life. As nice as that sounds, it is closer to 145 examples in Scripture. Yet, the sentiment remains true. Though you may not have 365 different verses telling you to not be afraid; you have a God whose hand rests on your shoulder every day saying, “Do not be afraid.”

Do not be afraid of the future – health, wealth, and family, because your God is in control. His glory reveals to you this promise: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” You have what matters, peace with God and all the splendor of His glory revealed in Jesus. You have a Savior who walks with you daily, providing for what you need and even preserving you when you are without.

Do not be afraid of missing out on the glory of God. He has sent you His Holy Spirit who reveals it to you on a daily basis. Every day you can calm your heart with the knowledge that Jesus died for your sins and rose again for your justification. You can see God’s glory in your relationships with others, and more importantly, your relationship with Him.

Do not be afraid of the evils of the world, the hand you have been dealt, or the ever-present questions of why. The glory of the LORD that shines in your heart is full of steadfast love, of such a quantity that it can never be diminished. That means no sin is too great, no time is spent too far away, no doubt to great to overcome. God’s love forgives and overcomes all of that with more to spare.

I’m sure many of you have read the poem called “Footsteps.” In this poem a man is walking with Jesus and looking back over moments in his life that appear as footsteps in the sand. When seeing only one pair of footprints, he wonders why God stopped walking with him. But Jesus’ gentle reply, “My son, those were the moments I carried you.”

As we celebrate the birth of our Savior this Christmas, look back at those moments in your life where God carried you. Those are moments when God showed you, His glory by fulfilling His promises made to you in Scripture. Now, look forward in your life. Rather than looking forward in fear and uncertainty; trust that God will continue to show you that glory and carry you again.

To close our service this evening, we will be singing the hymn Joy to the World. You have the best reason to have joy this Christmas season. You have seen the glory of God in action and carry with you all the promises of God fulfilled. Carry that joy as you leave here this evening that the world might share in the glory that is yours in the baby Jesus! Amen.