At this time of the year when the air turns crisp, the sun basks in a clear blue pool sky with white foam clouds and the trees begin their autumn change I fall in love once again with fall. There is something about this time about year that thrills me like no other season. The combination of all the above events along with sweatshirts and refreshing walks makes me desire a year long autumn. There is nothing like fall in New England. I know in truth that if fall were all year round it would lose its fascination with me.
But God is not like this. When we get a glimpse of the true God we will always want more. No matter how much we get to know Him we will never have enough.
In this section of Scripture we see a remarkable event taking place. Moses has recently been in God’s presence for 40 days. He comes down from the mountain and continues to meet with God in a tent that he sets up on the outskirts of the camp. Moses had an amazing relationship with God. Verse 11 says, “The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend.”
What is amazing about this is that after spending 40 days with the Lord Moses wanted more. He wasn’t content to continue simply remember the experience of the past but wanted to know God even better. He had talked with God “face to face” and yet Moses thirsted for more. The reason is that a true encounter with God causes us to seek Him more.
The key idea of this passage is that Moses sought a deeper knowledge of God because He truly met Him. Verse 13 describes four characteristics of this prayer that Moses prays to get a greater glimpse of God.
1. A Recognition of God’s Grace
The first characteristic of this prayer is that the prayer to get a greater glimpse of God calls for a recognition of God’s Grace. When we come to God we first have to recognize that we have received grace from God. We have to know that we have received the forgiveness of our sins and have been brought into a relationship with Him. If we don’t know this then we cannot expect God to hear us. God says in Isaiah that it is our sin that has separated us from God. If we have not received the forgiveness of all our sin then we can not come before God because we are still separated from Him. Moses knew that God had given Him His grace. God had removed that barrier of His sin from His life. He recognized that God’s grace had been given to Him.
In the first part of Moses’ prayer in verse 13 he says, “If I have found favor (or grace) in your sight.” Now Moses is not questioning whether He has received God’s grace and the translation “If I have received” is a little deceiving. How do we know this? At the end of verse 12 Moses quotes God as having said to him, “I have known you by name, and you HAVE found favor (or grace) in My sight.” God has just told Moses that he has found grace in God’s sight. So the way in which Moses starts his prayer goes something like, “If I really have found grace in your sight,” or “Since I really have found grace in your sight then please do this.” Moses was using the fact that God had told him that he had received grace as the basis for his prayer.
Moses had the boldness to pray to God and to ask his request from God because God had given him the assurance of having received His grace. In the same way we too can have the boldness to pray if we recognize that God’s grace has come to us. This is what the author of Hebrews says. “Therefore, let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may we receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
So how can we confidently be assured that we have received the grace of God? How can we know that we have received the forgiveness of our sins and been given eternal life? What would allow us, as the author of Hebrews says, to be able to come boldly to throne of grace?” Ephesians 2:8-9 speak of receiving God’s grace. These verses say, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works so that no one may boast.” God gives grace on the basis of our trusting (that is faith) in Jesus Christ as our sin-bearer. It is not based on our effort. God’s grace is merely received as a free gift. God’s gift of salvation is not earned nor rewarded through the exertion of our effort. It is simply given away to all who will humble themselves to recognize that the bar of perfection has been set too high for them to attain and that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was all that was necessary for them to receive God’s grace and along with it the forgiveness of all their sin and a forever relationship with God.
So if we are going to get a greater glimpse of God we need to start our prayer with the recognition that we have been recipients of God’s grace. If you have not received God’s grace then you have to begin there. You must first receive God’s grace. Those of you who have received God’s grace must recognize that when you come before Him. We need to call out to God in our prayer, “God, since you have given me your grace, please hear my prayer.”
2. A Realization of God’s Way
The second characteristic of this prayer is that the prayer to get a greater glimpse of God asks for a realization of God’s way. As we continue in verse 13 Moses says, “Let me know your ways.” The original is stronger than our English translations. Moses says, “Cause me to know your ways.” Put it into my heart to know your ways. Moses is now asking God to intervene in His life so that He would understand how God operates.
Now comes the scary part. Asking God to make clear to you how He works. Asking God to cause you to see His operational agenda. Do you really want to know? Do you really want to find out how God operates? Do you truly want a realization of God’s way?
Oh that we would all have a desire to know God’s ways. To want to know God’s ways assumes that we want to follow His ways. Do you want to follow God’s ways? This prayer can radically change your life if you are willing to learn and follow His ways. Scripture commands us to walk in His ways. But to walk in His ways means that we must know them first.
But if you ask the Lord to show you His ways don’t be like the Israelites in Jeremiah’s day. With deceit in their heart, they came to Jeremiah the prophet and asked him, “Tell us whether we should stay in Jerusalem or whether we should go to Egypt. Whatever the Lord says, we will do.” However, when Jeremiah came back to the people and told them that the Lord had said to stay in Jerusalem they replied to Jeremiah, “You are telling a lie! The Lord our God did not send you to say, “You are not to enter Egypt to reside there.” When they heard the answer of the ways of the Lord they refused to obey.
Don’t be like them. If you seriously want to know the ways of the Lord don’t say to Him, “Whatever you want” with no intention of obeying what you already know. There are many people today who do not have their prayers answered because they are insincere in their heart. They don’t really mean what they say.
Don’t ask the Lord to show you His ways if you don’t want to follow what He has already revealed to you. Moses knew the ways of the Lord. He had the received the commands of the Lord. Yet he wanted to know more. This prayer to know the ways of the Lord in a greater way, however, was simply a preamble, a prelude or a preface to the receiving of a fuller understanding of who God is. And this brings us to our third characteristic of Moses’ prayer.
3. A Revelation of God’s Person
The third characteristic of this prayer is that the prayer to get a greater glimpse of God hopes for a revelation of God’s person. Moses says, “Let me know your ways THAT I may know you.” The purpose of Moses asking God to reveal how He conducts Himself isn’t so He can write a book, “The many ways of God.” The purpose for which Moses asked God to show him His ways was so that Moses could know Him.
Think about this for just a moment. Moses spends 40 days in the presence of God but this is not enough. God comes down to Moses on the mountain and shows Him what heaven is like and Moses asks, “Lord let me know you.” To us it seems like a farmer asking someone to teach them how to milk a cow or a mechanic asking someone to tell them how an engine works.
Moses knew God. But Moses also knew that in his experience of God he only touched the tip of the iceberg. The amazing thing about God is that though you may seek to know Him all your life all you have is merely a superficial look at the greatness of God. There is so much more to know.
What has happened to Moses is that He has become content with only God. “Let me know You.” Nothing else mattered to Moses anymore. God offered to destroy the nation of Israel and make him into a great nation. He didn’t want it. He was satisfied with God alone. Even with the difficulties that came in leading the nation he simply wanted God. “I want to know You” was Moses’ prayer. And until we come to the place where our concern is “God I want to know You alone” then we will never be satisfied where we are.
Until God takes the most important place in your life you will be constantly looking for something better. You will be saying:
If I could only have a better house . . .
If I could only have a newer car . . .
If I could only have a better husband/wife . . .
If I could only have a different job/boss
The problem with that is that’s not your problem. Having a new house will not satisfy your longing. Having a better spouse will not give you relief. What you need to start recognizing is that all you need is Jesus Christ. You need to say, “All I want is Jesus Christ.” You need to start recognizing that all you need is to know God. Someone will inevitably say, “Won’t that cause me to neglect my family or my responsibilities?” I have never seen anyone who has truly discovered God as their only need who is unable to carry the responsibilities that God has for them. The reason for that is that when someone truly comes to a place where they want to know God above everything else, the time wasters in their lives go first.
Yes there are the frauds who neglect the necessary things in their lives (taking care of their family, working, etc.) and then say that they can’t do these things because they have to read their Bibles. But they’re wasting hours of their day doing trivial things in fooling around. If someone is truly seeking to know God better the time wasters go first. I tell you if you are serious about knowing God then you will be putting away the folly out of your life. You’ll be separating the bad from the good from the best. And you’ll be throwing out whatever isn’t the best.
Moses had just spent forty days with God on Mount Sinai. God had spoken with Him, the Scripture says, as a friend speaks with a friend. Yet, instead of being satisfied with that He wanted to know God even more. I’ve heard people tell me that they are just fine in their relationship with God. What they mean by that, however, is that they are comfortable in it and they have no desire to pursue it further. But I tell you that if you have found the real thing, if you have met God like Moses then you will not be complacent about your relationship with God. You will want to know Him in a greater and greater way because He is the giver of real life.
Too often we fail to get a revelation of God’s person because we refuse to wait on the Lord. Now I don’t mean that we sit around with our Bibles open and wait until we hear some voice from God but how many times do we fly through our Bible reading and prayer because we have to get somewhere instead of thinking on what we have read and asking the Lord to help us understand His Word and reveal Himself to us?
We may know that Moses was with the Lord for forty days on Mount Sinai but do we recognize that before he met with the Lord he sat there on the mountain by himself for six days before the Lord called him on the seventh day? It’s right there in Exodus 24 for you to read for yourself when you get alone with the Lord this week. But I have a transcript that I want to read to you from Moses’ own personal diary that was recently discovered by some archaeologists on Mount Sinai.
Day 1 First hour – God where are you? This is your servant Moses. I’m waiting for this really big meeting you’ve mentioned.
Second hour – Maybe I’d better call Zipporah and tell her that I won’t be home for lunch.
Third hour – I better check my cell phone and see if there are any messages. Service not available? What? Way up here on this mountain?
Fourth hour – Maybe I’d better call Zipporah not to expect me for supper.
Day 2 Doesn’t He know that I’ve got business to attend to?
Day 3 Well I’d better make the best use of my time. I can schedule all the moves the camp is going to have to make over the next 3 months
Day 4 I sure am hungry. I wonder if there is some other reason that God has me here. Let me think back over what the Lord has told me through the past months to see if there is something I’ve forgotten.
Let’s see now . . . He’s provided water in the desert. He’s provided all our food for us. Hmmm . . . Oh yes the Red Sea. I haven’t thought about that since I wrote that song praising God for His deliverance. Now how did that go?
Day 5 Wow the day has flown by and Lord I’m thinking about your great work in those plagues that you cast upon Egypt. Great are you O Lord and greatly to be praised
Day 6 Yes now I remember what you first said to me on this mountain when I was tending the sheep. “You will return here to worship me on this mountain.” Yes and I will worship you. Let me worship. Great are you O Lord.
Day 7 Moses, Moses – What are you calling me already? I was just starting to praise you. Don’t worry Moses you will have some more opportunity over the next 40 days.
We need to seek God as a person. We need to find time to think on Him and pray to Him and discover who He is. Maybe you need to turn off the talk radio, or the computer or the other time wasters in your life. Set aside time just for seeking God. God said in Jeremiah, “For I know the plans that I have for you says the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”
Another reason that we don’t have a zeal to seek God’s presence is because of idols in our hearts. Ezekiel mentions these idols that we have set up in our hearts that keep us from finding God’s presence. Why do we lack the desire to pray and spend time with Him? There are things in our lives that are more important than God. Let’s face it. When we make excuses for not doing right we are merely deceiving ourselves. It is because we love something more than God. How can we be seeking God’s presence when we say, “God you can have anything but this.” Or “You’d better not take this from me.” Whatever “this” is becomes an idol and it becomes that which keeps us from seeking God.
Do you want a heart like Moses that cries out to God, “I want to know you?” Then put off the time wasters in your life. Put off the idols and spend time with Him in earnest. God says that His people will find Him when they search for Him with all their heart. Are you willing to search for Him with all your heart? If you are then you will not be disappointed.
4. A Reception of God’s Grace
The fourth characteristic of this prayer is that the prayer to get a greater glimpse of God recognizes a need for a reception of God’s grace. Moses finally prays, “That I may find favor (grace) in your sight.” God’s grace not only saves a person from their sin but it also allows a person to carry out God’s will in their lives. Moses knew that if he were to respond rightly in leading the nation of Israel he would need God’s grace. He had already blown it once in destroying the Ten Commandments when he came down from the mountain.
Moses knew that he needed God to pour out more grace upon his life or his anger would get the best of him. This says that there is never a time that we do not need God’s grace. None of us will ever come to a place where we say that we can go it alone. No! It should be evident to us that the more we grow in our faith the more we will see the need to call out for God’s grace. I knew I needed God’s grace after I got saved. What I didn’t realize was just how much I needed it. In five years from now I will probably realize that I need it much more than I think I do today.
The recognition that we need to continually receive God’s grace calls us to more diligent prayer. When we consider Jesus saying, “apart from me you can do nothing” it should be clear to us that our prayer life ought to be more consistent and diligent than it is. And if you’re smug in thinking that I pray enough you haven’t yet come to realize how much you need to pray. And I dare say that if you are comfortable with how much you pray then you have not yet recognized your need for God’s great grace.
I must confess to you that more and more I am recognizing my own growing need to pray. As I see God working more through prayer than my feeble efforts I am constrained to pray more. I have been recently praying for myself and for you Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1 where He says, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know . . . the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” Oh if we would only get a glimpse of the greatness of God’s power toward us who believe what could God accomplish among us? How many of us would have our marriages healed, our family members saved, our community transformed? How many of us would have power over sins that have dominated us for way too long? How much longer must we wait before we will recognize that God’s great power is available to us through prayer?
Let us not give lip service to prayer. Let us truly find ourselves praying Moses’ prayer more and more that we might find God more and more. Let our prayer be “God since I have found grace in your sight let me know your ways that I may know you and so find grace in your sight.” Are you willing to call out to God to know Him so that He might grant you greater grace in your life? Will you allow the God who is able to do beyond what we can even ask or think to have full control of your life? Call out to Him today!