Exodus 33:12-23 [NLTse]
12 One day Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Take these people up to the Promised Land.’ But You haven’t told me whom You will send with me. You have told me, ‘I know you by name, and I look favorably on you.’ 13 If it is true that You look favorably on me, let me know Your ways so I may understand You more fully and continue to enjoy Your favor. And remember that this nation is Your very Own people.”
14 The Lord replied, “I will personally go with you, Moses, and I will give you rest—everything will be fine for you.”
15 Then Moses said, “If You don’t personally go with us, don’t make us leave this place. 16 How will anyone know that You look favorably on me—on me and on Your people—if You don’t go with us? For Your presence among us sets Your people and me apart from all other people on the earth.”
17 The Lord replied to Moses, “I will indeed do what you have asked, for I look favorably on you, and I know you by name.”
18 Moses responded, “Then show me Your glorious presence.”
19 The Lord replied, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will call out My name, Yahweh, before you. For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose. 20 But you may not look directly at My face, for no one may see Me and live.” 21 The Lord continued, “Look, stand near Me on this rock. 22 As My glorious presence passes by, I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove My hand and let you see Me from behind. But My face will not be seen.”
In ancient construction practices the cornerstone was the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. It was important because all other stones in the foundation would be set in reference to this stone. The position and soundness of the entire structure was based on how rightly this first cornerstone was laid. It set the stage for the rest of the building.
As Moses was leading Israel from Egypt to the land God had promised them, Moses asked the Lord to help him understand His ways because Moses wanted to know the Lord and enjoy Him more fully. Moses said, “[Lord], show me Your glorious presence.” (v. 18) And the Lord’s response was, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will call out My name before you.” (v. 19)
Moses wanted to understand God’s ways and see His glorious presence. And the Lord’s response was, “I will make all My goodness pass before you…”
Have you ever wanted to understand God’s ways? “I will make all My goodness pass before you,” the Lord responds. Have you ever wanted to see God’s glorious presence? The Lord responds, “I will make all My goodness pass before you.” The cornerstone for knowing God’s ways and seeing His glory is the reality of God’s goodness. God’s goodness is the reference point for everything else about Him: His ways; His glory. Knowing and trusting that God is good is the cornerstone for all the rest of Christian faith and practice.
Have you ever heard the Christian chant, “God is good!”? [All the time.] “All the time.” [God is good.] And yet there are so many theologies out there threatening people with God’s wrath and explaining the terrors and tragedies going on around us as the result of God’s judgments. But the Lord Jesus says, “God loved the world so much that He gave His One and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” That, “God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.” (John 3:16-17)
When Jesus was cutting through Samaria to make His way to Jerusalem, one village wouldn’t let Him pass, and His disciples wanted to call down fire from Heaven to punish them. But Jesus rebuked them! In a longer version of that event, Luke records, “The Son of Man has not come to destroy people’s lives but to save them.” (9:51-56)
In revealing the Father to us, the Lord Jesus doesn’t show us a God Who destroys people with floods and storms and has people get shot and go hungry so that they’ll learn to fear Him and Hell and then want to become His disciples. He said, “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. [Referring to Satan and his crew.] My purpose,” Jesus went on, “is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” (John 10:10)
Now, I know that Jesus makes clear that there’s a real Hell, and that He makes clear that there will be a real Day, when He returns, where everyone will be judged according to their deeds, and whether or not saving faith in Him motivated those deeds. But He it wasn’t Jesus’ practice to threaten people with Hell. His pattern seemed to be showing people God’s goodness and calling them to follow Him because of God’s goodness!
He helped people see God’s goodness! His every word and deed was an example – a living parable – of God’s goodness! In our day it seems that many people enter the Kingdom of God with fear and foreboding, thinking they need to accept Christ in order to escape Hell. When the reality is that we have a good Father Who’s shown Himself so very ready to welcome us into His family!
When the goodness of God is our cornerstone it powerfully shapes what we do, speak, and think! And like with a building, the cornerstone of our faith sets the stage for all that we’re about. If we look around us lamenting evil’s victory, we are not only believing a lie but will also spread that lie through our attitudes, responses, and actions to those around us. Too often Christian preachers and teachers tell us to pray harder, pray longer, to pray with more desperation! Somehow a weed has sprung up in God’s garden that we are more merciful that He, and that God pays more attention to our desperation than He is to our faith and confidence in His goodness!
I’ve shared with many of you of how my little brother was killed just following his 21st birthday. My older brother was not a Christian at that time and, trying to be compassionate towards me about my faith, he was asking me what it was like believing in God when something horrible like this happened. And I remember telling him, “I’d rather be slapped by someone I know loves me than be slapped by someone I think hates me.”
Trusting in God’s goodness gave me supernatural strength during that horrible time (and through many days since) and the cornerstone of His goodness transformed the ministry I was able to have towards others through it all. I didn’t understand my little brother’s death: Why; how? But I did understand that God loved me, and that He is good all the time!
Typically right after some calamity, you can hear people ask, “If God is so good, then why do bad things happen?” But the cornerstone of that question is out of whack. The truth is not, “If God is so good,” the question should be, “Since God is so good, then why do bad things happen?” Because then the stage is set for us, in humility, to consider that, perhaps, our finitude and limited understanding keeps us from seeing and keeps us from knowing all that our good and loving God and Father, in His infinitude and limitless understanding, sees and knows.
Afterall, aren’t we a people who truly believe that God does indeed working everything together for our good, we who love Him and who have been called according to His purpose for us? Aren’t we a people who truly believe that God is love, and that in Him there is no darkness at all? Of course, we are! Of course, we do!
And this is the good news our good and loving Father in Heaven has given us to share with our friends and coworkers and classmates and family members and all those who will learn from our attitudes, words, and deeds: That God is good! That God wants to give them a full and satisfying life! That God wants to give them greater understanding, like being a light for them when they’ve gotten used to walking around in the darkness! That God wants to fill them with peace that surpasses our culture’s comprehension and that our events and circumstances can’t take away! That God wants to fill them with joy that not only brings laughter and happiness, but that gives strength for our living day by day!
And it’s our Father’s desire looking for those around us to be able to see His goodness in us. And God’s goodness can always be recognized in those who seem to overflow with joy, encouragement, forgiveness, peace, and generosity…
Romans 10:15 says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach glad tidings of good things.”
O Father, may our feet be truly beautiful! Help us grow in revealing Your goodness to those around us. Increase our trust in Your goodness. Grant the goodness You have shown us in Jesus Christ – the joy, the peace, the wisdom, the health, the wholeness, and every other good promises we read about in the Bible – grant the goodness You have shown us in Christ to truly be our cornerstone, setting right all that is our life and faith. And when trouble and tragedy come, grant us the readiness and the courage to bring the truth and deeds of Your goodness to those tempted with doubt and despair.
You are love. You are good. And we trust and praise You this day, in Jesus’ name…