Sunday School: Yahweh's Glory is Revealed

26 January, 2014

*This series is a place to share what I talked about with our OverFlow students. The outline and some commentary for this lesson came from The Gospel Project: Worldview Session 2 but has been customized to my teaching style.

Exodus 33:18-23

Then Moses said, “Please, let me see Your glory." He said, “I will cause all My goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name Yahweh before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” But He answered, “You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live.” The Lord said, “Here is a place near Me. You are to stand on the rock, and when My glory passes by, I will put you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away, and you will see My back, but My face will not be seen.”

• What does this tell us about Yahweh? That Moses had to be hidden inside a rock and couldn't see His face? Yahweh is holy.
• What does this tell us about Moses(and ourselves?) Our sin separates us from God. Adam used to walk with Yahweh in Eden. How far we have fallen.

Exodus 34:5-9

The Lord came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed His name Yahweh. Then the Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed:

Yahweh — Yahweh is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving wrongdoing, rebellion, and sin. But He will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ wrongdoing on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.

Moses immediately bowed down to the ground and worshiped. Then he said, “My Lord, if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, my Lord, please go with us. Even though this is a stiff- necked people, forgive our wrongdoing and sin, and accept us as Your own possession.”

• This is Yahweh describing himself. It's incredibly important.
• Moses asks to see Yahweh's glory and gets told of his character. What does this say about the nature of Yahweh's glory? God is worthy based simply on who he is. Not only his description of himself, but the way he expresses his character through-out history.
• What stands out among Yahweh's characteristics?
• What's Moses response to Yahweh's glory? Worship. Asking Yahweh to lead Israel, forgive them of their sins and to take Israel as his possession. This is also the response we have when confronted with the truth of Jesus- Yahweh's ultimate expression of his character.

Exodus 34:29-35

As Moses descended from Mount Sinai — with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands as he descended the mountain — he did not realize that the skin of his face shone as a result of his speaking with the Lord. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone! They were afraid to come near him. But Moses called out to them, so Aaron and all the leaders of the community returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he commanded them to do everything the Lord had told him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever Moses went before the Lord to speak with Him, he would remove the veil until he came out. After he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded, and the Israelites would see that Moses’ face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went to speak with the Lord.

2 Corinthians 3:12-18

Therefore, having such a hope, we use great boldness. We are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the Israelites could not stare at the the end of what was fading away, but their minds were closed. For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ. Even to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

• The main purpose of the veil was to prevent the Israelites from observing the fading of the old-covenant glory. The Law was designed by God with a built-in obsolescence(Hebrews 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second one.) (Hebrews 8:13 By saying, a new covenant, He has declared that the first is old. And what is old and aging is about to disappear.)
• Another purpose is to keep the veiled person from seeing outside. The Israelites can't see the obsolescence of the mosaic covenant until they are set free from their blindness by Jesus.
• Not only do we see Yahweh's glory displayed for us in Jesus, but we are also being transformed into the likeness of that glory/character.
• Our transformation is powered by the Holy Spirit.

 

Jesus set us free so that we could mirror His glory and be ambassadors on earth, proclaiming Jesus so that hearts can be unveiled and people can pass from darkness into light.

 

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