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"I beseech Thee, O God, show me thy glory. Show me the essence of your being. I want the mystery to be unveiled. I desire an unblurred view of divinity. Lord, show me thy glory."

Intimacy with God, no doubt, has made possible the request. Moses and God have been on speaking terms for quite a while. From the backside of Horeb all the way to this mount named Sinai, the Lord talked with Moses and He did it as a man speaketh unto his friend.

Some have been critical of Moses for making such a request. Quite frankly, he's been declared out of order. I for one understand and appreciate the request. Moses has faithfully stood in the gap between a good God and an inconsistent people. Through his intercessory work, a rebellious people have experienced restoration and renewal. He has exhibited the highest confidence in invisible reality. And yet, all the intimacy notwithstanding, he's never seen God face to face. Therefore, the man's reasoning makes sense. "Since I'm your representative to this people, your emissary, your ambassador, that alone should qualify me for the privilege of seeing your glory, that indefinable quality which makes God, God."

Yes, I clearly understand Moses' request. Apparently God did also, for the request prompted no rebuke, no chastisement at all. God's response was clearly positive. Listen to what God said, "I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But there is one specification, just one. Thou canst not see my face. For no man shall see me and live."

The human cannot behold the Divine in His luminous fullness. Mortal eyes are not equipped to gaze on pure immortality. "Moses, if I showed you my glory in toto you wouldn't be able to handle it. But you do qualify to view some aspect of my being. So this is what I'll do. I'm going to put my glory in motion. My glory shall pass by you. And it shall come to pass that while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in the cleft of the rock and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. And, Moses, after the fact, after I have passed by, I will take away my hand and thou shall see my back parts. But my face shall not be seen."

Only the backside of divinity is available for viewing. No frontal view, no head-on look, no direct focusing. Only a look at God's backside. That's all that was promised.

Now watch God work. He says to Moses, "Be ready in the morning. Come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present thyself to me in the top of the mount. Bring nobody with you; travel alone. Don't even let any animals graze in the mount. Moses, it's just you and me." The hallowed morning dawns. Watch God work. He descends in the clouds, stands with Moses, and proclaims His own name. The Lord then passes by Moses and declares as He moves, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sin." All that Moses could do was bow down hastily, bow his head toward the earth and worship the Lord God Almighty.

His request had been honored. His prayer was answered. He had experienced a special theophany. The full glory he had not seen, but he had seen enough. He had seen God's backside. And what did the backside represent? Well, the backside showed forth the afterglow of the glory. It's sort of like the aftereffects of the real thing. It's somewhat analogous to what follows a hurricane or a tornado. You don't have to be in the storm to feel its effect. When the ravishing storm subsides, and you stand in the calm aftereffect with gentle zephyrs blowing upon your brow, you have an understanding of what previously transpired. And so it is when God passes by.

No mortal can handle full exposure. Divinity is too luminous, too potent, too revealing. But when He has passed by, your soul shouts, "He's been by here!" The God of grace and glory has been by here. And you then bask in the afterglow. You see, wherever He goes He leaves a glow.

Whenever He touches, He leaves an imprint. Whomever He blesses, He leaves with a sign. For you see, there is glory in the afterglow. We don't need the full panorama. There's more glory in the afterglow than we're able to embrace. Just a little of it makes the spirit rejoice. Just a little of it brings tears to the eyes. Just a little bit of it starts a wheel to turning and a fire to burning.

Someone rightly sang, "Only a look will bring salvation, just a look, one look, only a look." And once you've experienced the afterglow, the benefits continue. They inform every leg of the journey. They infuse every blessing, and when you move into a new dimension of being, when you rise to another level, when another blessing presents itself, you say to yourself, "He's been here. He passed by, and now He goeth before me."

Seeing God's backside is more than enough. So rich and rewarding was it that Moses was satisfied. In the backside revelation the law was written anew in tablets of stone. The nature of God was revealed, the covenant with Abraham was renewed, and the countenance of Moses shone with a new luster. When you've had the pass-by experience, when you've seen the backside of the eternal God, nothing remains the same. For in the afterglow, you find love and mercy and forgiveness. You find peace and joy and contentment. You find assurance and strength and hope.

Mighty Moses, in spite of his matchless deeds, was not permitted to see God's face. For his own sake, it was not allowed. But Moses was satisfied. He knew that which all of us had better know. Moses knew that this was not the finale. If you live in the afterglow you qualify to participate one day in the finale -- in the full glow of His glory.

David understood it as it is. Said the shepherd psalmist in his closing word in Psalm 17: "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness."

Jesus himself promised it in the beatitudes: "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." And John in his First Epistle declared, "Beloved now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is."

At planet level we see the afterglow. We witness His backside. But this is simply preparatory. We're getting ready for the full panorama. A day will come when backside seeing will cease. No more cleft of the rock. No shielding of our vision with the hand of God. A clear view. Eyes open; a full view. We shall behold Him in all of His glory.

I hear John as he finalizes the Apocalypse --

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were good for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him: And they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads.

Alleluia! Alleluia! The vision will unfold. The reality will be exposed, that of clear unblurred divinity. We shall behold Him as He is.