Whet

As we enter into 2018, let it be a year of hunger and of feasting.

The LORD said to Moses, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Exodus 33:14).

Moses the intercessor for his people received their affirmative answer to prayer. The Lord would go with the people.
Answer.
Guiding.
Presence.

Yet, Moses was not content. Moses wanted more—he wanted God. As Van Driel put it, Moses the leader was satisfied. Moses the person was not. Moses, the friend of God, was not. Moses, hungry for the Lord. Moses who wanted to see the Lord’s glory no matter the cost—for who can see the Lord and live (33:20)?

Will I be satisfied with answers alone? I want to be his friend. “I know you by name,” says the Lord. It is this, this intimate knowledge, friendship, from the Lord extended to Moses, that spurs Moses’s bold request.

The Lord’s grace to Moses’s hunger: “I will make all my goodness pass before you…. But you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (Ex. 33:19-20). The Lord willing! Is there even a hint of willingness to do even more if it were not for Moses' own good? “If it would not destroy you, I would show my face, yes, even my very face. I am willing to be known. I, Triune-God-of-Unity-in-One, I desire relationship. I honor those who hunger after me.”

In Christ—we see God face to face.
We
see
God.
Let the awe of thousands of years of veiled Holy of Holies, now breached in a babe, wash over you.
We are friends (Jn. 15:15). John the apostle cannot get over it:

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete” (1 John 1:1-4).

We desire friendship. The incarnation is that ultimate answer to see, touch, know God--for eternity in heaven, Christ incarnate. Hunger is met by grace, will be met by Grace incarnate, so hunger more. Whet the appetite. 

NOTES

Edwin Chr. Van Driel, Incarnation Anyway: Arguments for a Supralapsarian Christology (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2008).