“Please, Show Me Your Glory!”
Parashat Ki Tisa, Exodus 30:11–34:35
Barri Seif, Congregation Sar Shalom, Dallas
So Moses said to Adonai, “You say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My eyes.’ Now then, I pray, if I have found grace in Your eyes, show me Your ways, so that I may know You, so that I might find favor in Your sight. Consider also that this nation is Your people.”
“My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest,” He answered.
But then he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with me, don’t let us go up from here! For how would it be known that I or your people have found favor in Your sight? Isn’t it because You go with us, that distinguishes us from all the people on the face of the earth?”
Adonai answered Moses, “I will also do what you have said, for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.”
Then he said, “Please, show me Your glory!” Exodus 33:12–18 TLV
I love this story of Moses wanting to see God’s glory, waiting to “see” God manifest himself. Rabbi Hertz rightly notes in his commentary, “Emboldened by the success of his plea on behalf of the people, Moses begs the privilege of being acquainted with ‘the glory of God’, i.e. with His eternal qualities” (D.J. Hertz. Pentateuch and Haftorahs, 1973, pg. 363).
We all want God’s glory. We want to see Him in action. We can all look back at different times of our lives and see how God manifested His presence to us in defined ways. Can I say that I am truly addicted to God’s movement in my life? Yes!
I would like, however, to take a different perspective on this passage. There are times in our lives when we feel utterly alone. Perhaps we feel misunderstood. The people that we care about seem distant. The heavens are silent; God is quiet. Why do we go through times when we feel like God has placed us in a season of isolation? This is not abandonment. It is not punishment.
It is a divine process. God isolates you because He has something more extraordinary.
Before David became king, he was alone in the wilderness, tending sheep. Before Joseph was exalted in Egypt, he was betrayed and sold into slavery. He endured years in prison. Even Yeshua, before his ministry began, spent forty days and forty nights in the wilderness.
These moments of isolation are not times of despair, but sacred seasons in which God refines, teaches, and prepares us for a greater purpose. Isolation removes the distractions of worldly activities, noise, and opinions. Our vision can get clouded and it’s in these quiet, lonely places that we hear God’s voice more clearly. God’s wisdom speaks to our heart, whispers to our spirit, and molds our character. There are lessons that can only be learned in solitude, waiting, patience, humility, and trust. These are not built in the spotlight and on the mountain top.
These lessons can only be experienced during times of loneliness and isolation in the dark night of the soul.
When we are isolated, when everything is stripped away from us and our props are gone, God can put us on the potter’s wheel and mold us for His future purpose. It takes faith to embrace this process.
Years ago, I was going through a difficult time. I attended a conference, and God made me attentive to the speaker’s words, “get alone with God.” I know that I probably had heard other people speak on the subject of a quiet time, but this time, it was different. God told me to sequester myself and spend time with Him, to quietly sit, read the Bible, then ponder what God had spoken to me through His word. God gave me the strength to persevere through my difficult time, and many more. That dark season prepared me for harder trials, accompanied by greater blessings.
Times of isolation, solitude, and loneliness are not there to break you, but to make you into something beautiful. They are the chisels in the hand of the Master Sculptor. God has a calling upon our lives, and He uses times of isolation and affliction to get our attention. He wants our focus to be only on Him, and in this pain to call out, “Show me Your glory!”
This is an opportunity for us to trust God and believe that He is working behind the scenes. He is faithful to bring you through. He who began a good work in you, will be faithful to complete it (Phi 1:6).
Hebrews 12:11 TLV encourages us, “Now all discipline seems painful at the moment—not joyful. But later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
Twenty-five years ago, I was participating in worship dancing at a conference, never thinking that a missed step would lead me to have broken my right foot in two places, to have two surgeries, recuperating on my bed for almost 6 months with my foot above my heart. What made it worse was that I was in the process of being transferred from Nashville to Kansas City, where many of my Jewish family members lived. My elderly mother took care of me. I was humbled. It was one of the top five worst times of my life. However, on the anvil of affliction, God gave me an assignment — to learn Hebrew, to become a Bat Mitzvah at the ripe age of 45, and to begin a devotional book on the Names of God. That journey of brokenness and broken foot changed the direction of my life. Fifteen years ago, a similar incident happened, two weeks before I was to lead my first charity trip to Israel. I went into Walgreens, went to the ladies’ room, slipped, and broke my left foot. Although my doctor told me that I was allowed to go to Israel, I was ordered not to put my foot down whatsoever. He told me after I returned home how seriously broken it really was and my recuperation took four-and-a-half more months for complete recovery.
In both instances I knew that I had not sinned, and afterwards I was shown that God was truly orchestrating every single detail for my good. Transformation takes place in this sacred time of suffering and trusting. As Paul told the Philippians, “My aim is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the sharing of His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death” (Phil 3:10).
It is in these moments that God refines our heart, chisels away our pride, and builds perseverance for the journey ahead. The quiet often brings clarity. The loneliness brings dependence, and the waiting cultivates our trust. Like Paul, we learn to trust God in the darkness, and we gain a deeper knowledge of Him.
I love what the Hertz commentary notes about God’s goodness: “Pity is a Divine attribute; and man is never nearer to the divine than in his compassionate moments. God’s merciful qualities are, therefore, the real links between God and man” (Hertz, pg. 363).
Moses had the mountain-top experience with the beautiful encounter of God’s glory as it passed by (Exod 33:21-23). However, we must recall the many challenges of Moses that led up to that moment.
Recall your times in school when during testing the teacher is silent. When tested, remember that the Teacher is silent, yet “Now all discipline seems painful at the moment—not joyful. But later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb 12:11 TLV). May we all crave the peaceful fruit of righteousness, as we walk through the valley.