This post is from one of the pastors at http://www.calvarychapel.com
Moses, if he knew anything, knew the miraculous power of God. There are few men in the Bible who experienced as much miraculous phenomenon as did Moses. He met God and heard His voice at the burning bush. Moses saw God do miracles through his yielded life; he could make a walking staff a snake and then back to a walking stick again. He could put his completely normal, healthy hand into his clothing, pull it out as leprous and then change it back again.
Moses saw up close the mighty plagues God sent upon Egypt, each of them a miracle in some way. He saw God protect Israel by separating the Red Sea and then closing it down again upon the pursing Egyptians. Moses drank the water miraculously provided in the wilderness and ate the miracle-manna that came daily. At Sinai he saw the mountain literally blazing with the presence of God; Moses smelled the smoke, felt the earthquake, and heard God speak audibly from heaven.
Get the point? Moses knew more of the miraculous power of God than most anyone. Despite all of that, Exodus 33:18 tells us that when he drew close to God on the heights of Mount Sinai, he still asked God: “Please, show me Your glory.”
Here is the principle: The experience of the miraculous doesn’t satisfy the soul’s longing for God. If it did, Moses would have been a satisfied man – but he wasn’t. The more Moses knew God, the more he wanted to know him. He knew the paradoxical combination of the soul being satisfied in God, while not being satisfied yet and longing for more.
Yet the “more” Moses longed for wasn’t more miracles. To be sure, God had more of the miraculous for Moses; but that was a different thing than having more of the Lord Himself. I hope there is no misunderstanding – God is a miracle-working God, and we should pray and trust for more of the miraculous rather than less.
At the same time, I meet people who really love the Lord and want more of Him, but they feel they will find Him more in miraculous experiences than in the revelation of His glory, His character, and His person through His word.
That’s what God did for Moses. Later in Exodus 34 when God did actually pass before Moses in some way, God it as He proclaimed who He was using words (Exodus 34:5-8). When God revealed Himself to Moses it was connected with words, His words.
At the same time, notice that Moses had a strong desire for simply more of God. Exodus 16:10 and Exodus 24:16-17 tell us that Moses before this, Moses had already experienced something of the glory of God; yet he wasn’t satisfied with what he had seen.
When we really value something, we approach it the same way. A professional baseball player is never satisfied with hitting one home run. Lovers are never long satisfied with just one kiss. A salesman is never satisfied with just one big sale. When we really love something, we quite rightly are not satisfied with just a bit. We want more.
Jesus spoke to this idea in one of His beatitudes: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). When we have this kind of hunger for God and His righteousness, He never regards it as selfishness. He sees it as a proper hunger that should be filled.
It is good for each one of us to know both parts of that previously-mentioned paradox: the soul satisfied in God, yet always wanting more of Him.
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