And that phrase, using those two words, grace and truth, or lovingkindness and truth, echoes Exodus 34:6. Let us just go back there just to touch the base here, so you understand the connection. We have already heard about this, this Feast. Martin talked about it this morning. This is when He revealed Himself to Moses and He proclaimed the name of the Lord, right? Remember, name is identity. He was telling Moses about Himself and His glory. And so in verse 6,
That is in Hebrew hesed, lovingkindness, covenant love, and emet, truth. John picks this up in John 1:14 and says that He was full of grace and truth, the Greek equivalent of those two Hebrew words.
What is He saying? Remember, we are talking about glory here. Why did God have to shield Moses' face when He passed by? Put him in a cleft of a rock so that he would not be burnt to a crisp with the glory of God? Because He was God, right? And in the New Testament, John says that same God, full of grace and truth, did not have to dim Himself. He was in flesh and blood but He was the same God. He was the same God because He was full of the same righteous character that expressed itself in grace, or lovingkindness, and truth.
The only difference between the One that appeared in Exodus 34 and the One that appeared in John 1 was the flesh that He put on in order to tabernacle with us. He dimmed His glory, as it were, so that He could live side by side with us and show us the way.
The effect of what John says in John 1:14 is to declare that God manifested Himself as a fleshly man and His character did not change. His character in John 1:14 was the same as the character that was expressed in that sermon He preached to Moses in Exodus 34:6. So, the same God that lived in heaven was the same God on earth, without His glory.
But that is not even true. It was without the big light, the big power of His glory that He had in heaven. That was shielded for our protection. But it was the same God in character that lived in heaven and lived among us on earth.
God obliged to Moses' request; but how did He do it? How did He show Moses His glory? He preached him a sermon on His name! I might change that and say, He preached him a sermon on the third commandment. He expounded before Moses. And I say expounded here because I feel certain that all that we have is just the barest evidence of what God said - the notes, as it were, of what He talked about more fully. I am sure that He preached him a sermon on eleven names of God: Yhwh, El, the Merciful Being, the Gracious One, the Longsuffering One, the Mighty One, the Bountiful One, the True One, the Preserver of Bountifulness, He who bears away iniquity, and He who visits iniquity.
What He did before Moses was rehearse His nature. And that was so encouraging to Moses, because he knew then that they were not abandoned - that He would be with him - because of what He is (what God was, and what God is). Not because Israel deserved in any way, shape, or form for God to be with them, because every single one of them deserved to be dead! But because God is God, He would continue through with His purpose; and these names exemplified what He would be doing.
So God did not give Moses a vision of His majesty and power, but of His love, of His way of relating to His creation. The glory of God is the manifestation of His nature, of His character, of His way of relating to His creation - especially to His children. His names are signposts of His nature. They are reminders to you and me of what we can expect Him to do. That is why Moses was so encouraged.
What did Exodus 33 and 34 say the glory of God is? It is the revelation of His nature. Certainly there is glory in a revelation of His power and majesty - if He should choose to do it in person. But, to you and me, that is not what He is interested in. He is interested in our understanding His nature - that we are conversant with it, that we perceive it, that we understand it, that we can act wisely upon it, and that we can call upon God because we understand His nature.
