Advent Devotional - December 16, 2016

“Veiled in flesh the Godhead see / Hail the incarnate Deity / Pleased as man with man to dwell / Jesus, our Emmanuel”

-Hark the Herald Angels Sing

“Show me your glory,” Moses requests of the LORD in Exodus 33:18. To be sure, this is an absurdly bold petition. And God kindly tells Moses in Exodus 33:20, “You cannot see my face and live.” It is a kindness, because there was not a single human being since Adam and Eve who had seen the face of God and lived. Once sin was brought into the equation in Genesis 3, a safe glance at God was no longer possible. All human hearts were now too dark, their eyes now too dim to behold the brilliant perfection of God and not be utterly ruined. From the Garden of Eden onward, every human who entered the presence of God would not dare look at God’s glory full in the face.

But God had a design to make such a thing possible again. Indeed, God knew that ultimately, he intended to have all of his people safely in his presence, with even the ability to look upon and his face and live to tell about it. The final chapter of the Bible reveals God’s vision that one day, humanity would fully and finally see His face (Revelation 22:4). But how could we ever get from Moses’ rejected request to God’s fulfilled promise? God’s answer: through a baby.

“No one has ever seen God,” John 1:18 reminds us. But, “the Only God, who is at the Father’s side, he [Jesus Christ] has made him known.” Jesus Christ, God incarnate, the Godhead veiled in flesh, has been seen. Whether she knew it or not, Mary was granted the request that her forefather Moses had made so long ago. God showed her his glory in the form of a newborn – that is, a newborn King. And as that King grew, he readily rejected a crown for the sake of a cross, and thus earned the right for all of his people once again look upon God. For thirty-three years, Jesus Christ was pleased as man with man to dwell, so that “the dwelling place of God [would be] with man” for all eternity (Revelation 21:3). Glory.