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Why was Moses allowed to see the back of God? He saw some of the glory of God – not the face-to-face glory he desired, but the back of God–the hind-parts as the Hebrew puts it. Why? We understand why he was not allowed to see God’s face (he would die), but why did God permit Moses to see God’s back?
We must understand the event that precedes this passage. Remember the importance of context? What happened immediately before this encounter of Moses with God was the golden calf incident. Moses had been on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments and had been there so long that the people thought he would never return to them. Perhaps he was dead. Perhaps this Yahweh God he proclaimed had delivered them from Egypt was an illusion. In fear and desperation they gave their jewelry to Aaron (Moses’ brother) who molded the gold into a calf and set it before them. It was a god they could see, touch, handle, move, manipulate and control. It was a god whose visible presence they could always have in their midst. It was a god as stationary as they chose to be and as predictable as they preferred their gods to be.
But the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – the God who had brought them from the land of Egypt would never be such a God. This God – the real God –was more than they could see, touch, control and understand. This God would preserve the mystery necessary for authentic faith and abundant life. This God would not be captured in a cast of gold, a block of wood, a painting framed and hung on a wall or placed on the mantle, or even pictured in stained glass windows. This God would be free to be the gracious, good, and merciful God that alone could redeem the world.
But we still ask, “Why the back?” Why did God allow Moses to see holy hind-parts? Where were the Hebrews going? The Promised Land. They were truly an Exodus people – a people on a journey with their God. And the only part you can see of a person leading you on a journey is that person’s back. Unlike the idols of our own making, this good, gracious, and merciful God is also a God on the move. This God will always be before us, leading us down the paths of faithfulness and righteousness, blazing new trails of creative justice and transforming love. The only part we shall ever see of this God – at least this side of eternity – shall be the hind-parts, for this God will ever be before us.
But let’s not just stop there. This critically important message continues throughout the Old Testament and flows into the New Testament. We are told in Mark 1 that Jesus began his ministry with the calling of two brothers who were fishermen, Simon and Andrew. (Read the passage, Mark 1: 16-20.) The first words out of Jesus’ mouth to his first disciples were “Follow me.” If you follow someone, what you see is their back, right? In the last church I pastored a set of banners were commissioned by our organist in memory of her mother. I collaborated with the artist who designed the banners. The banner for Kingdomtide/Ordinary time focused among other things on the teachings of Jesus. I wanted the dominating image of that banner to be Jesus, but I wanted only the back side of Jesus to be portrayed. Jesus’ face could not be seen. All one could see was his back. This motif of the banner was to remind us that we are called to follow him, for he is always before us travelling the new horizons of God’s peaceable realm.
And then we come to chapter 8 of Mark’s Gospel, the pivotal chapter in his whole book. Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” And Peter answers, “You are the Christ/ Messiah.” And Jesus sternly orders them not to tell anyone about him. Why? (Read Mark 8:27-37). Peter did not want to hear any talk about Jesus being rejected and undergoing suffering and death, so he takes Jesus aside and rebukes/corrects him: Jesus has it all wrong. He needs to stop all this talk about rejection, suffering, and death. Jesus’ response to Peter, the prince of the apostles was, “Get behind me, Satan!” What a shock Peter must have felt – the embarrassment, the humiliation. Yes, Jesus was the Messiah, but Messiahs were not rejected. Messiahs don’t end up on crosses. Messiahs are not failures. Peter and the other disciples still didn’t get it. They did not understand who Jesus was and, therefore, they didn’t have a clue as to who God was. Peter was trying to change Jesus’ mission. Peter was trying to come up with a new plan. Peter was trying to take over the reins of this whole Kingdom movement.
So, what did Jesus say? “Get behind me.” In other words, “I set the pace. I determine the direction. I am the leader and the pioneer. Follow me. If you do so, all you will see is my back. You won’t understand all that I am about. There will be times when you will have doubts, fear, and despair. You will not see face-to face with certainty, but that’s not what faith and trust are about in the first place. You must follow me, trusting that I am the way, the truth and the life.”
(Quote from Albert Schweitzer: “He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old by the lakeside he came to those men who knew him not. He speaks to us the same words: “Follow thou me!” and he sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in his fellowship, and as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.”)
God is ahead of us. God may be with us and for us, but God is always ahead of us. No one can completely understand the mind and heart of God. We will always be on a journey because there will always be more to experience – more truth, more love, more wisdom, more compassion, more joy, more beauty – there will always be more, more and more because God is an inexhaustible fount of possibilities.
None of us can know exactly where these possibilities (guided by love, compassion, beauty, justice and joy) are headed. But in faith and trust we bet our lives that Jesus knows and that Jesus is the way. And so we make the most important decision of our lives. We choose to follow him even though at times all we can see is his back, and maybe at critical times even that back is only faintly visible as through a mist or perhaps not visible at all. But we trust that he is the way, the truth and the life. And in following him, we grow, and change. We leave our enslaving Egypts and golden calves and comfortable homesteadings behind to venture into new territories – new Promised Lands. We are on a journey – an endless journey with an infinite God who loves us and all creation with an unfathomable love. What a vision! What a journey! And what a God!