“Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. ¹⁶ How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

¹⁷ And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked,because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”

¹⁸ Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” ¹⁹ And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. ²⁰ But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”  Exodus 33:15-20

The Lord said, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”  YHWH is a particular G-d—one who can not be put into a box. And yet even our G-d will only allow Moses, the greatest of the Prophets, the Prophet’s prophet, to see only a part of G-d – and that part is his back. It foreshadows, dare I say, the saying of Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:9 – 10, “For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end…Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” 

We are fully known—this is our faith. We believe that G-d made each one of us, individually, and perfectly—and knows us fully. As such, we must be satisfied that we will only know G-d in part–but that is enough.

Pastor Dave

⁴⁰ A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” ⁴¹ Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” ⁴² Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. ⁴³ After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, ⁴⁴ saying to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” ⁴⁵ But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.” Mark 1:40-45

“Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.”  This part of the text may get overlooked by many who read it and do not understand the absolute shock of what Jesus has done. First of all, the man with Leprosy was unclean, and for any person of the Jewish society, to touch someone or something that was unclean put them outside of society (until they were made clean again) and outside of worship. Second, this man was diseased and there wasn’t a cure for the disease, so Jesus, according to those witnessing the event, was placing himself at great risk of also contracting the disease. But this societal boundary is not a boundary for the “Holy One of God”. The “Holy One” cannot be made impure and cannot be held within the constraints of earthly diseases. No matter how filthy, diseased, or contaminated we become from this life, Jesus will always be there for us, bidding us to come, welcoming us with open arms. That alone should give us great hope.

Pastor Dave