The Magnificent Presence

The Magnificent Presence
EXODUS 34: 27- 40: 38

When I sit in my ancient recliner aware that God is there with me, in the way I described in connection with Exodus 32:30– 33:11, I do not have experiences that leave my face radiating in such a way that later in the day students are afraid to draw near to me (there must be other reasons for their fear). When I go to church and rejoice in arriving to celebrate what God has done for us, I do not sense an overwhelming manifestation of God’s splendor that makes me wary about going into church. Ought God to give us experiences like that, or ought we to be able somehow to generate them or earn them? Some things that happen in the Bible should also happen today, and some things that people did in the Bible are the kind of things we should do today, but many stories about Moses and the Israelites (or Jesus) are there to inspire us not because we expect the same things to happen but because we are not to expect them...