- 91-
Jehovah before thee." Then was Moses taught, that the deepest mystery of
Divinegrace lay not in God's national, but in His individual dealings, in sovereign
mercy, "And I will begracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on
whom I will show mercy" (ver. 19).Yet no man could see the face, the full outshining
of Jehovah. Neither flesh nor spirit, so long as itdwelt in the flesh, could bear such
glory. While that glory passed by, God would hold Moses in aclift of the rock,
perhaps in the same in which a similar vision was afterwards granted to Elijah,
(1Kings 19:9) and there He would support, or "cover" him with His hand. Only "the
back parts" - theafter-glory, the luminous reflection of what Jehovah really was -
could Moses bear to see. But whatMoses witnessed, hid in the clift of the rock, and
Elijah, the representative of the prophets, saw moreclearly, hiding his face in his
mantle, while he worshipped, appears fully revealed to us in the Face ofJesus Christ,
in Whom "the whole fullness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily."
(^)