It’s in our darkest hour that God comes! He enters into the problem, although we may not be aware of His exact timing and presence in those lonely despairing times.
Ponder Moses, when he asked God to reveal His glory. God answered that He would make all of His goodness pass before him but that He couldn’t reveal the glory and radiance of His face or Moses would surely die.
Get this! Moses couldn’t watch! He couldn’t see God when He did His work. Why? Well, take a look at that conversation. Ponder it deeply in your heart of hearts and in your deepest soul. Tuck it in there for safekeeping on a stormy day, when the winds howl and the wolves prowl.
Exodus 33:17-20 says,
The Lord replied to Moses, “I will indeed do what you have asked, for I look favorably on you, and I know you by name.’ Moses responded, “Then show me your glorious presence.”
The Lord replied,
“I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh, before you. For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose. But you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live. Look stand near me on this rock. As my glorious presence passes by, I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and let you see me from behind, but you will not see my face.” Exodus 33: 17 – 23
Friends, it’s dark there in the crevice of the rock with the Lord’s hand covering our eyes, don’t you think? But it’s safe there in the shelter of that rock as God does His thing to reveal His glory in our circumstances. He did it for Moses, and He does it for us if we give Him the reigns to shelter us from the trouble and hide us securely protected from His awesome work. So, we may feel in the dark these days and yeah, we might not be aware of His presence when He presents Himself in the struggle, because He covers us with His hand so we can’t see His face, but it’s here, He’s working with a powerful, sovereign hand to fix it all just the way He desires to fix it. It’s in the dark He works so sovereignly to reveal His glory and to shine directly and radiantly into our darkest of dark.
Oh yes, you and I and we and us, how often do we look back at the struggle that just passed, and although we didn’t see Him, we know that we know He was there because it could have only been God that performed and orchestrated such amazing work in such perfected fashion?
So for you today, in the dark, down, needing desperately to see something from the Lord, hold on to hope and stay safely there in that dark spot, in that safe place, protected right there, until God is finished doing what He’s doing. When He takes away His hand, then look! Then smile! Then be thankful for the dark that just passed over!
Now it’s safe to see what He’s accomplished.
Beautiful one, how blessed we are to know His goodness and to see His glory revealed after the darkness has passed.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Charis Kay Publishing
Featured Image by kang choi from Pixabay
