Sabbath School lessons are part of a global study initiative undertaken by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. As we enter the third quarter of 2025, we will explore the theme “Exodus” This week’s lesson, titled “Please, Show Me Your Glory” covers the period from September 13 - September 19. Join Pastor Mark Finley for a brief preview of what to expect in this week’s study.

<p>Sabbath School lessons are part of a global study initiative undertaken by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. As we enter the third quarter of 2025, we will explore the theme “Exodus” This week’s lesson, titled “Please, Show Me Your Glory” covers the period from September 13 - September 19. Join Pastor Mark Finley for a brief preview of what to expect in this week’s study.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

HopeLives365

Sabbath School 3rd Quarter 2025: Exodus

Mark Finley

01 Oppression: The Background and the Birth of Moses

02 The Burning Bush

03 Rough Start

04 The Plagues

05 Passover

07 The Bread and Water of Life

08 Covenant at Sinai

09 Living the Law

10 The Covenant and the Blueprint

11 Apostasy and Intercession

12 Please, Show Me Your Glory

13 The Tabernacle


This quarter is really speeding along. I've thoroughly enjoyed these lessons in the book of Exodus. And it seems like every lesson, we learn something new or fresh. The title of lesson 12 is, Please show me your glory. What is God's glory?

How is God's glory revealed? We don't see God today. Is his glory revealed in his words? Certainly. But can his glory be revealed in your life and mine?

We're gonna study about that today, so let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you so much for these lessons in the book of Exodus as we study today. Fill our hearts with a sense of your plan for our personal lives. Help us know and experience personally and individually your marvelous glory. In Jesus name, amen.

Our memory text for this week tells us about the glory of God. It's found in Exodus 34, verse 6 and 7. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious, long suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty. Visiting the iniquity of the father is upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation." What does this mean? First, God's glory is revealed in his character.

Secondly, a failure to receive God's glory in our lives, a failure to come in intimate relationship with God, leads us to drift away from God and our characters to lack that fellowship with God, lack that relationship with God, our characters become defiled, deteriorated, sinful, indeed if we don't have a relationship with God. We live self-centered, prideful lives. And what happens? Those attitudes are passed down to the next generation, the next generation, the next generation. But if we reveal kindness and love and graciousness and mercy, those attitudes too are picked up by those around us and passed down to each generation.

This lesson this week, please show me your glory, lesson 12 in our series, is really a call to grow in our walk with God. As our first paragraph in the lesson says, without growth we are dead. The apostle Paul declares, but grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever, amen. Second Peter 3 verse 18.

We need to be willing to grow. We are in God's university where there is no graduation, but a constant learning process. In each stage of growth, you can be perfect if you allow God to mold you into the person that he called you to be in Christ. Look, at each stage of our growth, we can know that we are growing closer and closer and closer to Jesus. Please show me your glory.

What is the glory of God? It's his character. And more than anything else, he wants that character to be revealed in our lives. We begin Sunday's lesson with the tent of meeting. This is something, you know, I've read scripture again and again and read the Bible through and read the book of Exodus many times.

And I've thought about this concept before, but I've never really paid that much attention to it. And in this week's lesson, it really struck me when I read Exodus 33, verse 7 to 11. So let's take a look at those because these passages just jumped out at me. Exodus 33, verse 7. "'Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, "'far from the camp and called it the tabernacle of meeting.

"'And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting, which was outside the camp. So it was whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle that all the people rose and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass when Moses entered the tabernacle that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle and the Lord talked with Moses. And all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door. And all the people arose and worshiped each man in his tent door.

And the Lord spoke in verse 11, and the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as man speaks to a friend. So, you know, remember you'll say, but I know somebody's thinking, but doesn't the Bible say that no man has ever seen God? What does this mean? The expression face-to-face is an idiomatic expression in Hebrew that means they had an intimate relationship. It is not that Moses in his humanity looked at the full glory of God.

Hebrews chapter 11, last verse says, our God is a consuming fire. So God certainly veiled his glory, but Moses and God have an intimate relationship. Now here's the point that I want you to see in this. Moses had a place away from Israel where he could be quiet and meditate. He had a place that was his special prayer place, his place that he met with God.

This is what struck me about this aspect of our lesson this week, that unless you have a place with God where you meet with God face to face, that is where you have your place where you have a personal intimate relationship with God, Unless you have that place, you're going to be spiritually barren. Before I get up in the morning, I remember this statement in the book, Steps to Christ, consecrate yourself to God each morning. Make this your first work. So before I get out of bed, before my feet hit the floor, my first waking thoughts are, God, today, I want to be your man. God, today, I consecrate myself to you.

God, today, let every thought of my mind, let every word that comes out of my mouth, let every action that I do be in harmony with your will. The tent of meeting was a place where Moses met God. Do you have your tent of meeting? A place where you can meet God. Here, it says, we must not confuse the tent of meeting built outside of Israel's camp with the tabernacle.

No, they're 2 different things. The sanctuary is different. But this is a special prayer place that Moses had. We don't know how often Moses consulted with God in the Tent of Meeting. However, 1 thing we know for sure, Moses' encounters with God resulted in a close friendship with God and him.

A friend is a person we can consult and openly discuss most anything with and trust that he or she will never reveal it to others. A friend is 1 of the nicest things to have, 1 of the nicest persons to be, sure. God and Moses were friends. God invites you to be his friend and to have your special place called the tent of meeting. We go to Monday's lesson that I may know you.

Exodus 33, verse 12 to 17. Exodus chapter 33 is a chapter of intimacy. It's a chapter that God is calling Moses to be heart to heart, mind to mind, soul to soul with him, Moses and God became soulmates, you see. Exodus 33, verse 12 to 17. Then Moses said to the Lord, "'See, you say to me, bring up this people, but you've not let me know whom you will send with me.

Yet you have said, I know your name. You've also found grace in my sight." Isn't that amazing? Moses said, God, I know you've said to me, I know your name. God knows your name. He has not only named all the stars, but he knows your name.

He knows the circumstances of your life. He knows the struggles that you face. He knows the joys that thrill your soul. God knows your name. And notice Moses found grace in God's sight.

We've found grace in God's sight too, haven't we? We failed him many times. We've fallen and stumbled, but God picks us up, sets us on the right road. We live not in our feebleness, but in his strength. Verse 13, now therefore I pray, if I found grace in your sight, show me your way that I may know you, that I may find grace in your sight and consider the nation as your people.

God speaks to Moses, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest." Moses is looking for a deeper relationship with God. He's met God at the tent of meeting. They have had a relationship together, but Moses longs for something deeper. Moses longs for a broader, fuller, richer relationship with God. So that's why Moses prays.

And Moses says to God, "'If I found grace in your sight, show me your way, "'that I may know you, that I may know you.'" Remember what Jesus said in John 17 verse 3, this is life eternal, that you may know God. This is life eternal. Life eternal is knowing God. It's having a personal relationship with God. It's knowing that God's presence is with you every moment of your life.

Here, in Monday's lesson, we read in the first paragraph under the lesson, the last sentence, Moses was aware of his deep need to understand God on a new level. Now the next sentence, he discovered that the more he knew God, the more he did not know him. Isn't that interesting? The more he knew God, the more he didn't know him. The closer you draw to God, the more you see the depth of his love, the majesty of his grace, the beauty of his character, and the more you want to probe those depths even more.

He recognized his need and wholeheartedly desired to know him better. God willingly granted Moses' wish. By looking at the experience of Moses so far, we can observe how Moses was drawn into a deeper, intimate relationship with the Lord and how he grew spiritually. God wants to draw us into a deeper relationship with him. The thing that God longs for more than anything else is that his children know him.

Christianity is all about relationship. You know, when God created the human race in the Garden of Eden, he gave them 2 institutions, marriage and the Sabbath. What is marriage all about? It's about a relationship with our spouse. It's about a relationship with our children.

It's about our relationship with the extended human family. That's what it's all about. It's about relationships. What is the Sabbath all about? It's about our relationship with God, knowing him intimately, knowing him personally.

So at creation, we see that God is a God of relationships. Relationships with 1 another on a horizontal level, relationships with him on a vertical level. And so we are constantly being drawn by God as believers, as Christians, into deeper relationships with him. In Tuesday's lesson, Moses says to God, God, show me your glory. First paragraph under that, after the golden calf apostasy, Moses interceded for God's people, wanted to be assured that the Lord himself would continue leading them to the promised land.

Deep down within his being, he also wanted to know the Lord better. So he says to God, show me your glory. Look, look at Exodus 33, verse 18 to 23, 18 to 23. Scripture says, and he said, please show me your glory. Then he said, I'll make all my goodness pass before you.

"'I'll proclaim the name of the Lord before you. "'I'll be gracious to him, I'll be gracious, "'and I'll have compassion upon whom I'll have compassion.' "'But, ' he said, "'you cannot see my face, "'for no man shall see me and live. Wait a minute, earlier it said that Moses all got face to face, no? That face to face, remember what we said, was an expression declaring they had an intimate relationship so God says, but I will tell you about my character, Verse 22, So it shall be while my glory passes by that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and will cover you with my hand while I pass by. But I will take away my hand and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.

What is God's glory? According to this passage, God's glory, verse 19, I'll make my goodness pass before you. God's glory is his goodness. He is a good God. He is a good God.

Gracious, merciful, kind, compassionate, understanding, loving. God's grace reaches out to us. God's glory is his goodness. Here, Ellen White, in the book of Acts of the Apostles, page 530 says, it is the glory of God to give his virtue to his children. He desires to see men and women reaching the highest standard.

His glory is to embrace repentant sinners and supply everything needed to change them. At the same time, it's our glory to reveal his character in our own lives to make it known to others. The reflection of God's character, his goodness, his kindness, and tender love can be seen in all of our actions. You know, and isn't it that goodness of God, Scripture says in Romans chapter 2, that leads us to repentance? In Wednesday's lesson we read about the self-revelation of God.

What do we mean by this self-revelation of God? Here in Exodus 34 verses 1 to 28, we'll just pick up a couple of those verses. We read about Moses again, And God has to reestablish the 10 Commandment law because you remember Moses took the tablets and threw them when he saw the Israelites worshiping the golden calf and he broke the tablets. And here God rewrites those tablets on tables of stone. But God says something different in Exodus 34, 1 to Moses.

He says, the Lord said to Moses, cut 2 tablets of stone like the first ones. And I'll write on these tablets, the words that were on the tablets, which you broke. So Remember the first time God provided the stone and God wrote on it. This time God says, Moses, you broke those tablets. Bring 2 tablets to me.

You cut them out of the mountain and I'll write on them. What's the significance of this? We broke God's law. We turned our backs on God. Isaiah 59, verse 1 and 2, sin separates you from God.

We've been separated from God. And God said, bring the stony tablets of your heart. Bring the brokenness of your life. God says, you come to me, and I'm gonna write the principles of my law in your life again. I'll write the principles of my law in your heart and in your mind.

This is the covenant that I make with Israel, that I'll write my law, Hebrews 8, verse 10 to 12, I'll write my law in their heart. What does it mean he's gonna write his law in our heart? He writes his law in our heart so we love it. I'll write my law in their heart, I'll write my law in their mind. What does it mean he writes his law in our mind?

He writes his law in our minds that we know it. We know what God wants us to do because we've seen his revelation in his word and we love what God wants us to do. We've come now to love righteousness and hate sin. All we want to do is please Jesus. And so here we come bringing our hearts, bringing the brokenness of our lives to him.

And God reveals himself to us, just like he revealed himself to Moses as we come humbly to present our lives to him. It says verse 6 and 7, Exodus 34, the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, the Lord God merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the third and fourth generation." So God reveals himself in his character, drawing us to him. Listen, Moses was now prepared for his glorious insight, this glorious insight into God's character. This is the second paragraph under Wednesday's lesson. The beauty of God's character is best explained in this stunning self-revelation of himself.

It's the most important description of who God is in the whole Bible. It is the golden thread woven through the Bible. The Lord's proclamation here is the John 3.16 of the Old Testament. In crucial places, biblical authors apply, repeat, or expand on this self-proclamation of the living God because God's character must be correctly understood. Unless you understand the character of God, you have no motivation to serve him.

Tens of thousands, no not tens of thousands, Millions of people in this world believe that God is arbitrary, that God is an unrighteous judge, that God is a harsh dictator, that God isn't some authoritarian ruler, if indeed they would say he exists at all. But the Bible picture is different. According to scripture, the Lord God is merciful. According to verse 6 of Exodus 34, he is gracious, he's long-suffering, he abounds in goodness and truth. He keeps mercy for a thousand generations and reaches out in forgiveness.

This is the God we serve. His mercy, love, and grace are on 1 side of the coin, but his justice and righteousness are on the other side of the coin. And so God is a God of love, but he's also a God of justice. Because if he lets sin go on forever, the sin is like a cancer that would destroy the whole body of the human race, the whole human family. But who is this God that we serve?

He's the God that reveals his goodness to us that transforms our lives. Moses comes off that mountain with a shining face. Exodus 34, verse 29 to 35, verse 29. Now it was so when Moses came down from Mount Sinai in the 2 tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mountain, that Moses did know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him." The shining face. Can you think of any other place where the Bible mentions a shining face?

Sure, if you go over to Matthew 17, the Mount of Transfiguration, it says, Matthew 17, verse 1 and 2, "'Now after 6 days, Jesus took Peter, James, "'and John his brother, brought them up on a high mountain "'by themselves, and was transfigured before them. "'His face shone like the sun, "'and his clothes became white as the light." And behold, Moses and Elijah, Moses resurrected from the dead, tells Jesus that if you're faithful and you go to the cross in love, that multitudes, millions will be resurrected from the dead when you come. And what does Elijah say? Elijah must have said, Jesus, When you come again, many like me will be translated to heaven without ever seeing death. Jesus' face is shining as the sun.

Jesus comes into the presence of God in an intimate, close-in relationship and his face shines as the sun. Moses comes into an intimate relationship with God, and his face shines as the sun. There is something different about the man or the woman that comes into the presence of God. Their eyes sparkle. There's a joy in the soul.

There's a smile on the face. Life does not overwhelm them because they have been in the presence of the life giver. The problems of life that they face do not crush them because they have been in the presence of the problem solver. The challenges of life do not demolish them because they have been in the presence of the Christ who has overcome every challenge. In the presence of Christ, we experience life in all of its abundance.

The self-revelation of God in Christ, In the New Testament, where Jesus reveals God's goodness, his kindness, his mercy, his compassion, his grace coming to this Jesus, we too have lives transformed and are changed into the image of Jesus. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, however weakly we reflect your image, we long to reflect it more. We long that your grace, your goodness, your mercy, fill our hearts and change our lives. Lord, at times we don't reflect your image fully.

We're sorry about that. At times we reflect our humanness in our attitudes and our actions. We're sorry about that. We confess our sin and we ask that we could draw closer to you, that we could come into the tent of our meeting and have intimate fellowship with you, so by your grace our lives could be changed. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Series

Sabbath School 3rd Quarter 2025: Exodus

12 Please, Show Me Your Glory

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

01 Oppression: The Background and the Birth of Moses

22m

02 The Burning Bush

22m

03 Rough Start

24m

04 The Plagues

25m

05 Passover

25m

07 The Bread and Water of Life

22m

08 Covenant at Sinai

27m

09 Living the Law

26m

10 The Covenant and the Blueprint

27m

11 Apostasy and Intercession

23m

12 Please, Show Me Your Glory

23m

13 The Tabernacle

22m

Sound Doctrine