The Wednesday after the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on November 12, 2025 by under
Scripture: Exodus 33:11-17 (NKJV)
33:11 So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.
12 Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ 13 Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.”
14 And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”
17 So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”
Devotion
Moses asked God that he might see Him in His full glory. The Lord responds that no one can see Him face to face and live. Therefore, the Lord put Moses in a cleft of the rock, and passed by him while covering his face with His hand. Moses could see His back, but could not see His face. This shows how far above us the righteousness of the Lord God is. Moses, who was a firm believer, and spoke to God as a man speaks to a friend, was still unworthy to see the full glory of the Lord.
How much more unworthy are we, according to our sinful flesh, to see the Lord God. Many believers in the Lord God have desired to see Him face to face, just like Moses. This is why our Lord takes upon Himself our flesh, and comes down from heaven to us. We can see God in our flesh in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus. What cannot be seen by the man of the Law now can be seen by those who have faith in the Gospel, in the redemption found in the Lord Jesus. We can now see God face to face when we hear and believe all that is spoken of Him in his holy Word and the blessed Sacraments. There we meet the Lord God, who is our Lord Jesus.
Collect: Almighty God, we beseech Thee, show Thy mercy unto Thy humble servants, that we who put no trust in our own merits may not be dealt with after the severity of Thy judgment, but according to Thy mercy; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
