"And he said, ‘Please, show me Your glory.'

Then He said, ‘I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.' But He said, ‘You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.' And the LORD said, ‘Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock.'" (Exodus 33:18-22)

"For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.'"(Romans 9:15)

"For great is the glory of the LORD. For though the LORD is high, He regards the lowly."  (Psalm 138:5-6, ESV)

          If I were to ask you to sum up the Bible in one word or two, what would your answer be? Would it be "love"? Although this might seem like wisdom and right philosophy in this day, it is not the right answer. The Bible is all about glory, or, to be more precise, God's glory. The Bible is all for God's glory; it is about God's glory being manifested. This is the message the Bible gives when summed up to its most fundamental point. All of life and existence is centered on God's glory. Nothing escapes this reality. The story of redemption is ultimately for the display of God's glory. In John 12:27-28, Jesus says, "For this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify Your name."

          With that said, you might be able to see why we started with the story in Exodus 33. Moses asked God to show him His glory. The thing to notice is that Moses did not ask for an explanation. He just asked God to show His glory. Yet, what we have here is God giving Moses an almost out-of-place explanation of something. When God says, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious," it seems oddly forced. Because of this, we need to observe that what God is saying here is of the uppermost importance. I really can't stress this enough. What we see in this story is God taking the careful time to explain to Moses what makes Him so glorious. God is telling Moses the most fundamental aspect of what it means for Him to be God.

            From the statement "I will have mercy on whomever I have mercy," we can gather two glorious, fundamental truths about who God is. First is the fact that God is absolutely sovereign over everything. That means everything, including human decisions (see Proverbs 16:1 and 21:1). God says here that He has absolute control over everything, and He defines His control in such a way that we see it as a completely free control, without being contingent or influenced by anything outside of Himself. This is what it truly means to have sovereignty, and God is the only one who has it. Every human being is either a slave to sin or to God's superior beauty, as Romans 6 tells us. We have no idea what it means to have sovereignty without being influenced by anything outside of ourselves. This singular glory belongs to God and to God alone. This sovereignty includes His supremacy over all of creation-providence, nations, peoples, and yes, even the choices made by people. God is the happy God ruling over all as He wishes (Ps. 135:6).

          The second thing this passage points out is mercy. God declares that He is a God who shows mercy, kindness, love, compassion, and grace. As 1 John 4:8 points out, "God is love." God doesn't love because He needs love in return. God loves because He is love. That's just the kind of God He is. He loves because that is who He is. In other words, God's love is a totally free, sovereign love. It is influenced by nothing outside of Himself. If God's love was influenced by outside factors, then God would be bound to things outside Himself. Instead, God's love is the absolute free expression of His own heart.

            If this is not enough to prove to the reader that sovereignty and mercy are the two basic foundations that God declares makes Him glorious, we will look at more proof from the same conversation between Moses and God.

            Exodus 34:5 says, "And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth."

            Here, God passes by Moses and proclaims His name. What we see are two glorious truths. First, God's sovereignty and supremacy are seen in the words, "The LORD, The LORD God." Notice that God repeats His name twice. This is very important for us to understand. The Hebrew language emphasizes a word's importance by repeating it. God wants us to know that He is Lord over all. He is God and has complete lordship over everything.

          The second truth in this verse is that of God's mercy, which is seen in the words, "merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth." I would also like to point out a third element which I will not be covering extensively in this book, but which I would like to mention. This is the word "truth." Oh, what hope and peace the believer has in knowing that with perfect wisdom and knowledge God will execute His grace and mercy through His complete power and control. God has all the truth and wisdom and counsel to make His promises sure. He will work everything for good in the believer's life. To know God as absolute truth is hope, true hope.

            God is glorious because He is kind with His sovereignty. God is glorious because He is merciful, loving, and gracious in His absolute control over everything, and He orchestrates all things in perfect harmony and wisdom.

            When I use the words "mercy" and "sovereignty," I am using them as general terms to cover many specific traits. For example, when I say "mercy," you may also include love, kindness, grace, and so on. When I say "sovereignty," you may include God's supremacy, power, and wisdom as well. One goal I have in using these terms is to help people see the Bible through a truer and simpler lens. I know that trying to understand the Bible is at times hard, and "sovereignty and mercy" are very deep words. If looking at God sometimes makes your mind's eyes cross due to the depth of who He is, that is a good thing. We should be there quite often! But to help us out, it's also good to see God the way He told us to in Exodus 33, which is simply to say that He is sovereign and merciful. He rules all heaven, earth, people, angels, kingdoms, powers, events, choices, desires-everything seen and unseen, with love, kindness, grace, and compassion. His scepter is a scepter of might and His hand is a touch of love.

            Just in case there are those who believe that this isn't enough, I will provide more evidence. Look at Matthew 11:25, NASB: "I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants." It would serve you well if you found out the one and only time Jesus Christ "praised the Father." What we see in this verse is God praising God. The question is, what is God praising Himself about? We see exactly the same thing we saw in Exodus 33 and 34. I hope this is sounding off bells in your mind and heart right now. If you really see what is being said here in Exodus, Romans, and Matthew, you will begin to see your God for who He really is. Maybe for the first time, you will see who this "Father of glory" (Eph. 1:17) really is. We can see the supremacy of God's sovereignty in the words, "You have hidden these things from the wise" and the supremacy of God's incredible mercy in the words, "...and have revealed them to infants." God keeps the mystery of His gospel of grace from the wise and mercifully gives it to the poor, despairing, and helpless. We saw in Exodus the Lord God declaring the nature of His glory. In Matthew we see God declaring His passion for His glory and supremacy in the same way. (See also Romans 3:21-26, where God is "just and the justifier.")

            This truth of God's being both the Sovereign Lord and the Compassionate Savior is also sung about in the Psalms, with thanksgiving.

            Psalm 100

Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!

 Serve the LORD with gladness;

Come before His presence with singing.

 Know that the LORD, He is God;

It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;

We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

And into His courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

 For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting,

And His truth endures to all generations.

             Lastly, I would like to direct your attention to Psalm 138:6, ESV, which says it about as plainly as it gets: "For great is the glory of the LORD. For though the LORD is high, He regards the lowly."

            Here we are given a direct definition of why God's glory is so great. It is because He is high, yet He is merciful to the lowly. In other words, although God is transcendently sovereign and infinitely high above all His creation, yet He is kind and merciful to His enemies, even dying for them on a cross. In God's words, not mine, we are told what makes God so glorious. He is high above all things, yet He regards the lowly. He is the Lion and the Lamb ( Rev. 5:5-6). Never has so beautiful an abundance of true excellence dwelt and met so perfectly together in one being as it does in Him: "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John. 1:29), Jesus Christ, the "King of kings" (Rev. 17:14).

            Also, note Romans 3:25-26, where we are told that "God set forth [Christ] as a propitiation by His blood... to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." Thus, what is displayed in the cross of Jesus Christ is nothing other than God's transcendent lordship as He rules perfectly by being just and also being the justifier, for to justify in this case is done only through the mercy and grace produced by Christ's being a sacrificed lamb. This is why the prophet Isaiah records, in Isaiah 45:21, "...and there is no other God besides Me, a just God and a Savior; there is none besides Me." Here, our God is describing why there is no other beside Him, and the reason we get is that He is a "just God and a Savior." God is infinitely set apart from all others and deserving of all praise and admiration because He is the transcendent, just God, and a merciful, loving Savior to those He chooses.