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Moses had it rough. Can you imagine a more trying job?

First the Lord sends him to Egypt to challenge Pharaoh to release the Hebrew people from slavery. Confrontation after confrontation and ten plagues later Pharaoh relents, but only after the death of all the first born sons of Egypt.

Moses sets out leading the Israelites across the wilderness. Inexplicably, Pharaoh has a change of heart. Despite having experienced the judgment of God, he sends his army after the escaping slaves. Moses flees with the people, Egyptian chariots hot on their heels. They come to the shore of the Red Sea. Trapped!

Imagine the frustration, the disappointment, the anxiety. The people are terrified. They shake their fists at Moses. “Have you led us out of slavery only to have us die at the hands of the Egyptians?”

Imagine, to have come so far, to have endured so much, only to be slaughtered, to have their blood and the blood of their children washed off the rocks by the waves of the Red Sea. But, at the last minute the Lord shows the way of escape. He defeats pharaoh’s army, “Horse and rider thrown into the sea!”

But triumph is fleeting. Shortly after Israel escapes Egypt they begin to complain. They come to Moses complaining they are hungry. The Lord provides Manna. They come to Moses complaining they are thirsty. The Lord provides water.

Finally, Moses arrives at the mountain of God where the Lord enters into sacred covenant with them. “If you will hearken to my voice, and keep my covenant, you will be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

The people respond with a resounding, “We will!”

Finally, Moses thinks he has made it. Finally, his hard labor is over. He has completed the work the Lord had given him to do. He successfully freed the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt. He has brought them to the mountain of God, just as the Lord directed.

But then, Moses goes up the mountain to be with the Lord. He receives additional instructions on how he is to organize the people of Israel. But when he returns from the mountain, he finds the people worshiping a golden calf. Already they have broken their covenant with the Lord.

The Lord intends to destroy this “stiff-necked people.” Such unfaithfulness the Lord cannot abide. The Lord turns to Moses, and says to him the same words he said to Abraham so long ago, “I will make of you a great nation.” The Lord wants to begin his plan of salvation all over again.

Moses, exhausted, worn out, and done in, intercedes on behalf of this unfaithful, “stiff-necked people” who have fought him and argued with him every step of the way. The Lord withdraws his hand and instead extends grace yet once more to this band of babies.

Now, after all of this, in today’s reading from the book of Exodus Moses makes an appeal to the Lord on his own behalf. Moses says simply, “Lord, after confronting Pharaoh, crossing the Red Sea, tolerating the complaining, mediating the covenant, dealing with their unfaithfulness, all I ask is this. Let me see your glory.”

In response to all that Moses has done, in faithful covenant partnership with him, the Lord indeed shows Moses his glory. For Moses, seeing the Glory of the Lord, it is enough. Just seeing God’s Glory is enough to fill him with the power to continue to live in faithful covenant partnership with him.