3041 TIE GLORY OP C$RIST AS GOD -MAN. his request ; for the Lord said, verse 21. " Behold the'eis it place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock. Verse 22. And it shall come to pass while my glory passeth by that Iwill put thee into a clift of therock, and I will cover thee with my hand whileI pass by. Verse 23. And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen." And accordingly in Ex. xxxiv. 5. " The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. Verse 6. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimedtheLord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long - suffering, &c. And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped. Verse 14. And the Lord said, thou shalt worship no other God, for the Lord, Jehovah, whose naine is Jealous, is a jealous God. It is possible that these expressions of God's covering Moses with his hand while the glory of God past by, and Moses seeing the back parts of God, may signify no more than this, that in this particular appearance of God he arrayed himself in beams of light of such unsuffcrable splendor,' that it would have destroyed the body of Moses had not God sheltered and protected him and that the back parts which Moses saw, may only signify this same bright appearance after it was gone to a saferdistance. Orwe may suppose that there wasa human form in this appearance, dartingunsufferable light from his face, which for that reason could not be seen ; and that Moses saw the simi- litude of the back of a man, after he was past to some distance from him. It is not improbable but that in some of the other discoveries of God toMoses he might appear in the eyes of Moses in a hu- man formwith a bright, but not insufferable shine ofglory cover- ing all his stature, even as the face of Moses himself might ap- pear in the eyesof the children of Israel, when the skin of his face shone, so much that they were afraid to come nigh him ; Exod. xxxiv. 30. And there is a great probability of it if we Consider, that God said concerning Moses; .Num. xii. 8. the si- mililudeof the Lord shall he behold, that is, God in the figure of a man, though not his face. God had promised in Exod. xxix. 42. " That at the door of the tabernacleof the congregation I will meet with the chil- dren ofIsrael, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory." This promise was accomplished; Exod. xl. 34. " When the tabernacle was erected, then a cloud covered the tent of the con- gregation, and the gloryof God filled the tabernacle. Ver. 35. And Moseä was not able at that time to enter into the tabernacle 1 III Of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord tilled the tabernacle." Levit. ix. 1, 4. " Moses called Aaron and his sons and the
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