# 13 Wedged Into Jesus

Joh 1:18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

John restates a universal truth. No one has seen God at any time. Some have come mighty close, including the disciples, but they never saw God face to face. In fact God bluntly told Moses in Ex 33:20, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live."

Moses had asked God to “Show him His glory,” and God replied, “I will make My goodness pass before you.” (Ex 33:19) Then God had Moses stand in the cleft of a rock.

Then the Bible says, “He covered Moses with His hand, thereby shielding Moses from seeing the face of God until God had passed by. The only thing Moses was allowed to see was the back of God, yet he came down from that mountain with his face aglow! Oh the goodness and glory of God!

Ex 34:29 Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses' hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.  30 So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.

I don’t think most of us really understand this “goodness” of God! God is so good, so holy, that in His presence, our sinful heart is laid bare…totally exposed, and unless God takes protective action for us, we would be goners!

Think of the prophets Isaiah’s experience in the presence of God as recorded in Isa 6:1

“ In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!" 4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 So I said: "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts." 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged."

Isaiah saw his sinfulness when he was in the presence of God. Even shielded from the holy gaze of God by the seraphim, he3 “became undone.” Only when he was cleansed of his sin by the live coal, was he able to stand.

In the case of Moses, God placed him in the cleft of a rock. He wedged him in to keep him from being completely undone!  Only the rock kept him standing in God’s presence. That rock to me, is a picture of Jesus. The only way you or I can withstand the holiness of God is to be “wedged in” the Rock, wedged in to Jesus!

Once we realize how far short we fall of the glory of God, we cannot help but see our great need for Jesus, and we cannot help but sing the old Christian hymn, “Rock of Ages!

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Cleanse me from its guilt and power.

Not the labour of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law's demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Saviour, or I die!

While I draw this fleeting breath,
When mine eyes shall close in death,
When I soar to worlds unknown,
See Thee on Thy judgement throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee..

Oh God, help me to always remember how sinful I am and how holy You are. Thank You for my only hope….Jesus.