Exodus 33:18 - Exposition

Show me thy glory . The glory of God had been seen by Moses to a certain extent, when God "descended in fire" upon Mount Sinai ( Exodus 19:18 ). It had been seen with more distinctness when he was called up and "went into the midst of the cloud" ( Exodus 24:18 ). But he felt, nevertheless, that he had not as vet really beheld it. He longed for that ineffable blessing of the full "beatific vision," which is promised to us after death, if we die in the faith and fear of Christ ( 1 Corinthians 13:12 ). "Increase of appetite doth grow by what it feeds on"—and the veiled splendours that he had been allowed to see only made him hunger the more for the unveiled radiance that he had not seen as vet.