How do we come to know God?
Not merely know things about Him, but truly know Him.
Moses knew that God was powerful. He had seen the plagues in Egypt and the waters of the Red Sea part before him.
Moses knew that God was faithful. He had watched the Lord lead His people out of slavery and towards the Promised Land.
Moses knew that God was jealous for His people. The very first commandment forbade the worship of other gods.
And Moses knew that God was just. He had seen Pharaoh judged and had received the Law on Mount Sinai.
Then the people sinned.
They committed perhaps the gravest sin Moses could imagine. At the foot of the mountain they made a golden calf and worshipped it. Gold to express their love of wealth. A bull calf to express their love of power. Revelry to express their love of pleasure.
What is a powerful, jealous, and just God to do?
The Lord’s anger burned against the people. “Leave me alone,” He said to Moses, “that I may consume them. Of you I will make a great nation.”
Moses stood between God and the people.
He pleaded for mercy. He reminded God of His promises. Finally, he offered himself in their place:
“If you will not forgive them, blot me out of the book you have written.”
Moses was willing to hand himself over for the sake of his sinful brothers and sisters.
Later, Moses asked, “Show me your glory.” And the Lord passed before him proclaiming His name:
“The Lord, the Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness.”
Moses knew God was powerful. He knew God was faithful. He knew God was just.
But now he discovered something more.
He discovered that God is merciful.
And how did he come to know this?
Not from a lesson. Not from a book. Not even from a homily.
He came to know God’s mercy when he entered into God’s work of mercy. When he offered himself for others. When he stood in the breach.
We often think that mercy means setting justice aside. But God cannot cease to be just any more than He can cease to be God.
The mystery of the Cross is that God fulfils justice by bearing its cost Himself.
Moses was willing to offer himself for the people, but he could not save them. He was only a shadow of the One who was to come.
In the fullness of time, another innocent man would stand in the breach. Like Moses, He would offer Himself for the guilty. Unlike Moses, He would accomplish what He offered.
The Son freely gives His life for us. Because He is one of us, His sacrifice is truly offered on behalf of humanity. Because He is God, His self-offering has infinite worth.
At Calvary, justice and mercy meet.
And there the mystery of the Trinity is revealed. Not as a philosophical puzzle to be solved, but as the deepest truth about God Himself.
The Father gives.
The Son receives and returns that gift.
The Holy Spirit is the bond of love between them.
The Cross reveals what God has always been: an eternal communion of self-giving love.
Perhaps there is some place in your life where God seems distant. A prayer unanswered. A burden too heavy to carry. A person you cannot save.
Do not be surprised if it is there, in the place where you are being asked to surrender yourself in love, that God wishes to reveal His heart.
Not because He will change.
But because, like Moses, you are finally beginning to see what has always been there.
Something has to die within us first—not to win God’s heart, but to see it. Amen.