Seeing the Glory:
The Foundation, the Cleft, and the Covering
Moses asked to see God's glory — and God said yes. But there were three conditions. Lance Lambert on what Exodus 33 reveals about how any of us can draw near.
"Behold, there is a place by Me." The Father says to us, 'Behold, there is a place near to Me.' The only way a man can see the glory of God and live is in Christ. That is the only way.
— Lance Lambert
What the Lord said to Moses was very wonderful. He said, "No man has seen my face and lived," but look in verse 21: "Behold, there is a place by Me." Isn't that beautiful? The Father says to us, there is a place near to Me. The only way a man can see the glory of God and live is in Christ. That is the only way.
There are three things. The first is this: the foundation.
One: The Foundation — Stand Upon the Rock
Look at it, "Thou shalt stand upon the rock." Why is it that the Lord cannot show you and me His glory sometimes? It is because we have not got the foundation under our feet. There is a lot of sand between our feet and the rock. You remember the two men who built their houses, one on the sand and one on the rock? When you read the Matthew 8 account (verses 24–27) it looks as if they just built two houses, one here and a few miles away another house. However, when you read the account in Luke 6:48–49, you find the two houses were side by side. One man built on the sand. The other man, "dug deep," it said, down to the rock underneath the sand, and built his house upon the rock.
Now, my dear friend, you and I can build on the subsoil of our own life. We can build on the subsoil, if you like, of our own flesh, of our own nature, of our old man. You can easily do that. There is no foundation. Those two houses appeared exactly alike. They were probably both clean, both quite sweet looking, both well cared for, both with nice curtains and all the rest of it looking as in a kind of Western contemporary way. Outwardly, they were perfect. They were the same. No one could see which one had the foundation till the storm came. The wind blew. The floods came. The house that was built on the rock stood. The house that was built on the topsoil of sand collapsed.
"For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ."
Thou shalt stand upon the rock. What does God's Word say? Well, in I Corinthians 3:11, we read these words: "for other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Now then, if you and I are going to have our prayer answered, our feet have got to be upon the rock of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We all think we are on the foundation — and so we are, in a general area. But are our feet on the rock, or on the sand above it? You may have the most glorious superstructure, but when the flood comes, it sweeps it away. The question is: are there yards of sand between you and the rock?
Two: The Cleft — Life Hid with Christ in God
The second thing very swiftly you will find in Exodus 33 is that not only will you stand upon the rock, but "it shall come to pass while My glory passeth by I will put thee in a cleft of the rock." You know, you have got another wonderful picture there. If you and I are to know the glory of God, we must know our life hid with Christ in God.
"For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God."
We have got to know and experience Christ as our life — to know what it means to have a hidden life, hid with Christ in God. In other words, it is not just an outward thing. Our Christian life is not ourselves. It is Christ. It is the life of God in us.
If the Lord wants to change us from glory to glory, there has not only got to be a discipline, there has got to be an experience. Our feet have to be down upon Christ Himself — upon His finished work and all that He has won for us, not our own works, but His. Do you know what it is to be crucified with Christ? Do you know what it is, really, to have died?
When you are hidden in Christ, covered with Christ, robed with Christ, and Christ is not only without but within as well — there shall be glory.
Three: The Covering — God's Hand Over You
The last thing is verse 22: "and I will cover thee with my hand." What an extraordinary thing — His foundation beneath our feet, His life within, and now His hand over us. His protection.
Do you and I realise that when we ask to see more of the Lord, when we ask for some deeper experience of Him, how we need to be covered? Do you realise that you and I are in enemy territory? Do we realise we are in a world that lieth in the evil one? Do we realise that there is one who is called the prince of the powers of the air, whose spirit worketh in the sons of disobedience?
Every time you and I have more of Christ, every time we receive more of Him, every time He increases and I decrease, we are a marked people. We stand out from a mile away, spiritually. You can be quite sure that every time you ask the Lord for something more, the enemy is there to rob you of it. We need covering.
Show me, I pray Thee, Thy glory. There is a place near to Me. Thou shalt stand upon the rock.
— Exodus 33, paraphrased by Lance Lambert
The Glory of God
Lance Lambert's complete study on Moses' request, the three conditions for seeing God's glory, and what it means that you were made to be His dwelling place.
Questions & Answers
According to Lance Lambert from Exodus 33, the three things are: (1) standing on the rock — the foundation of Jesus Christ; (2) being hidden in the cleft of the rock — our life hid with Christ in God; and (3) being covered by God's hand — His protection as we walk in enemy territory.
Lance Lambert teaches that standing on the rock means having our feet firmly on Jesus Christ as our foundation — not on the topsoil of our own nature, gifts, or talents, but down through it all to Christ Himself. Two houses may look identical outwardly, but only the storm reveals which one is truly on the rock.
Lance Lambert teaches that being hidden in the cleft of the rock means knowing our life hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). It is not just an outward thing — our Christian life is Christ Himself. We must know what it is to have a hidden life, to be crucified with Christ.
Lance Lambert teaches that every time we receive more of Christ, we become a marked people in enemy territory. The enemy comes immediately to rob what God has given. We need God's covering hand — His protection — so that what He works in us is preserved and not stolen.
Lance Lambert explains that the inner person of God — His actual presence — is so powerful it would destroy even a redeemed child of God if exposed too suddenly. God is a consuming fire. What Moses and we touch are only the fringes of His ways, the outskirts of His being.
Lance Lambert
Lance Lambert was one of the most distinguished Bible scholars and speakers in Israel in our day. He had an itinerant teaching ministry worldwide.
Born in 1931, Lance grew up in Richmond, Surrey and came to know the Lord at twelve years of age. In the early 1950s he served in the Royal Air Force in Egypt and later fellowshipped with the assembly at Halford House Christian Fellowship in Richmond, England.
Later in life, Lance discovered his Jewish ancestry — his father and many members of his family had died in the Holocaust — leading him to become an Israeli citizen in 1980, making his home next to the Old City of Jerusalem. He became noted for his eschatological views, placing him in the tradition of Watchman Nee and T. Austin-Sparks.