We all know the sun will burn our eyes if we try to look directly at it. Sometimes it can cause eye damage just from over exposure to UV rays reflecting off sand or water. The power of the sun is incredible.

Multiply that exponentially to imagine what seeing God would do to our eyes. Moses begged to see God’s glory, but was bluntly denied the right because he couldn’t handle it. He would have died (Exodus 33:20). But isn’t that contradicted by Moses having seen God on Mount Sinai and talking to him face to face in the tent of meeting? No, the appearances were accommodative to man. In other words God appeared in a non-lethal form. Moses confirms this because despite those previous visions he was begging to see God’s form. He knew he hadn’t “seen” God. Certainly not fully or directly.

Despite those glorious events nothing compared to the coming of Jesus. He was the unveiling of God and the glorious image into which we are being transformed. It may hurt, but it’s worth it.