The 'Glory' was the technical name for the lustrous cloud that hung
over the Mercy-seat, but here it probably means more generally some
visible manifestation of the divine presence. What Moses craved to see
with his eyes was the essential divine light. That vision he did not
receive, but what he did receive was partly a visible manifestation,
though not of the dazzling radiance which no human eye can see and
live, and still more instructive and encouraging, the communication in
words of that shining galaxy of attributes, 'the glories that compose
Thy name.' In the name specially so-called, the name Jehovah, was
revealed absolute eternal Being, and in the accompanying declaration of
so-called 'attributes' were thrown into high relief the two qualities
of merciful forgiveness and retributive justice. The 'attributes' which
separate God from us, and in which vulgar thought finds the marks of
divinity, are conspicuous by their absence. Nothing is said of
omniscience, omnipresence, and the like, but forgiveness and justice,
of both of which men carry analogues in themselves, are proclaimed by
the very voice of God as those by which He desires that He should be
chiefly conceived of by us.
The true 'glory of God' is His pardoning Love. That is the glowing
heart of the divine brightness. If so, then the very heart of that
heart of brightness, the very glory of the 'Glory of God,' is the
Christ, in whom we behold that which was at once 'the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father' and the 'Glory of the Father.'
In Jesus these two elements, pardoning love and retributive justice,
wondrously meet, and the mystery of the possibility of their harmonious
co-operation in the divine government is solved, and becomes the
occasion for the rapturous gratitude of man and the wondering adoration
of principalities and powers in heavenly places. Jesus has manifested
the divine mercifulness; Jesus has borne the burden of sin and the
weight of the divine Justice. The lips that said 'Be of good cheer, thy
sins be forgiven thee,' also cried, 'Why hast Thou forsaken Me?' The
tenderest manifestation of the God 'plenteous in mercy ... forgiving
iniquity,' and the most awe-kindling manifestation of the God 'that
will by no means clear the guilty,' are fused into one, when we 'behold
that Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.'