Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Exodus 33:18-19
John Piper, in a sermon titled, “I Will Be Gracious to Whom I Will Be Gracious” says:
God’s Glory and God’s Name
Moses asks to see God’s glory. God proclaims to him his name. In other words, if you grasp the name of God, you have seen his glory. God is not playing games with Moses when Moses cries out, “Show me your glory!“ and God answers, “This is my name!”
“The names of God are the manifestations of his glory.
The name in verse 19 is Yahweh, the same name we saw last week (the LORD, in your versions). But this time the name is given a different explanation, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.”
In Exodus 3:14 the name Yahweh was explained with the words, I AM WHO I AM. Here it is explained with the words, I WILL BE GRACIOUS TO WHOM I WILL BE GRACIOUS. Notice how these sentences are both built in the same way. In Exodus 3:14 the focus was on the existence of God—that he is what he is without anything outside himself determining his personality or power. In Exodus 33:19 the focus is on the gracious action of God—that he does what he does without anything outside himself determining his choices. This is what God reveals about himself when Moses asks to see God’s glory.
The Glory of God Is His Sovereign Freedom
Therefore, I would draw out this doctrine for us this morning: It is the glory of God to be gracious to whomever he pleases apart from any constraint originating outside his own will. Or another way to put it would be that sovereign FREEDOM is essential to God’s name.
God is utterly free from the constraints of his creation. The inclinations of his will move in directions that he alone determines. Whatever influences appear to change his will are influences which ultimately he has ordained. His choice to show mercy to one person and not to another is a choice that originates in the mystery of his sovereign will not in the will of his creature. And Exodus 33:18–19 teaches us that this self-determining freedom of God is his name and his glory. If God ever surrendered the sovereignty of his freedom in dispensing his mercy, he would cease to be all-glorious, he would no longer be Yahweh, the God of the Bible.
Knowing God through His Word ... Day by Day 