The desire to see God, to hear His voice, to have some tangible evidence of His presence with us is deeply human. When we are consumed by our failures, our doubt, our trials and tragedies, we yearn for the assurance that God is with us—that He really is there, that He sees us, and that He won't leave us. It is a longing that echoes throughout all of human history.
We see it in Moses' story in Exodus. Moses has led his people out of captivity, but now they are frightened and uncertain. They’ve grown restless in their waiting. And so, instead of trusting in the unseen God who parted the sea so they could walk into freedom, they craft a golden calf to worship—something they can see and touch.
The people have sinned and Moses is afraid. He is desperate for assurance that when he leaves this place, God will go with him. God had already made the promise, but Moses wanted something tangible, something in which to anchor his faith. In Exodus 33:18, Moses makes his request explicit: “Show me your glory,” he begs.
And God grants his request—but perhaps not in the way Moses expected. He tells him, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence” (Ex. 33:19). But what Moses see's has a limit. God says, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live” (Ex. 33:20). Moses asks to see God's glory, and God answers by showing Him His goodness and declaring His name. God is teaching Moses, as He is teaching us, that the only anchor for our faith is His character.
He sees God's goodness, but he cannot see His face. And so the longing remains—not just Moses' longing, but ours. If only we could see God. If only we could know His presence. If only we could look upon the One whose goodness, mercy, and compassion we desparately want to know. Then, we will believe.
Centuries later, John opens his Gospel with an astonishing declaration: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). The God Moses longed to see was here. The One who had revealed His glory through words and glimpses had now entered the world bound in human flesh. And John tells us that in Jesus, we have seen God's glory.
This is what makes the story in John 9 so remarkable.
When Jesus encounters the man who has been blind from birth, he notices him. A man so commonly overlooked, I imagine Jesus' attention was a little startling. And what does Jesus do? He declares who He is and He shows us His goodness. He proclaims, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5) and then He restores the man's sight.
For the first time, an overlooked man is seen, and is given the gift of sight. He sees the face of Jesus, he looks at the goodness of God, and he realizes who is looking back at him. Later, he responds to Jesus with faith and worship.
Remember what God told Moses about His glory: goodness, mercy, compassion.
In Jesus, God's character is no longer an abstract idea or a promise. Instead it is here, walking among people, stopping for the overlooked, touching the broken places of human experience, and bringing light where there was darkness. As Hebrews 1:3 puts it, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.”
This is what God's glory looks like.
The man, once blind, now sees God. Meanwhile, others who can see with their physical eyes remain blind to who Jesus is.
Chapter 9 invites us to ask, what does it really mean to see? What do I really need to see to anchor my faith?
Moses asked, “Show me your glory.”
And in Jesus, God answers fully.
If you find yourself yearning to see God this week, to know without a doubt that He is with you and will never leave you, no matter what you're walking through today, open the pages of the gospels. Behold the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ, and know, that in seeing Him, you've seen the Father. Anchor your faith in His goodness.
The invitation of John 9 is not simply to marvel at the miracle of a blind man receiving sight. It is to open our own eyes and recognize the glory of God standing before us in the person of Jesus.
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