17 Then Yahweh said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight, and I have known you by name.” 18 Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” 19 And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of Yahweh before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” Exodus 33:17-23 (LSB) Read verses 20-23 on the site.
The passage above takes place after Israel’s idolatry with the golden calf (Exodus 32). Moses is seeking assurance from God that He would not utterly destroy Israel but would go with the people and remain with them to continue to make them a set apart people from other nations (Exodus 33:12-16)….
God did assure Moses that He would not abandon them, but then Moses made this remarkable request of God–he asked to see His divine glory in vv17–18.
What does this show us? When I was a younger, not very mature Christian I really did not have an understanding of what Moses was asking here or why. This request is incredible for several reasons and it has taken many years for me to come to an understanding of this. If you grew up in American Evangelicalism as I did then you probably have had the same issues with this that I did.