THE NAME THAT SPOKE ITSELF
Storyteller: Sarah Northall
St Barnabas – 3 August | St Nicholas – 10 August | St Wulstans – 17 August
Moses asks for what cannot be given: to see God’s glory. It is not a casual request. It is personal, urgent, bold. He does not flatter, does not plead — he simply asks. The conversation rests on a strange intimacy, but one that cannot flatten the distance between divine and human.
God answers with both closeness and constraint. “I will make all my goodness pass before you… but you cannot see my face.” The refusal is not rejection. It is protection. The boundary is real.
This is a story about presence and restraint. God does not appear in fire or thunder, but in a voice proclaiming mercy, patience, and covenant faithfulness. What is revealed is not an image, but a name. What is offered is not spectacle, but character.
Here, face is both longed for and veiled. The holiness of God does not erase relationship, but it sets the terms. This is encounter without collapse — a glimpse shaped by grace, and hidden for the sake of love.
Read the story in full — EXODUS 33-34
In Exodus 34, when God reveals His name to Moses, it is not distant or abstract, but full of mercy, grace, and steadfast love—a holiness that draws near. Holy, Holy, Holy lifts up that name in awe, joining the eternal worship of heaven, while Your Name brings it close, as a prayer of trust spoken over our lives. Together, these songs hold the mystery and intimacy of God’s presence—majestic and merciful, exalted and near.
