When God Answers “Not Yet”: Waiting for Glory

Waiting is one of the hardest spiritual disciplines. Perhaps because it rarely feels like a discipline at all. It feels passive. Empty. Unproductive. We are taught to pray, to ask, to seek. But when the answer does not come quickly or comes differently than expected; we struggle to understand what God is doing in the silence.

Scripture, however, tells a different story. Over and over, God works through delay. Promises unfold slowly. Requests are answered in ways that only make sense days, weeks, decades; or in the case are about to explore, centuries later. And sometimes, the answer is not denied at all. It is simply postponed until the moment when God’s greater purpose can be revealed.

Few biblical lives illustrate this more powerfully than the life of Moses.

Lost Access in the Garden

The story begins where all human longing begins: the Garden of Eden.

Genesis describes a world where God walked with humanity. After Adam and Eve sinned, Scripture records that they “heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3:8). This portrays something intimate and unbroken: God and man sharing space, presence, and fellowship.

That closeness did not survive the fall. Adam and Eve were driven out, and cherubim were placed at the east of the garden with a flaming sword to guard the way back (Genesis 3:24). Humanity lost more than a location. We lost access.  We lost direct, unfiltered communion with God.

From that moment forward, Scripture carries a quiet ache: Will we ever see Him again?

Moses: Near, but Not All the Way

Centuries later, Moses emerges as a singular figure in Israel’s history. Scripture says something about him that is said of no one else:

“And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.” Exodus 33:11 (KJV)

This is extraordinary language. Moses speaks with God as a friend. There is no mediator. No veil. No angelic buffer. And yet, only a few verses later, we encounter an apparent contradiction.

When Moses asks, “I beseech thee, shew me thy glory” (Exodus 33:18), God responds:

“Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.” Exodus 33:20 (KJV)

Moses is close but not close enough.

Scripture itself forces us to understand “face to face” as relational, not visual. Moses experiences direct communion, but not full revelation. He speaks with God, but he does not see Him.

God’s response to Moses’ request is instructive. He does not rebuke Moses for asking. He does not dismiss the desire. Instead, He provides a partial answer.

God places Moses in the cleft of a rock, covers him with His hand, and allows him to see only His “back parts” as He passes by (Exodus 33:22–23). And rather than showing Moses His face, God declares His name, His mercy, grace, and faithfulness (Exodus 34:6–7).

Moses asked to see glory. God allowed him to hear it. Can Moses see the face of God? Not yet.

Two Things Moses Was Never Allowed to Do

As Moses’ life unfolds, Scripture becomes very clear that there are two things he is never permitted to experience.

First, he is not allowed to see the face of God. Second, he is not allowed to enter the Promised Land. After Moses strikes the rock instead of speaking to it as commanded, God says:

“Because ye believed me not… therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.” Numbers 20:12 (KJV)

 At the end of his life, Moses stands on Mount Nebo and looks across the land he has spent forty years leading people toward but never enters (Deuteronomy 34:4).

This is where many of us would expect the story to end. Moses dies. The promise remains unfulfilled. The door appears closed. But Scripture often leaves stories unresolved on purpose.

A Promise That Looks Forward

Before Moses dies, God speaks a promise that reaches beyond his lifetime:

“The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee… like unto me.” Deuteronomy 18:15 (KJV)

The New Testament explicitly identifies this Prophet as Jesus (Acts 3:22; Acts 7:37). Whatever Moses experienced; his access, his limitations, his longing. This coming Prophet would fulfill and exceed.

God does not always finish His work within a single lifetime. Sometimes the answer to a prayer is carried forward by promise.

Glory Finally Revealed

When John opens his Gospel, he echoes Genesis intentionally:

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory…).” John 1:14 (KJV)

This is not accidental language. Humanity lost access to God’s presence in the garden. Now, God Himself dwells among humanity again. John continues:

“No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son… he hath declared him.” John 1:18 (KJV)

This echoes Exodus. God once declared His glory verbally to Moses. Now, God declares Himself fully through His Son. Jesus is not merely a messenger of God’s glory. He is the glory.

The Image God Always Intended

The second commandment forbids making an image of anything in heaven or earth (Exodus 20:4). Scripture does not explicitly state the reason but the New Testament later reveals something astonishing.

Jesus is called:

• “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15)

• “the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3)

This compels me to believe that God forbade images because He would one day provide the true Image Himself. Humanity was not permitted to create a likeness of God, because God intended to reveal Himself perfectly, in His own time, through His Son. Waiting was built into the design.

The Mountain Where Waiting Ends

Then comes the Transfiguration. Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a mountain. What they see is unlike anything recorded before:

“And his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.” Matthew 17:2 (KJV)

They are seeing the glory of God not hidden behind a hand, not declared in words, but shining openly in the face of Jesus Christ. And then, two men appear:

“There appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.” Matthew 17:3 (KJV)

Moses! The man who asked to see God’s glory and was told not yet. The man barred from the Promised Land.

Scripture does not name the mountain. Some traditions say Mount Tabor; others suggest Mount Hermon. The Bible itself doesn’t say explicitly. But what matters is this: it is within the land Moses was once forbidden to enter.

Centuries after his death, Moses stands in the Promised in the presence of the Glory of God, revealed in the transfigured face of Jesus Christ.

Not God’s back. Not a partial revelation. But the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ.

God’s Timing Is Not Ours

Scripture does not explicitly state that the Transfiguration fulfills Moses’ earlier exclusions. That conclusion is theological, not textual. But it is deeply consistent with the way God works.

Moses asked. God answered later. Moses waited. God remembered. Moses died without seeing the fulfillment, but God was not finished. Sometimes God’s answers outlive us.

Learning to Wait Well

This is where the story meets us.

We pray for things that seem good, holy, even righteous. We ask for clarity, healing, restoration, resolution. And sometimes, the answer is not no, but not yet.

Waiting is not wasted time in God’s economy. It is often where trust is refined and faith is deepened. What feels like silence may be preparation. What feels like delay may be intentional design.

Moses waited longer than most of us can imagine. But God did not forget his request. He answered it fully, beautifully, and in a way Moses could never have anticipated.

God keeps His promises. Sometimes He just keeps them longer than we expect. And when He does, the glory is worth the wait.