Exodus Chapter 33 Deep-Dive: Moses and the Glory of the Lord

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EXODUS CH 33

1The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ CHANGE IN TONE FROM GOD … THE PEOPLE WHOM YOU (MOSES) HAVE BROUGHT UP … GOD’S STILL FURIOUS WITH THEM. 2 I will send an angel GENERIC ANGEL, A WARIOR & PROTECTOR, BUT – DIFFERENT FROM YAHWEH’S ANGEL – HIS PRESENCE … before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 3Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” A QUICK REMINDER THAT GOD IS THE MOST DANGEROUS PERSON IN THE UNIVERSE … “LEST I CONSUME YOU ON THE WAY”

REMINDER – MOSES WAS ON THE MOUNTAIN 40 DAYS BEFORE THE PEOPLE CREATED THE GOLDEN CALF.

• IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THAT YAHWEH CALLS THE LEADERS UP THE MOUNTAIN Ex 24:9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.

• IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THAT YAHWEH SAYS TO MOSES Ex 23:20 “Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. 21 Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. (NOW HE COULD FORGIVE YOUR SINS … BUT HE WON’T … BECAUSE YAHWEH’S “NAME” IS IN HIM … DIFFERENT FROM ANY OTHER ANGEL) 22“But if you carefully obey his voice THE ANGEL’S VOICE and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. 23 “When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, 24you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. 25You shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you. 26None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. THIS IS THE SPECIAL “ANGEL OF THE LORD” WHO SHARES AUTHORITY WITH YAHWEH … THE PRESENCE OF GOD IN A PHYSICAL FORM WHICH MAN CAN SEE AND STILL LIVE … JESUS MAKING AN APPEARANCE

BACK TO CH 33:2 I WILL SEND AN ANGEL … BUT I WILL NOT GO UP AMONG YOU. MOSES NOTICES THIS DIFFERENT TONE FROM GOD AND HE PASSES THAT THOUGHT ON TO THE PEOPLE …

4When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. 5For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know (DECIDE) what to do with you.’” 6Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward. IT’S TIME TO REPENT – IF GOD HAD ABANDONED HIS PEOPLE HE WOULD NOT HAVE SPOKEN TO THEM … JEWELRY WAS AN ANCIENT WAY TO KEEP TRACK OF YOUR WEALTH AND TO USE IT TO MAKE YOURSELF MORE ATTRACTIVE – THIS IS AN ACT OF HUMILITY & REPENTANCE

The Tent of Meeting – SIDEBAR IN THE NARRATIVE – THIS IS MENTIONED TO REMIND EVERYONE THAT MOSES HAD A VERY SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP WITH YAHWEH

7Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. THIS IS NOT THE TABERNACLE … THIS TENT IS WHAT MOSES WAS USING BEFORE SINAI AS A PLACE TO MEET WITH YAHWEH, AND WHAT HE WILL CONTINUE TO USE UNTIL THE TABERNACLE IS CONSTRUCTED … THIS SECTION HAS MOST LIKELY BEEN WRITTEN TO REMIND THE READER OF THE PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP MOSES HAD WITH YAHWEH BEFORE SINAI. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. THE TABERNACLE, ONCE IT’S BUILT, WILL BE THE CENTER OF THE CAMP 8Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. 9When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud (HOLY SPIRIT – THE SPIRIT/BREATH OF YAHWEH) would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. 10And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. 11Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. AN ABSOLUTELY AMAZING SCENE, A PICTURE OF THE INTIMACY GOD WANTS WITH HIS PEOPLE. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent. JOSHUA HAD A FRONT ROW VIEW OF MOSES’ RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD … GOD IS PREPARING JOSHUA TO BE MOSES’ SUCCESSOR.

BACK TO MOSES INTERCEDING WITH YAHWEH Ex33:12Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ IS MOSES ASKING … WHAT ANGEL WILL YOU SEND WITH ME? IF YOU’RE NOT GOING … WHO IS IT … WHAT’S GOING ON? 13Now therefore, if I (MOSES) have found favor in your (YAHWEH’S) sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” 14And he (GOD) said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (YAHWEH CHANGES HIS MIND) 15And he (MOSES) said to him (TO YAHWEH – PRESSING THE POINT) “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” JUST A PLAIN OLD “ANGEL” GOING WITH THEM ISN’T ENOUGH … MOSES IS INSISTING THAT “YAHWEH” MUST GO WITH THEM … THE THING THAT SETS THEM APART IS THE PRESENCE OF GOD WITH THEM.

17And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for (BECAUSE) you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” (JOHN CH 10:14 I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD, AND I KNOW MY OWN, AND MY OWN KNOW ME) MOSES HAS INTERCEDED FOR THE PEOPLE AGAIN – AND YAHWEH HAS RESPONDED, YES, MY PRESENCE WILL GO WITH YOU.

18Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” MOSES IS WORSHIPING AND IS ASKING FOR SOMETHING VERY DANGEROUS … MOSES IS SAYING … SHOW ME MORE!! REMEMBER, JUST 40-60 DAYS BEFORE THIS (EX 24) MOSES AND 70 OF THE LEADERS OF ISRAEL HAD EATEN A MEAL WITH GOD ON MT SINAI!! 19And he (YAHWEH) 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 (SOVEREIGNTY). 20But,” he said, “you cannot see my face (YAHWEH’S GLORIOUS SPIRITUAL ESSENCE … HIS PRESENCE), for man shall not see me (MY PRESENCE) and live.” THIS IS A PROBLEM, IN VERSE 11 THEY WERE SPEAKING FACE TO FACE NOW GOD SAYS NO MAN CAN SEE ME AND LIVE ? … MOSES SPEAKS FACE TO FACE WITH YAHWEH’S ANGEL, JESUS, AND ALSO BETWEEN YAHWEH AND MOSES DIRECTLY … CAN’T SEE MY FACE AND LIVE … NINE VERSES APART, SO, THERE’S A PERSON YOU CAN SEE, AND LIVE, AND STILL BE TALKING DIRECTLY TO GOD … THE ANGEL / MESSENGER / SON / SPOKESPERSON / PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE … OF YAHWEH 21And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22and while my glory (MY PRESENCE) passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

GOD APPEARED TO MOSES ABOUT A YEAR BEFORE THIS, AS AN ANGEL IN THE BURNING BUSH ON MT SINAI – THIS THEOPHANY, OR APPEARANCE OF GOD, IS DIFFERENT – THE APPEARANCE OF YAHWEH HIMSELF IN HIS GLORIOUS HEAVENLY PRESENCE WHICH NO MAN CAN SEE AND LIVE (ELIJAH 1 Ki 19:9-18, Abram Gen 15:17-18)

TURN TO ISAIAH TO SEE THE ANGEL OF GOD’S PRESENCE CONFIRMED – GOD APPEARING IN HUMAN FORM SO MAN CAN SEE HIM AND LIVE, AND THE TRINITY IN THE OLD TESTAMENT … Is 63:7 I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord (YAHWEH), the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them according to his compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love. 8For he said (AT THE BEGINNING OF THE EXODUS), “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely.” And he became their Savior. 9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence (JESUS) saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. 10 But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them. 11Then he remembered the days of old, of Moses and his people. Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in the midst of them his Holy Spirit, 12who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting name, 13who led them through the depths? Like a horse in the desert, they did not stumble. 14Like livestock that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. So you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name.

JESUS – THE GLORY OF GOD IN PHYSICAL FORM Jn 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15(John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God (YAHWEH); the only God (JESUS), who is at the Father’s side (YAHWEH’S SIDE), he (JESUS) has made him (YAHWEH) known.

Jn 5:46 JESUS SPEAKING … For if you (ISRAELITE PHARISEES) believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.

ISRAEL HAS BEEN AN ABJECT FAILURE SINCE LEAVING EGYPT, OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN … THE PEOPLE OF GOD RIGHT IN THE MIDST OF SPECTACULAR SIGNS, WONDERS AND MIRACLES … DEMONSTRATE UNBELIEF AND REBELLION … HOWEVER, THE ISRAELITES WERE NO WORSE THAN ANYONE ELSE … THIS IS A PICTURE OF US - HUMANITY.

AND THAT WILL WRAP UP EX CH 33 – WHICH IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT CHAPTERS IN THE WHOLE BIBLE

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