Chapter 33

Chapter opens with God telling Moses to leave Sinai, to move on to the land God has been promising since Abraham left Ur of Chaldees.  The time is here.

Here's an interesting verse:

Go 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."

Exodus 33:3 ESV

God would still keep His promises, but be could not tolerate such people on a day to day basis.  God will keep His promises, though He cannot be this close to sinners such as these.  Are we this way today?  When we come to know Jesus, and then we revolt and turn back to the old ways, or become complacent with our pet sins, or we're just chronic complainers, does God decide to keep His promise that gets us into heaven, but He is not be as close to us as He would really like to be?  Do we forego the blessings he would like us to have because we're just too stubborn to turn our lives truly over to him?  We have salvation, but we never go much further?  Are we (Am I???) the ones at the judgement seat who have nothing but stubble, nothing to show for the grace God shows?  We still get into heaven but our crowns are small?  We're in, but we have missed so very much in this life.

Possible FB post...I like the thought, there's something about this, about dedication in this world being necessary to receive the true riches of God's blessings - and Israel missed out on it!.  See below also.  This doesn't turn out to be the case.

God orders the people to strip off all their ornaments.  MSB says this was like donning sackcloth and ashes.  It showed their understanding, even their mourning, that God was not going to be with them on the way, because their sin separated them from him.  Like David after Bathsheba!  God was still with David, but not in the way it could have been.  Even the saved can experience an imposed distance from God if sin becomes dominant in their lives!  This is the lesson!

At this time, the tent of meeting is always set up outside the camp.  Moses goes to the tent to speak with God.  When Moses goes in the tent, the pillar of cloud descends on the tent.  The people watch from camp, and they know when the cloud descends that God is right there, talking face to face with Moses, and they worship at this time, because God Himself is right there!  This verse:

11 Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent. [Exo 33:11 ESV]

I don't believe that anyone else ever has this privilege of talking face to face with God.  Perhaps Adam, pre-fall.

Moses intercedes for the people.  As I read it, He talked God out of not traveling with the people, saying that if God would not be with them, they might as well not go.  Moses says they'll just be another nation, another mob of wanderers, unless God Himself accompanies them.  And God agrees to Moses' request.  So that FB thing....maybe I have that wrong...

Is Jesus now our intercessor?  Though God cannot be around us in our sins, yet Jesus intercedes for us on every hand, and so we are blessed despite our sinful ways?  This is much more difficult than it at first appears.

2021 - It is also here that we get the story of God placing Moses in the cleft of the rock, covering him with His hand, and then passing by and letting Moses see only his back.  The chronology is a little bit unclear.  They seem to still be at Sinai, though there is much talk about moving on to Canaan.  I seem to recall that they will be here for another book or two before they finally set off for Canaan.  So this cleft of the rock may have been on Sinai itself.  Almost has to be, in fact.  But still, the phrasing of vs 7 is a little odd:

7 Now 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. And everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. [Exo 33:7 ESV]  The tent has not been constructed yet, but is referred to here in past tense.  So we really don't know where or when this "seeing the back of God" took place.  MSB talks about what maybe Moses saw - and states that Moses himself never described what he saw to anyone.  MSB describes vs 7 as meaning that BEFORE the tabernacle was built, Moses would set his own tent up well outside the camp, and so meet with God there.  This was during the time when God was unwilling to go near the nation of Israel lest he outright destroy them, as they so richly deserved.  It was during this time, when Moses was meeting with God outside the camp, and Moses was interceding for the people outside the camp, and trying to get God to relent and indeed travel with them in the camp, that Moses asks to see God more clearly, and the cleft of the rock thing takes place. 

Now think of this....Moses met with God, and convinced God to relent and to visit His people and be constantly with them once again, at a location OUTSIDE the camp.  Jesus was crucified OUTSIDE the city of Jerusalem, as a way of convincing God to relent of being separated from us all so that we can now approach him directly.  The veil tearing was God accepting the atonement of Christ in our place.  Moses is a type of Christ in the way that he interceded for the people, in the unique relationship he had with the people, and in the regard that God Himself had for this intercessor.  So on previous readings, I clicked that there was something very significant about this chapter of Exodus, but it was only this year, in 2021, that it finally starts to truly unfold so that I can see what is here.  How much more will I find next time!?  The scapegoat is going to tie right into all this.  Moses intercession brought God from outside the camp into the camp, but the veil still separated Him from the people, because sin was not yet wholly paid for.  But Jesus, being the perfect sacrifice, brought God out from behind the veil - as the Holy Spirit - not to just live among us, but to live inside us! 

Possible FB post

2022 - Moses was in every way "of" the people.  Jesus was in every way a man.  Moses' relationship with God was as a favored son.  Jesus was in every way God's Son.  Moses dealt with the sin of his people from outside the camp.  Jesus dealt with the sin of all people from outside Jerusalem.  Moses walked and talked with God based on the unique relationship they had.  Jesus also had a special relationship with his Father.  This gave them both insight into God's will and ways.  Moses succeeded in bringing God into the camp with his people, though still separated by the veil.  Jesus brought God to all mankind as evidenced by the tearing of the veil.

2023 - Put these verses together...and what do they tell us:

11 Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent. ... 20 But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live." 21 And the LORD said, "Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory 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. [Exo 33:11, 20-22 ESV]

How are we to understand that Moses and God talked "face to face" - that's the quote, and then just a  few verses later, God says TO MOSES "man shall not see me and live".  So...who was Moses speaking to in that tent???  Was it Christ?  The two intercessors speaking directly with each other.  Oh my!!!!  The Transfiguration...Moses, Elijah, and Jesus.  Here in this tent, Moses and Jesus...But if we go here, why is Elijah added later?  Perhaps because he was required to come before the Messiah...He had to be there to verify that this was the Messiah.  THIS is how Moses knew in the OT that Jesus was going to come, as referenced in Hebrews I think it is.  AND, if this is Moses, and Jesus, then on the mountain Moses, Jesus, and Elijah, I think we have a very strong argument that the two witnesses in Revelation are Moses and Elijah, just before Jesus comes for the second time.  Wow.  Just Wow.