Exodus 33

Exodus 33:1

3. The Repentance of the People (33:1-6)The Lord refused to accompany the sinful Israelites on their journey to Canaan, lest He be compelled to destroy them on the way. Instead, He would send an Angel as His representative. When the people heard this bad news, they mourned and stripped themselves of their ornaments, such as had been used to make the golden calf, and never wore them from Mount Horeb onward.

Exodus 33:7

4. Moses’ Tent of Meeting (33:7-11)The tent mentioned in verse 7 was not the tabernacle, which had not yet been erected, but a provisional tent pitched by Moses and called here “the tabernacle (tent) of meeting.” Individuals who desired to seek the Lord could go there, outside the camp. The camp itself had been defiled by the sin of the people, so the tent was situated outside. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud descended, indicating God’s presence. Verse 11 cannot mean that Moses saw God in His essential being. It simply means that he had direct, face to face, unhindered communion with God. It is worth noting that Joshua, then a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle. Perhaps this was the secret of his later spiritual success.

Exodus 33:12

5. The Prayer of Moses (33:12-23)33:12-17 Moses asked for God’s presence to lead His people to Canaan. Then the Lord graciously promised that His Presence would go with them. Moses insisted that nothing short of this would do. Like Noah, Moses had found grace in the Lord’s sight and received his request. “Safety does not consist in the absence of danger but in the presence of God.” 33:18-23 Next Moses asked for a sight of God’s glory. God replied by promising to reveal Himself as a God of grace and compassion (see Exo_34:6-7). Moses could not see God’s face . . . and live, but he would be permitted to stand on a rock while God’s glory passed by, and he would see an appearance of God’s back. This is figurative language, of course, since God does not have a body (Joh_4:24). As Hywel Jones put it, “Moses is to see the afterglow which is a reliable indication of what the full splendor is to be.” No one can see God’s face and live (v. 20). This means that no one can look upon the unveiled glory of God; He dwells “in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see” (1Ti_6:16). In that sense, no one has seen God at any time (1Jo_4:12). How then do we explain passages in the Bible where people saw God and did not die? For example, Hagar (Gen_16:13); Jacob (Gen_32:30); Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel (Exo_24:9-11); Gideon (Jdg_6:22-23); Manoah and his wife (Jdg_13:22); Isaiah (Isa_6:1); Ezekiel (Eze_1:26, cf. Eze_10:20); John (Rev_1:17). The answer is that these people saw God as represented by the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes He appeared as the Angel of the LORD (see Judges 6 for a discussion of this doctrine), sometimes as a Man, and once manifested Himself as a Voice (Exo_24:9-11; cf. Deu_4:12). The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has fully declared God (Joh_1:18). Christ is the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His Person (Heb_1:3). That is why He could say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (Joh_14:9).