Exodus 33. Leaving Sinai

The Command to Leave Sinai

The 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.’ ² I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ³ 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.”

• God is leading them to the Promised Land but with the potential of His presence not being there. Is it worth it to Israel?
• God says that He will send His angel, which a lot of scholars have assumed is a manifestation of Himself (as He says in Exodus 23 that His name is in the angel and the angel had the ability to forgive), but God says He would not be there.
  • Is this a different angel then?

⁴ When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. ⁵ For 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 what to do with you.’” ⁶ Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

• Ornaments: The Hebrew word used is עֶדִי (ʿedi), which refers to decorative items such as earrings, necklaces, bracelets, etc.
  • In Exodus 35 it says that the people of Israel strip their jewelry for the building of the Tabernacle.

The Tent of Meeting

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.

• We now have a tabernacle of meeting – used before the official tabernacle was built

 ⁸ Whenever 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. ⁹ When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. ¹⁰ And 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.

• Moses is leading by example, and Israel is finally following.

 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.

• “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” AHHHH! How cool is that.
  • Numbers 12:8 expands on this “ With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord…” This is different than how God sometimes speaks to prophets. This was direct speech from God.
    

Moses’ Intercession

¹² Moses 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.’ ¹³ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your 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.” 

• Moses now asks WHO will help lead them to the Promised Land.

¹⁴ And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” ¹⁵ And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. ¹⁶ For 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?”

• God clearly states He will be with them and give them rest. Moses says that they would rather be in the wilderness with God than the Promised Land without God.

¹⁷ And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” ¹⁸ Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 

• This seems bold of Moses to ask, but I can see it as Moses wanting the ultimate closeness with God. Dont’ we all?

¹⁹ And he 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. ²⁰ But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” 

• 1 John 4:12  “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.“
•  1 Timothy 6:16 “…who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”

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. ²³ Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

• What does the face of God look like in His full glorious form? Do we still get such glimpses today?
• Elijah met God in 1 Kings 19 at Horeb. Could it have been the same place??
  • Remember they are the two standing on the mountain during the Transfiguration.