Moses Talks with God

Bad news. After the golden calf, God said, “I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people” (33:3). The people mourned, and no one put on ornaments (33:4). A tent outside the camp. “Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting” (33:7). Open to all. “Everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting” (33:7). Anyone who wanted to pray could go. Watching Moses. “All the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle” (33:8). The cloud. “The pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses” (33:9). “All the people rose and worshiped” (33:10). Friends. “So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (33:11). Joshua stays. “His servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle” (33:11). Joshua loved being near God's presence. What we learn. Even after sin, God made a way for His people to meet Him. He wants to be known as a friend.

A crisis of presence (33:1-6). God promises the land and an angel guide, but says, “I will not go up in your midst” (33:3). Without God, the land itself is “bad news” (33:4). The people strip off their ornaments, the same kind of jewelry that made the calf, as a sign of mourning. The tent of meeting (33:7). This is not yet the tabernacle of chapters 35-40, which had not been built. It is Moses' tent, pitched “far from the camp.” Even the distance taught the people something: their sin had pushed God's presence out to the edge. A watching people (33:8-10). The people stand at their own tent doors and worship at a distance. It was a hopeful day and a sad one. God still speaks, but through a mediator, outside the camp. Face to face (33:11). “As a man speaks to his friend” describes direct, personal speech, not a vision of God's full glory, which 33:20 says no one can see and live. Numbers 12:8 makes the same point: “I speak with him face to face, Even plainly.” Abraham was called “the friend of God” (James 2:23), and Jesus says to His disciples, “I have called you friends” (John 15:15). Joshua at the tent. Moses returns to the camp, but Joshua “did not depart.” The future leader is being shaped by nearness to God.

After the gold calf, the people were very sad. God said He would not go with them. So the people took off their jewelry. Moses set up a tent far outside the camp. He called it the Meeting Tent. Anyone who wanted to ask God something could go there. When Moses walked to the tent, everyone stood up. They watched him from their own tent doors. A pillar of cloud came down at the entrance. Then God talked with Moses. The people bowed down and worshiped. God spoke to Moses face to face, like a friend. Young Joshua stayed at the tent. He did not want to leave.

Moses went into a special tent. A cloud came down. God talked with Moses. They talked like friends.

Moses' worry. Moses said, “You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me” (33:12). Known by name. God had told Moses, “I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight” (33:12). Knowing God. Moses prayed, “Show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people” (33:13). God's promise. “And He said, ‘My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest’” (33:14). Nothing without God. Moses said, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here” (33:15). He would rather stay in the desert with God than go to the promised land without Him. What makes us different. “For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us?” (33:16). Yes. “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name” (33:17). What we learn. God's presence is the best gift of all. Jesus promises, “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20).

The mediator's request (33:12-13). Moses argues from God's own words: “You have said, ‘I know you by name.’” To be known by name is to be personally chosen. Moses asks for two things: to know God's way, and that God remember “this nation is Your people.” Grace. The word “grace” (chen, say: KHEN, favor) appears five times in 33:12-17. The whole conversation rests on God's undeserved favor, not on Israel's record. “My Presence” (33:14). The Hebrew is literally My face will go. God's face means His personal presence. “Rest” looks ahead to the land and, beyond it, to the rest God gives in Christ (Hebrews 4:9-10). The mark of God's people (33:15-16). Moses refuses a land without the Lord. What makes Israel distinct is not their law or territory but God's presence with them. The same is true of the church, where Christ promises, “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20). Intercession answered (33:17). God grants the request “for you have found grace in My sight.” The pattern is important: God's people are restored because of the favor shown to their mediator. That pattern finds its fullness in Christ, in whom the Father is “well pleased.”

Moses talked to God in the tent. He was worried about leading the people. God had not said who would help him. Moses asked God to teach him His ways. He wanted to know God better. He reminded God that these were His people. God answered, “I myself will go with you.” Moses was so glad. He said they could not go without God. God's presence made them special. Without God, they were like any other people. God said, “I will do what you ask.” God said He knew Moses very well. God was pleased with Moses.

Moses asked God to come with them. God said, “I myself will go with you.” God is with us. We are never alone.

A bold prayer. “And he said, ‘Please, show me Your glory’” (33:18). Moses wanted to see God more fully. God's goodness. God answered, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you” (33:19). A limit. “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live” (33:20). God's full glory is too much for any sinful person. Safe in the rock. “I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by” (33:22). A cleft is a crack. New tablets. God said, “Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke” (34:1). God gave the covenant again. God's name. “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth’” (34:6). Longsuffering means patient for a long time. Mercy and justice. God keeps “mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty” (34:7). What we learn. God's glory is His goodness. When God showed Moses who He is, He showed him mercy.

“Show me Your glory” (33:18). Moses has heard God's voice and seen the cloud. Now he asks for God's kavod (say: kah-VODE), the weight of His presence. God answers by showing him His goodness and telling him His name (33:19). God's glory is His goodness. Sovereign grace (33:19). “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.” God's mercy is free. Paul quotes this verse in Romans 9:15 to show that salvation rests on God's mercy, not human effort. Unapproachable light (33:20-23). “No man shall see Me, and live.” Paul calls God the one “dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see” (1 Timothy 6:16). The language of hand, face and back is God describing Himself in human terms; “God is Spirit” (John 4:24). Moses sees the afterglow of glory, not its full blaze. The name proclaimed (34:5-7). This is the Bible's richest description of God's character. It begins with mercy (rachum), grace (chanun), patience, and great chesed (say: KHEH-sed, covenant love) and faithfulness. It ends with justice: He “by no means” clears the guilty. The third and fourth generations stand against “thousands”; mercy far outweighs judgment. Echoed everywhere. Israel prayed these words back to God again and again (Numbers 14:18; Nehemiah 9:17; Psalm 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2). How can God both forgive and not clear the guilty? The cross is the answer: sin is punished, and sinners are forgiven.

Then Moses asked for something even bigger. He asked to see God's glory. God said He would let all His goodness pass by. He would call out His own name. But Moses could not see God's face. No one can see God's face and live. So God put Moses in a crack in a rock. God covered Moses until His glory passed by. Later Moses cut two new stone tablets. God came down in the cloud. He called out His name, the Lord. God said He is kind and full of mercy. He does not become angry quickly. He forgives sin. Moses bowed down and worshiped.

Moses asked to see God's glory. God hid Moses in a rock. God's goodness passed by. God told Moses His name.

Moses worships. “So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped” (34:8). Moses prays. “Let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance” (34:9). A covenant again. God said, “Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels” (34:10). He warned them to worship no other god (34:14). The words written. Moses “was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights.” God “wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments” (34:28). A shining face. “Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him” (34:29). Afraid. “When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him” (34:30). The veil. “When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face” (34:33). He took it off when he went in before the Lord (34:34). What we learn. Being with God changes us. Moses reflected God's glory, and people could see it.

Covenant renewed (34:9-10). Moses' prayer uses the same word God used in judgment: “even though we are a stiff-necked people.” What was the reason for judgment becomes the reason for asking grace. God answers, “I make a covenant.” Laws repeated (34:11-26). Many of these laws repeat Exodus 23. The focus is loyalty: no covenants with the nations' gods, no molded gods (34:17), and the yearly feasts that keep Israel remembering. Idolatry was the sin of chapter 32, so worship is the center of the renewal. Who wrote? (34:27-28). In 34:1 God promised, “I will write on these tablets.” So when 34:28 says “He wrote,” it means God wrote the Ten Commandments, just as He promised. Some English Bibles, like the ICB, say Moses wrote, because the Hebrew simply says “he wrote.” Moses did write down “these words” of 34:27, the other laws God spoke. A shining face (34:29-30). The Hebrew verb qaran (say: kah-RAHN) means sent out rays. Moses' face was shining with light. Long ago an old Latin translation said horned instead, so some old paintings show Moses with horns. The veil (34:33-35). Paul explains that the glory on Moses' face “was passing away” (2 Corinthians 3:7) and says, “when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (3:16). Believers now behold “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Moses bowed down and worshiped God. He asked God to forgive the people. Moses wanted God to go with them. God made His covenant with them again. He reminded them not to worship any other gods. Moses stayed with God forty days and nights. God took care of him the whole time. God wrote the Ten Commandments on the new tablets. Then Moses came down the mountain. His face was shining! He did not even know it. The people were afraid to come near. Moses called them to come. He told them all God's commands. Then he covered his face.

Moses came down the mountain. His face was shining! He had been with God. God's light is good.