Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 33:12-13

12 And Moses said unto the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight.

13 Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.

When God said that He would lead the Israelites indirectly, by the hand of an angel, and that He would personally be removed from them, the people had become despondent. So now Moses spoke for them, presenting their plea to the Lord. Moses says that he does not know this angel. Moses knows the Lord, and the Lord knows him and calls him by name, and the Lord has said that Moses has His grace. This is an appeal to friendship, to closeness, to trust within a relationship.

But is it an appeal to have God deny justice, to turn a blind eye to the Israelites’ transgression, and restore them to good graces simply for old times’ sake? No. In verse 13 Moses shows great humility as he asks to be shown a “way,” and the opportunity to “find.” He is saying, “we have fallen away from thee, but if there can be a path back to you, we will do the work to follow it.” He is looking for a way that the Israelites can make amends.

This is an excellent example of true penitence. The penitent man does not ask for his wrong to be expunged, he asks for a way to make it right. He does not say, “forget my debt,” he says, “let me work my debt off.” The remarkable thing about God is that often the only price He asks of us is that willingness to do whatever He asks. We become ready to make our journey back to Him, and as soon as we take our first step, we find Him already right there with us. As we will see tomorrow, the same grace occurs in this instance with God and the Israelites, where they will receive forgiveness as soon as they are willing to work for forgiveness.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 33:11

11 And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.

The closeness between Moses and the Lord is remarkable. We have not heard of anyone on such equal footing with the Lord since Abraham, whom God met with directly and invited counsel from.

At the end of this verse, it talks about Moses exiting the tabernacle, but the following verses seem to go back to describe the conversation that just took place. It may be that this is the transition between two different accounts that had been given of the same event.

Apparently, Joshua came with Moses into the tent. Whether he was within the veil and also face-to-face with God is unspecified, though when Moses was up in the mountain it sounded as if Joshua was a bit withdrawn from the meeting with the Lord, so my assumption would be that he was not inside of the veil, but in an adjoining room. Apparently, after the conversation in the following verses and Moses’s departure from the tabernacle, Joshua remained behind in the tabernacle. For what purpose, we do not know.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 33:7-10

7 And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.

8 And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle.

9 And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.

10 And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door.

After God had warned that His immediate presence would spell destruction to the people, Moses pitched the tabernacle separate from the rest of the camp. What exactly the tabernacle constituted of at this point is unclear, as clearly the Israelites had not created the portable structure that had been revealed to Moses in the mountain.

Whatever the tabernacle comprised of, though, it was to remain at a safe distance from the camp, and Moses alone would approach it as he and God continued to work on the problem of Israel’s betrayal. The people were despondent at the Lord’s removal from them, and as the peoples’ representative, it was Moses’s obligation to discuss this matter with the Lord.

This idea that Moses went on behalf of all the people is further reinforced by the fact that each person stood and watched him from the door of their tents. Clearly, each of them was going with him in spirit. All of them bore witness to the presence of the Lord made manifest by the cloudy pillar, and all of them worshipped towards that Lord as Moses entered in with Him.

Thus, symbolically, all of Israel went into the tabernacle with Moses, all of them beseeching for His mercy, all of them offering Him a place in their midst once more.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 33:4-6

4 And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments.

5 For the Lord had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.

6 And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.

God had agreed to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land, and drive out their enemies, but said that He would do so through an angel now, instead of personally dwelling among them. His instruction for the Israelites to remove their ornaments while He considered “what to do unto thee,” further reinforced the limbo of their situation. Rather than rejoicing at the positive aspects of God’s message, the Israelites took the more somber parts very hard.

Perhaps the Israelites would still be under the guidance of the Lord, but they were acutely aware of what had been lost. They were going to be guided by a steward now, rather than the King Himself, and that caused them to mourn.

This depressed uncertainty is well represented in the people removing their ornaments, meaning all of their jewelry and precious adornments. They were returning to a state of plain, unvarnished humility. Only by returning to their most basic state, with nothing earthly to get in the way, would they have any chance of reconnecting with the Lord.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 33:1-3

1 And the Lord said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it:

2 And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:

3 Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way.

Some of the idolatrous had been slain, presumably the most rebellious, and others had been visited with a plague. Now the Lord assures the Israelites that He will, in fact, continue to guide them to the Promised Land. The potential destruction had been averted, and they would have a chance to still obtain their promised blessing.

But even as God reassures them, it is clear that things are not the same as they were before. Originally, God had expressed His intention to live in the midst of His people, with the tabernacle pitched in the center of the camp. Now, though, he rescinds that, choosing instead to lead them indirectly, via an angel. He explains that if He were to come in their midst now the people would be destroyed.

I believe it misses the mark to read this as God having a grudge and that He would smite the people out of any sort of petty indignation. Rather, it is a recognition of how the glory of God has both a glorifying and consuming power. We are kept at a distance for our own good, because being in God’s presence before we are ready would destroy us, like a moth in the flame. Israel had shown that they were not able to abide God’s closeness, and so they would be led from a distance until they were ready to draw nearer. So, too, we tend to follow God tentatively, following what simple principles we have the capacity to adhere to, gradually increasing in our ability to live a higher law.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Encouraging vs Demoralizing

Part of parenting is inviting our kids to become better, to challenge them beyond their limits so that they grow and know that they can grow. At the same time, we also need to be careful that we don’t put unrealistic or ill-fitting expectations on them that can breed resentment or demoralize them. It’s a fine line to walk, and worth considering how it can be managed. In fact, it is worth considering how God, Himself, manages to walk it with us so that we can learn from His example.

As I’ve pondered these questions, the answer that has come to mind is that it all comes down to how well one knows their child. Not how well they know who they wish their child was, but how well they know who the child actually is. God is so good at getting the best out of us because His knowledge of us runs straight to our core. He even states that, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee,” (Jeremiah 1:5). He has a perfect understanding of our trajectory and can run through it to a point that lays naturally ahead of us, saying “this is who you were born to become.”

The mistake that too many earthly parents make is that we already have our child’s trajectory determined in our hearts before we even met them. We have chosen an arbitrary point of our own making, and we still require the child to meet it.

Put another way, whereas God holds up a vision of the child as his genuine best self, we too often hold up a vision of a made-up person that the child is not aligned with and will only hurt himself in trying to become. This latter approach sends a message of, “this is who you are not, and that’s a problem.”

Since God already holds the perfect perspective of each child’s natural trajectory and potential, we can never come to better vision for our child than His. Our ability to lead our child correctly will be entirely based on our own alignment with God. It will be by standing in the place where He is that we will have the proper perspective to see how to make our children flourish and not be discouraged.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Breadth of All Good

God is all good, but does that make Him all-merciful or all-just? He must be both, or else He would only be half-good. It should therefore come as no surprise that we see examples of both forgiveness and retribution in the Bible. Sometimes God shows mercy, perfectly. Sometimes He demands justice, perfectly.

When we stand before God’s throne in the next life, and He assigns us a judgment either to our damnation or exaltation, it will be a judgment that is perfect. In that day we will know that His decision is right, and we will not have any basis to say that He was too lenient or too strict.

There are even cases in the Bible where God showed an openness to both justice and mercy, as they were each apparently an appropriate outcome for the situation. Thus, we have the extending of Hezekiah’s life, the sparing of the Israelites after they made the golden calf, and the redemption of Nineveh. God was apparently inclined to have things go another way, but in His all-goodness could allow for a different path. Probably many of us are in that same middle area, where both God’s mercy and His justice could rightfully claim us. It is to our advantage to use this time to our advantage, to try and secure the side of God’s goodness that we desire.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 32:26-29

26 Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord’s side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.

27 And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.

28 And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

29 For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves to day to the Lord, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.

Continuing with the symbolism of the divine from above touching mortality below, we see in today’s verses how these moments call for the drawing of a line. The situation has come to an impasse, and one cannot try to stand with a foot in each side any longer. One must by chosen. “Who is on the Lord’s side?” Moses asks. Now that the people had sufficient time to choose sin or virtue, who would hold their dignity? All of Levi answers the call and they are given the command to march forth and cut down the rebels.

The command to go to battle is very sharp and direct. Even a neighbor, or a companion, or a brother was not to be spared. If a man chooses God, then he is to choose Him above any other. This may seem a hard thing, difficult to consider given that we live isolated from God while establishing more tangible connections to those we live with. But the more we mature, the more we see that it is the intangible ideals of good and right and truth that matter most, and we develop our deepest devotions to them.

We look around us today and we see that there is no such immediate judgment being carried out upon the wicked. Those that defy God still prosper, and those who are prone to straying see no clear line in the sand that must not be crossed. That doesn’t mean that the God of judgment and retribution has ceased to exist, though. These things come in times and seasons. People are left to ripen, and then the harvest comes, either for glory or destruction. There will be another time of reckoning, and we ought to live so that we will find ourselves on the right side of it.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 32:9-10

9 And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

These are some interesting verses, showing God with a singular intent, and in the next verses we will hear how Moses dissuaded Him from it. Does this mean that God’s plans were not set in stone? How does this sort of behavior stack up to the Christian teaching that God is always right and can always be trusted? How can He be all-merciful if Moses is showing a greater degree of mercy than He is?

We’ll examine several aspects of these questions over the next couple days as we consider each batch of verses. For today I will address two of these issues, starting with the question of whether or not God’s plans are set in stone. How could His plans and promises be fulfilled if He destroyed the people He had intended to save?

An explanation for this is that there can be multiple acceptable paths by which the Lord is able to accomplish His purposes and promises. Either He could continue to strive with the children of Jacob, or He could cut them off and raise the children of Moses to receive the Promised Land instead. Obviously, either path would fulfill His promises to Abraham and the Israelite people as a whole.

As for the matter of whether God was all-merciful or not, I would say that this story illustrates that God is all-good. Justice is good. Mercy is good. God is able to execute perfect justice, and He is also capable of showing perfect mercy. Many of us are not so versatile. We are either very good at showing mercy, but weak at standing up for justice, or else we are good at maintaining justice, but struggle to show mercy. In the course of these verses, we see God’s openness to both, which is a testament to His full breadth of goodness.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 32:7-8

7 And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:

8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

From God’s summary of the goings-on down below we can see that His view is perfectly clear, for He gives explicit detail on how the people had corrupted themselves, even reciting the specific words that Aaron said when presenting the golden calf.

I see this conversation as being representative of God’s observance of humanity throughout all time. How many times have there been similar conversations in the halls of heaven as God and His court consider the ways that mankind has gone astray down below? In the time of Noah? Before the coming of Christ? Still yet-to-come before the second coming? It is quite a privilege to us that Moses was elevated to take part in this instance so that we could receive an account of it.

The role that Moses served in this moment is symbolic of the Son of God, communing with the Father above and then being sent down to resolve the sins of the people. The nature of the Israelites, and indeed of all the world, is to go astray. We receive blessings and freedom, we appreciate it for a time, but then we give in to sin and try to find our own way to the promised land. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way,” (Isaiah 53:6).

For a time, God permits us to run riot, but eventually there must come a time of divine intervention and reckoning. As in the time of Noah, God was just about ready to reset the entire enterprise, as we will see in tomorrow’s verses.