Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 33:21-23

21 And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:

22 And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:

23 And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.

In yesterday’s post I suggested that Moses’s request to see the glory of the Lord might have been in reference to an upcoming meeting between the two, not the one currently transpiring within the tabernacle. Today’s verses seem to support that idea, with God talking about placing Moses in the cleft of a rock. It doesn’t seem that geographical feature would have been present in the tabernacle, but it certainly would have been found up in the top of the mountain, which is where Moses will go immediately after this meeting.

This idea of placing Moses in the cleft of a rock and covering him with God’s hand is clearly symbolic. A cleft in the rock face is a wound in the body. There immediately comes to mind the image of Jesus Christ, pierced in the side while on the cross. We are all of us tucked within that wound, our frailty and impurity being covered by the works of Christ as Moses was by the hand of the Lord, giving us our only hope of surviving the image of God and receiving a good reward.

Even the fact that Moses was only permitted to see the back of God, and not His face, seems symbolic for our experience in following a Lord that we do not perfectly understand. We generally understand God, but certainly not in His totality. We long to see His face but feel we have only a general sense of His form. We follow according to what little we do understand, looking forward to the time when we will fully see “face to face, and shall know Him even as also we are known.“

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 33:18-20

18 And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.

19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.

20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

Moses now asks that he might see the Lord’s glory but is told that no one will be able to see His face and live. This passage is a bit confusing, because when Moses first came into the tabernacle, we were told that he spoke with God “face to face.” Some have tried to dismiss the earlier “face to face” reference as not being literal, as only meaning “forthright and openly.” That seems like an unnatural interpretation to me, though. It isn’t derived from the original Greek and only seems to be proposed to try and make amends with today’s verses.

I, however, wonder if this seeming inconsistency is actually pointing towards different degrees of divine manifestation. When Moses conversed with the Lord here in the tabernacle, did he perceive the Lord spiritually as opposed to literally? Was it something like a vision, such as Stephen had when he perceived both God the Father and Jesus Christ at the time of his martyrdom? Was Moses requesting to see God’s form in the flesh, and was learning that His presence could only be tolerated spiritually, as any physical manifestation would be fatal?

Something that supports the idea that Moses was referring to a different sort of appearance than what was going on in the tabernacle is that this was a preliminary conversation between him and the Lord. Immediately following this account, Moses will travel back up into the mountain, where he and the Lord will again confirm everything that has been agreed on here. So, given that this is the pre-agreement before the formal contract, it makes sense that it could also be a spiritual presence before the physical, and different rules would apply for each.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 33:14-17

14 And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.

15 And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.

16 For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.

17 And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that Moses appeared to be asking for a path to redemption, a way for Israel to atone for their sin and return to the good graces of God. Today we hear God’s response, and rather than requiring penance, He already says that His presence will reside with the Israelites once more.

I do not believe that God just changed His mind flippantly. As I suggested yesterday, I believe Moses and Israel’s willingness to strive again was the fundamental shift that made them able to abide God’s presence again. In my experience, God does not expect perfection of us, only a willingness to keep getting back in the saddle forever. It is not the place that we are at that matters so much as our orientation. Even if we are in bad places but have reoriented ourselves to be pointed back towards the light, then God will walk with us out of the sewers and into greener fields.

Moses continues, saying that if Israel is ever again not able to abide the Lord’s presence, then he doesn’t want to be led to the Promised Land at all. He would rather get things reoriented properly in the wilderness, then proceed only when they are ready to do so fully in the right. The Lord agrees to this plan, and indeed this would be the pattern of Israel’s journey over the next forty years. They would move forward, then they would rebel, the journey would stop, the people would reorient to the Lord, and then they would proceed again. It would transpire exactly as Moses here requested. This is why their journey played out the way that they did, it was the method that God and Moses agreed on together.

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.