CHAPTER 33

(1491 B.C.)

THE JOURNEY

¹And the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, you and the people which you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I swore unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto your seed will I give it (the host, according to the command of the Lord, will now start toward the Promised Land; however, the unbelief which brought about the golden calf would also shut the door to entrance into the Promised Land; that generation would die in the wilderness, and take 38 years to do so; so their sin delayed the Plan of God, as all sin delays the Plan of God):

²And I will send an Angel before you; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite (the Lord never said that the Promised Land would be free of enemies, but He does promise victory over those enemies; regrettably, Israel, as we will later see, did not believe Him):

³Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of you; for you are a stiffnecked people: lest I consume you in the way (to have the Presence of the Lord is the greatest thing in the world, unless the Believer decides on a wrong direction; that being the case, that Presence, which is meant to bless, will instead destroy).

CONSECRATION

⁴And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments. (Due to their great sin, the Lord wanted them to know that this was no time for festivities, levity, or decorations. In other words, they must take the matter very seriously.)

⁵For the LORD had said unto Moses, Say unto the Children of Israel, You are a stiff-necked people: I will come up into the midst of you in a moment, and consume you: therefore now put off your ornaments from yourself, that I may know what to do unto you. (In essence, the Lord was telling the Children of Israel that what Pharaoh could not do, He could do in a moment.)

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

THE TENT

⁷And 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. (The Hebrew word used here is ohel, which means tent, and should have been translated accordingly. The Hebrew word for Tabernacle is mishkan, which was not used here. Moses moved his own tent outside the camp, because the main Tabernacle had not yet been built.)

⁸And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the Tabernacle (tent), 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. (The Lord telling Moses to take his tent outside of the Camp was really an act of Grace. Had it remained in the Camp, judgment may very well have fallen on the people.)

⁹And 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 (the cloudy pillar denoted the Presence of God).

¹⁰And 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. (But yet, the worship will prove to be somewhat shallow, more out of fear than anything else.)

¹¹And the LORD spoke unto Moses face to face, as a man speaks unto his friend. And he (Moses) turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the Tabernacle. (Joshua would one day take the place of Moses, even though it would be many years into the future. But the Holy Spirit had already begun his training, showing the preparation time that was needed.)

THE GLORY

¹²And Moses said unto the LORD, See, You say unto me, Bring up this people: and 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 Grace in My sight. (Moses reminds the Lord of the Promises the Lord has made to him. We are encouraged to do the same [Isa. 43:26].)

¹³Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found Grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You, that I may find Grace in Your sight: and consider that this nation is Your People. (Moses makes Grace the foundation of his petition, which foundation alone God will honor. If we come to Him on the basis of supposed merit, we will not be received. And we must always remember, Grace comes to the Believer strictly on the premise of the Finished Work of Christ. In fact, it can come no other way! [Gal. 2:20-21; 5:4].)

¹⁴And He (the Lord) said, My Presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.

¹⁵And he (Moses) said unto Him (the Lord), If Your Presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. (Moses, in essence, demands that the Presence of God accompany him, and that the enterprise was impossible without the companionship of the Lord.)

¹⁶For wherein shall it be known here that I and Your People have found Grace in Your Sight? Is it not in that You go with us? so shall we be separated, I and Your People, from all the people who are upon the face of the Earth. (It was that companionship, and nothing else, that separated Israel from the surrounding nations.)

¹⁷And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that you have spoken: for you have found Grace in My Sight, and I know you by name. (This speaks of relationship far more than the mere knowledge of Moses name. In fact, the Lord knows the name of every person on the Earth.)

¹⁸And he said, I beseech You, show me Your Glory. (Grace comes first, then Glory.)

¹⁹And He (the Lord) said, I will make all My Goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the Name of the LORD before you; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. (The Lord shows Grace and Mercy to those who meet His conditions. Those conditions are simple: Faith in Christ and what Christ has done for us at the Cross, and that exclusively.)

²⁰And He (the Lord) said, You cannot see My Face: for there shall no man see Me, and live. (We must remember that Moses was asking to see God in all His Glory, which, we learn here, is impossible, and for any number of reasons.)

²¹And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand upon a Rock (Henry says concerning this: The Rock in Horeb was typical of Christ the Rock; the Rock of Israel, and the Rock of Ages, the Rock of refuge, Salvation, and strength; comparable to one for shelter, solidity, firmness, strength, and duration; happy are they who stand upon this Rock; they are safe and secure, they stand on high, and have noble prospects of the perfections of God, and of the riches of His Grace and Goodness [Ps. 40:2; Isa. 33:16; Mat. 7:24]):

²²And it shall come to pass, while My Glory passes by, that I will put you in a clift of the Rock, and will cover you with My Hand while I pass by (the clift of the Rock could be likened to the precious shed Blood of Jesus Christ, which covers the individual whose Faith is placed therein; it is believed that this particular clift is the same cave where Elijah would go, while in a very depressed state, some 800 years into the future [I Ki. 19:9]):

²³And I will take away My Hand, and you shall see My Back Parts: but My Face shall not be seen. (Some have claimed that these statements are merely anthropomorphisms; however, I think not! From the descriptions given in the Word of God, I personally believe that the Lord has a Spirit Body that, if seen, would be very similar to a human body, at least as far as shape is concerned.)