Exodus 33 – Thy Presence in Our Midst

Our previous study was in Exodus 32 and we looked at some of the details that made the ‘molten calf’ sin such a grievous one. We pick up the story where we see God responding in His righteousness.

The Lord’s response is grave as He replies to Moses, ‘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’, Exod. 32. 10. God here is on the verge of wrath. This great sin, one of treachery and idolatry, was presumptuous, and deserved (if not required) the death penalty. The Decalogue had been given, Exod. 20. Israel had agreed to a conditional covenant with God, Exod. 24.

The blood had been sprinkled on the people as they stated, ‘all that the Lord hath said will we do and be obedient’, w. 3, 7. The penalty for idolatry was death.¹ When Moses and Joshua hear and see the sinful scene, they grasp the magnitude of the departure from God.

Three responses to the molten calf

The immediate response of Moses. This is twofold: a) Those acting in rebellion must taste the bitterness of their sin - Moses burned the molten calf, ground it to powder, scattered it upon the water, and made the children of Israel to drink of it, 32. 20; b) Moses calls for people to enlist on the Lord’s side, v. 26. This is a case where treachery abounded where obedience had fled. The question was extremely poignant: are there any who take the Lord’s perspective, who see the gravity of sin as He does, and are willing to lead in repentance and justice? Those in the tribe of Levi respond to the call of God and His cause of righteousness.

The added response of the Lord. This is mentioned at the end of the chapter, v. 35. If any who had led this sinful venture had delusions that they had escaped the judgement of Moses and the Levites, they were to find the truth of Numbers chapter 32 verse 23. As Dathan and Abiram tried to avoid judgement by staying in their tents, and as Achan tried to hide an ‘accursed’ treasure, all were brought to light in the searching judgement of God.

The long-term response. God would yet ‘visit their sin upon them’, Exod. 32. 34. The wrath of God would bring the entire generation of unbelievers to death in the wilderness over forty years, ‘Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles… have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers’, Num. 14. 22, 23.²The treachery of the molten calf worship was the latest in a series of incidents exposing their hearts of unbelief, each incident very telling, and together building the case evidencing Israel’s apostacy and deserved judgement. (See table below).

In Exodus through to Deuteronomy, we have the accounts of God bringing the people of Israel out of Egypt into the promised land, where we learn many attributes of God. We have: His strong and holy arm of redemption; His faithful shepherding care; the foreshadowing of New Testament truths fulfilled in the person of Christ; and His longsuffering and mercy towards His people. Yet though God is longsuffering, He ‘will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children’, Exod. 34. 7. We see this in the immediate response, the added response, and the long-term response of God.

Moses’ four intercessions

These truths regarding the righteousness and justice of God are woven into the narrative together with His tender mercies and grace. Moses’ intercessions may be enumerated by the following descriptions:

1. ‘staying’the wrath of God, 32. 11- 13;
2. to forgive this great sin, w. 31, 32;
3. that God would dwell with Israel, 33. 12- 17; and
4. take us for Thine inheritance, 34. 9.

For the purposes of this article, we will now focus on the third of Moses’ intercessions, found in chapter 33 upon God’s announcement of His plans.

Moses having successfully intervened with God to stay His wrath, 32. 14, and having achieved the ‘forgiving’ or ‘letting’ of Israel’s sin, w. 33, 34, the Lord makes a series of promises in the opening verses of chapter 33:

• ‘I [will] give it’, regarding the promised inheritance.
• ‘I will send an Angel’, regarding direction and leadership.
• ‘I will drive out’ regarding the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
• ‘Unto a land flowing’ with milk and honey and the blessing of the Lord.

However, the careful reader will be quick to observe something critically missing: the Lord’s presence. Verse 3 tells the sad news, ‘I will not go up in the midst of thee’ and the reason is told as well, ‘for thou art a stiff-necked people: lest I consume thee in the way’. C. H. Mackintosh comments, ‘This is touchingly beautiful. A “stiff-necked people” demanded the boundless grace and exhaustless patience of God’.⁴

If we study Moses, we see a man of God responding not rashly, but seriously and resolutely. Every eye watched as he took a tent and pitched it outside the camp, v. 7. As per Moses’ directive, the tent was called ‘the Tabernacle of the congregation’. The congregation had been sternly instructed to strip themselves of their ornaments - the ornaments of which substance had been devoted to making of the molten calf just days ago. Every man now was attentively standing at his tent door to see what the Lord would do, as well as Moses. This time, Moses takes his place inside the tent, while the Lord in a cloudy pillar descends to speak with Moses from outside the tent. After the outcome of this intercession and the subsequent building of the tabernacle, the Lord would in future days take His position inside the veil of the holiest within the tabernacle and dwell with Israel.

Far from requesting God for a mere human companion to accompany him on the journey, Moses will settle for nothing less than the presence of God all the way. Just as Jacob laid hold of the man he wrestled with until he had the blessing assured, so Moses reverently shows his resolute thirst for God’s presence through to the end.

The biblical record shows an intimacy between Moses and God, even during such jeopardous a scene as we have here, 33. 11. This is quite unique in the history of God’s dealings with mankind. Even as we come to Moses’ request later in verse 18, he is reminded by God that no one can see His face and live. The usual means that God spoke to men through much of Old Testament history was through dreams and visions, Num. 12. 6.

For this reason, the prophets and men of God were called ‘seers’.⁵ God gives us a clue to this intimacy: Moses’ meekness, Num. 12. 3. May we ever and more increasingly be aware of our neediness, our wretchedness, and yet in faith crave the fellowship and closeness of a submissive and congruent walk with God as we learn from the life of Moses.

Moses’ intercession here was focussed upon restoring the presence of God in Israel’s midst. Yet we discover the centre of his interchange with God had to do with His grace. No less than four times the phrase is mentioned, ‘found grace in thy sight’. During this exchange, Moses pleads that he could know the way of the Lord (similar to His request ‘shew me thy glory’ which we will take up in a future article). ‘Every successive display of grace does but elicit larger desires; and Moses therefore now longs for himself that he may see God’s glory’.⁶ God’s gracious character will be part of the revelation of His glory to Moses in chapter 34.

God answers in His grace that ‘My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest’, 33. 14.

Knowing the exigency and gravity of this moment, Moses meekly yet determinedly responds, ‘If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. 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’, 33. 15, 16. God’s presence is absolutely essential. Moses heard God’s answer, but here he underscores the necessity of God’s presence. He had learned after eighty-one years what Christ would tell His disciples, ‘without me ye can do nothing’, John 15. 5.

And so it is today. The distinction of the people of God from any other person on earth is this, that the presence of the living God abides in us. ‘And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen’, Matt. 28. 20.

To this request of Moses, the Lord gladly and wholeheartedly responds with a freshly revealed readiness, ‘I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name’, Exod. 33. 17. The Lord’s original plan was recorded in chapter 25 verse 8, ‘And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them’.

Would God dwell with His people Israel? Exodus chapter 33 tells us, ‘Yes’! We close this article with the words the Apostle John heard out of heaven, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God’, Rev. 21. 3.