The Glory of God Requires the Presence of God - Exodus 33:12-23

Introduction

Our role in the glory of God is to magnify him

33:11 So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but qhis servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.

John 15:7–8 (NKJV)

7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

John 15:13–15 (NKJV)

13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

Background:

· We have already argued that what happened in these theophanies was not that Moses actually saw God in the same way believers will see him in heaven but that God manifest himself by producing for Moses’ benefit some sort of shape that was visible and therefore gave a sense of closeness and locality to his contact with Moses.

· At this point in the story of the exodus, Moses very much needed the reassurance God now proposed to give him. The exodus assignment—to bring the people not just from Egypt to Sinai but now from Sinai to the promised land, was complicated by the vivid evidence of the people’s idolatry in chap. 32 that they were a recalcitrant lot, suggesting that Moses’ task would not be a light one.

· Moreover, God’s refusal so far to grant his direct presence any longer in accompanying the people means that Moses would, as it were, be more on his own in leading Israel hereafter than he had been before—and the job had proved hard enough already.

· The theophany promised here would reassure him. It would strengthen his resolve and build his confidence. His assignment was daunting and his resources few. If he knew, however, that God’s glory abode with him and that therefore God’s favor and care attended his actions, he could endure and prevail.

Proposition: The glory of God requires the presence of God, through the people of God.

Interrogative: How are we assured of the presence of God?

We need to: 1) Discover God’s Divine Plan, 2) Depend on God’s Divine Presence, 3) Request God’s Tangible Assurance

I. Discover God’s Divine Ways (33:12-14)

Exodus 33:12–14 (NKJV)

The Promise of God’s Presence

12 Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But 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.’ 13 Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, 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.”

14 And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

A. The Problem Addressed - 12a

1. You say bring up the people

2. But you will not let me know whom You will send with me (only mentioned an Angel)

Exodus 33:2 (NKJV) 2 And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

as well as the recognition that the difference between “before” and “with” was very large in Moses’ mind.

For God to “be with” someone represents an idea expressed repeatedly in Moses’ Genesis narrative,

especially in such passages as Gen 21:20; 26:3; 31:3; 39:2, 23, carrying the sense of “to guide/protect/take care of” (cf. also Deut 32:12, “The LORD alone led him; no foreign god was with him”).

B. The Appeal to Relationship: But You have said - 12b

1. I know you by name

2. And you have found grace in my sight (mentioned again in verse 17)

C. The Prayer Request - 13

33:13 For a second time (cf. vv. 12, 17) Moses used the expression māṣāʾ + ḥēn + bĕʿênê (be pleased with/find favor), in this instance as the protasis of a conditional sentence (“If you are pleased with me” also translatable as “If I have found favor with you” or “If I have found favor in your sight”) because he had a request to make of Yahweh that was based on Yahweh’s declaration that he had found favor with him (vv. 12, 17). Moses’ request was to know God better.

What is especially instructive to us is Moses’ understanding of how that would be accomplished: by being “taught” God’s “ways.” As Luther’s friend Melanchthon once eloquently stated, hoc est Christum cognoscere: beneficia euis cognoscere (“To know Christ is to know his benefits”). There is little room for mysticism in biblical religion; we do not know God by having some sort of inexplicable ethereal communion with him, in which our feelings are used as the evidence for our closeness to him. We know him by learning his ways (i.e., his revealed standards, revealed methods, and revealed benefits)—in other words by objective, rather than subjective, emotional, means.

Moses continued with the sound approach he had already taken in 32:11–13 by saying, “Remember that this nation is your people.” In so doing Moses showed himself once again the servant of God’s revealed, clearly established purposes rather than someone who just wanted to be in charge or someone who wanted his job for its inherent prestige. Although he had a right to claim favor with God because God had so declared it (vv. 12, 17), the focus of his request for a continuation of that favor (the third of four uses in this passage of māṣāʾ + ḥēn + bĕʿên, be pleased with/find favor) was not himself but God’s people. Thus Moses’ actions here have long been regarded as instructive and exemplary for all those in leadership in God’s service. Other biblical examples include the attitude of Jesus (e.g., John 17:9, 15, 20, 24) and of Paul (e.g., Rom 10:1; 2 Cor 13:9).

1. Condition:

a. I know you by name

b. If I have found grace in your sight

2. Request #1: Show me now your way

There is little room for mysticism in biblical religion; we do not know God by having some sort of inexplicable ethereal communion with him, in which our feelings are used as the evidence for our closeness to him.

We know him by learning his ways (i.e., his revealed standards, revealed methods, and revealed benefits)—in other words by objective, rather than subjective, emotional, means.

Purposes:

a. That I may know you

b. That I may find grace in your sight (that I may please you)

3. Request #2: Consider that that this nation is your people.

John 17:9–10 (NKJV)

9 “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.

2 Corinthians 13:9 (NKJV)

9 For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. And this also we pray, that you may be made complete.

D. The Promise/ Answer - 14

1. My presence will go with you

It was a full restoration of the original idea of God’s promise to bring the Israelites out of Egypt and into the promised land personally as stated in 3:8, 12, 17

The “rest” envisaged was that which had already been promised in 15:13, 17.

That is, Canaan, the promised land of rest for God’s people. Jesus’ great promise in Matt 11:28 may contain a conscious paraphrase of the present wording.

Application/ Implications:

1. Like Moses, the Christian appeals to our established relationship with God (purchased by Christ).

He Knows Us By Name

John 10:27

27 xMy sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.We have found grace

b. We have found grace

Ephesians 1:6 (NKJV) 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

2. Like Moses, our prayer should be to know and follow the ways of God.

Philippians 3:10

10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,3. Christians have the same promise as Moses of God’s presence and rest. (Matt 11:28)

3. Like Moses, we are also promised rest through the presence of God.

Matthew 11:27–30 (NKJV)

27 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. 28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Transition: Moses responds to this promise of restoration with an expression of dependency.

II. Depend on God’s Divine Presence (33:15-17)

Exodus 33:15–17 (NKJV)

15 Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”

17 So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”

A. Moses’ Reasoning - 15-16

1. The Condition: If your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here - 15

2. The Reason: For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in your sight, except You go with us - 16

Numbers 14:13–14 (NKJV)

13 And Moses said to the Lord: “Then the Egyptians will hear it, for by Your might You brought these people up from among them, 14 and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, Lord, are among these people; that You, Lord, are seen face to face and Your cloud stands above them, and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.

3. So we shall be seperate from God’s presence

B. God’s Reassurance - 17

1. I will surely do this thing

2. For you have found grace

3. I know you by name

Application/Implications:

God’s glory depends on God’s presence.

Building God’s kingdom requires God’s presence, building personal kingdoms does not.

Utter dependency on Christ is at the heart of Christian living.

John 15:5 (NKJV) “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

We must learn to say: “Without Him, I can do nothing, without him, I’ll surely fail.”

Transition: Moses is in such a place of dependency on the Lord, that desires a tangible assurance of God’s presence with him. He want something physical, something to hold onto.

III. Request God’s Tangible Assurance (18-23)

Exodus 33:18–23 (NKJV)

18 And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.”

19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 20 But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. 23 Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”

A. The Request: Please show me your glory - 18

Previously, the glory of God had always been provided at God’s initiation and witnessed corporately (e.g., 16:7–10; 24:16–17), but this time Moses took the initiative to ask for a personal audience with God. That God responded favorably indicates Moses’ acceptance with God based on his faithfulness at all prior points of testing.130

The answer is that Moses had indeed seen God’s glory in the past and therefore wanted to see it again, in as full a way as God might choose to show it, in order to know that just as God’s glory had reassuringly accompanied him and the Israelites on such occasions in the past, Moses could count on it to be with them again once they finally set forth from Sinai.

Then he went further: he wanted an experiential sensory perception of God.

B. God’s Plan - 19

1. I will make all my goodness pass before you

a. All = Nothing but, pure

b. best

10 Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, nfor all his master’s goods were in his hand. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to othe city of Nahor.

c. Splendor

2. I will proclaim the name of the Lord, God before you.

You’ll be able to connect my name with my presence and glory

C. The Basis - 19

1. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious

2. I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion

God’s reason for restoring Israel.

Thus a general principle is stated rather than merely a personal word to Moses. God’s “mercy” and “compassion” were granted to all his covenant people (Deut 13:17; cf. Jas 5:11) and should in turn characterize the behavior of all his covenant people (e.g., Zech 7:9), but they are not automatically available to all other people unless they join in covenant with God. God’s assertion, then, is a general statement of his covenant blessings, which are special incentives for those who know his name (i.e., seek to keep his covenant). The promise concerning mercy and compassion is therefore not so much a divisive statement (as if “on whom …” were intended to be merely discriminatory) as a part of the reassurance God gave Moses, saying in effect: You won’t just receive my common grace; you (my people) will receive my covenant mercy and compassion.

D. The Condition - 20

1. But He said: You cannot see my face

2. The reason: No one can see my face and live

1. Placement:

a. Here is a place by me

b. Stand on the Rock

c. While my glory passes by

2. Protection:

a. I’ll set you in the cleft of the rock

b. I’ll take away my hand

In the same way that we do not see much of a person when we see only his or her back walking away from us, but can still tell who it is if we know that person well enough, Moses was allowed to sense what God caused him to recognize as the “back” of God’s visibly manifested glory moving away from him and could therefore understand that he had perceived God’s true—though not at all complete—presence as a reassurance for his great task ahead, that of leading the people from Sinai to the promised land.

3. Perception:

a. and you will see my back,

b. but you shall not see my face, lest you die

Implications:

God’s gracious, merciful compassion causes Him to desire to restore his people.

God Tangibly expresses Himself to us through His Word.

2 Peter 1:16–21 (NKJV)

The Trustworthy Prophetic Word

16 For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17 For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 18 And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

19 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; 20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, 21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

Question: Moses was only allowed to see God’s back, but are we allowed to tangibly see any of God’s body now? In a way we are!

3. God tangibly assures us of His presence with his body.

Ephesians 1:22–23 (NKJV)

22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 3:10–13 (NKJV)

10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, 11 according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. 13 Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

Concluding Applications:

Do you desire to know the ways of God?

Do you depend on the presence of God?

Are you tangibly assured by the Word of God?

Are you regularly assured by the body of Christ?