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Exodus
33:1-23 “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, and 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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
cleft 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.” Introduction [Audio
version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED563] “Chapter 33, “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: and I will send an angel before thee; and I
will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite,
and the Hivite, and the Jebusite: 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.”
(verses 1-3) Moses has come down from 40 days and 40
nights on the mountain of God, where he would receive in great detail the
description of the Tabernacle, the priest’s garments, and order of worship and
so forth, and lastly the finger of God writing the Ten Commandments on the
tables of stone. And he comes down and
the camp is in the midst of idolatry.
Aaron, whom God had taken a great amount of time to talk to Moses about
and describe his garments, God is setting aside to be the high priest and he’s
down there making a golden calf, no surprise to God. And God does something very interesting, at
one point he says ‘Moses, you know, let’s just smoke ‘em and we’ll start
over with you, you, your wife, your kids, we’ll just make a whole new nation,
the Mosesites.’ And Moses says ‘No,
God, there’s no glory in that for you, LORD, what will the
Egyptians, what will our enemies say?’ and God restrains
himself. And then he says to the LORD, he says, ‘If
you’re not going to forgive their sins,’ verse 32, ‘forgiven them LORD, and if not, blot me
I pray thee out of thy book,’ and God says ‘No, I’m not going to do that,
I’ll deal with people that sin, Moses, I’m not going to do that.’ And now the LORD says ‘I’m not
going to go up, I’m going to send my angel with you, and I’m going to drive out
the Hivites, the Jebusite, the Amorites.’
And by the way when we see that, we see that through the Old
Testament, look, there are Amorites, Jebusites, there are people amongst those
that are named, that give their hearts to the LORD, Rahab the harlot is
waiting there for them to come into the Promised Land, and she has turned here
heart to the God of Israel, and she is saved.
[Comment: At this point in time,
she may not have even been born, remember, the Israelites will spend 40 years
in the desert before crossing over the Jordan River and going after
Jericho.] None of the individuals in
these tribes are excluded from turning to the LORD, in fact Caleb was a
Kenizite, he wasn’t of the children of Israel, he was a Gentile [a descendant
of Abraham through Keturah, his new wife after Sarah had died] that had joined
himself to them, [he, like Joshua, also had the Holy Spirit indwelling him],
and is given great inheritance in the land, Joshua and Caleb. But it was never the ideal for humankind,
created in the image and likeness of God, to be living in the immorality they
were living in. To be living in a
degradated state they were living in, to be living sacrificing their children
to idols [see https://www.unityinchrist.com/kings/1.html and scroll to King
Ahab, son of Omri Rules in Israel, and read from there through American temple of Baal Discovered], if you want to read of some of
the filth and the practices of the Canaanites and Hivites, go to the University
of Pennsylvania and get in their library, their bookstore and get a book on
some of the practices. And God says ‘I’m
going to drive that out before you.’ When
we get saved, God wants to drive all of that influence out of our lives, you
know, we come to Christ, and we’ve been influenced by the Canaanites and the
Hivites and the Amorites and the Termites and all the rest of them, and God
wants to get that influence out of our lives and set our lives aside. You know, it’s the character of Christ which
is the ideal for all of us, we’re created in his image and likeness. So God says ‘I’m going to drive them
out, I’m going to send my angel, but I’m not going to be in the midst of these
people, Moses, there are other things more important, they’re stiffnecked, I
don’t want to consume them in the way.’ Now
look, part of all of this is God working in the heart of Moses. Part of all of this is God working in the
heart of Moses. “And when the people
heard these evil tidings, they mourned:
and no man did put on him his ornaments.” (verse 4) jewelry and so
forth, “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.” (verse
5)
don’t put on your rings and your jewelry, perfume, your Old Spice and pretend
like nothing’s going on, “that I may know what to do unto thee” ‘I’m
making up my mind, your life is hanging in the balance right now, what I’m
going to do with you, don’t act like this is every other day like nothing’s
happened.’ “And the children of
Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.” (verse 6) The
Tent Of Meeting Outside The Camp: How Do
We Experience The Presence Of God? “And Moses took the tabernacle,
and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle
of the congregation.” or
the Tabernacle of Meeting, “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.” (verse 7) Now this is not the Tabernacle that we
received description of for weeks on end, that hasn’t been built yet, Moses has
just come down. This is a separate tent,
it could possibly have been Moses’ own tent, it could possibly have been a
bigger tent, a supply tent, now it is a place God says ‘Put that outside
the camp, Moses,’ and his desire had been to be in the midst of the
camp, ‘put it outside the camp, and I’ll meet with you there, if anyone
else wants to seek me, they can come outside the camp.’ You know, the Bible tells us, simply,
it’s our sin that’s separated between us and our God. And it’s a great theme that runs through
these chapters this evening, look, you and I, if we’re in deliberate sin, we
can’t expect to experience the presence of God.
We’re saved, we’re forgiven, what we can expect to experience of his
presence is his chastening rod if we decide we’re going to live stubbornly and
in rebellion. Oh, he loves us, but
because he loves us, he’ll spank us, he’ll deal with us. But if we want to experience the deepest part
of his presence, there is the walking with him, the yielding to him, the being
in-step with him, and he’s given us the means to do that, he’s given us his
Word, he’s given us his Holy Spirit, he’s changed us from within. So when you and I sin, and we do, you do, and
I do, it’s because we want to, not because we have to, it’s because we get mad
or we get stubborn or we get selfish.
And that’s one of the great themes that’s going to run through here this
evening. In contrast we have Moses, who
is faithful in all of his house, Moses the servant of God, in all of his
greatness and all of his miraculous ministry, and all of the things that were
attached to him, of all of the titles he may have taken, he’s Moses the servant
of God, which is the perfect description of obedience. And it is walking in that place, in our
study this evening, that he experiences the presence of God in the most
remarkable way. So he pitches
this tent without the camp, verse 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.” Now Moses just said, ‘Look,
you guys, God said don’t dress up, don’t act, you know, this is major, you guys
blew it, I give you the Ten Commandments, Thou shalt have no other gods before
me, thou shalt not make any graven images, and you all said ‘Whatever he says
that’s what we’ll do,’ and here we are right after that you guys are
worshipping a golden calf, and God is not happy, several thousand are dead,’ at
this point in time. And he says ‘Take
off your ornaments, do all of that, God is making up his mind what he’s going
to do.’ And the tent is now, this
particular tent, we don’t know much about it, is moved outside the camp of
Israel, and evidently that’s where the presence of God manifests, and Moses is
heading out there, and it says everybody’s, like a bunch of kids, standing in
their tent doors watching, thinking ‘This could be good, this could be bad.’ Imagine 2 million silent faces, looking at
Moses, going out. “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.”
(verse 9) Just imagine the sight, the
children of Israel are watching, Moses says ‘I’m going to go talk to God,
he’s not happy with you guys, he’s going to decide what he’s going to do,’ he
gets outside the camp, enters in the flap of the tent door, goes in, and the
Pillar of cloud and Fire descends and stands there, and the children of Israel
are thinking ‘Well they’re meeting, there’s a meeting going on.’ And what was it like for Moses to come
inside that tent? I have to believe when
that Pillar descended, talk about goosebumps, you know. Moses must have sensed and experienced the
presence of God in a very remarkable way, not in it’s completeness, but in a
very remarkable way, not in its completeness.
And it says “and the LORD talked with Moses.” We’re going to see more of that. “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.”
(verse 10) I guess they did. “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.” (verse 11) Now, it isn’t face to
face, that’s a Hebrew idiom, because he’s going to say to Moses right after
this, when Moses is going to say ‘Show me thy glory,’ and the LORD’s going to say ‘No
man can see my face and live.’ So
they’re not sitting in there face to face at a little coffee table, it’s a
Hebrew idiom that means “mouth to mouth,” and the idea is, with no distance,
he’s speaking to Moses, it says right here, as a friend. Now try to imagine, I’m assuming this is
audible, because I don’t have any friends that talk to me inaudibly as a
friend. And I don’t think Moses, you
know, sometimes I grew up in a denominational church, and I would hear OH
LOOORRRDDD, THOU MOST HEAVENLY FAAATHER, THAT MAKEST HEAVEN AND EARTH, AND ALL
THINGS CONTAINED THEREIN,’ and I think, I’d never talk to my kids that way,
and certainly they’d never talk to me that way.
Moses goes in and he’s talking to God as a friend, mouth to mouth, with
no distance. Not seeing his face, but
experiencing his presence, just try to imagine what that was like, “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.” (verse 11) Joshua
couldn’t move, he just stayed there.
Whatever their conversation was…but just imagine, just imagine
that. You know, you’re in the tent, and
all of a sudden Ssshhh, you know, here comes the Pillar down and parks
at the door of the tent, and all of a sudden they start to talk as friends, ‘Moishe.’ You know, he’s talking about, we’re going
to hear some of these things, he says ‘LORD, don’t destroy these
people, LORD be merciful, don’t
send me alone,’ you
can imagine this remarkable dialogue that takes place here. And I don’t mean to make light of it, it
would be blasphemous if I made this up, God’s the one who tells us in his Word
that they’re speaking mouth to mouth, as a man speaks to his friend. Imagine God stooping down to tell us
that. God
Speaks To Moses Mouth-To-Mouth--An Incredible Conversation Takes Place “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.” (verse 12) ‘LORD, you’re telling me
I’m familiar with this terrain across the Sinai Peninsula into Midian here, now
you’re telling me to bring this people up to the Promised Land by myself, and
now you’re saying you’re not gonna go, but instead send your angel, what does
that mean? LORD, don’t send me
without going with me.’ It’s almost as though
in one sense Moses is more lonely here than he was tending the flocks on the
backside of the desert for Jethro. [Well
ya, he had a wife, two sons, a family, Jethro and his six other daughters
living close by, loving family. It’s
been said being in command, and he’s in command over about 2.5 million people,
is a very lonely job.] There’s some
greater loneliness in Moses, and God has allowed it to be so, Moses has come
down. Now look, I’m going to tell you
this, I’m convinced of it, at least for me, 40 days on the mountain, in the
presence of God would spoil you. 40
days, instructed of the LORD. We’re going to find out when he comes down
the second time, his face is glowing. Evidently
humans have a capacity that we know little of.
Now certainly, when this corruption puts on incorruption, this mortal
puts on immortality, we’ll see it. [In 1st
John 3:1-2, it says we’ll be “fashioned like unto Jesus” is in
immortality. What does Jesus look like
right now? Read Revelation 1:13-18, also
read 1st Corinthians 15:49-54.]
You and I have all known saints, particularly older persons, who have
walked with the Lord a long time, and they have, you know, a glow about
them. You love to sit and to talk with
them, because like it says of the apostles and the disciples, they took note
they had been with Jesus. The Bible uses
the word “countenance,” and it seems we have this capacity to spend time with
him, and then reflect, then reflect that presence. Moses didn’t have his own light, the
Scripture is going to tell us, he was reflecting the light that he had been
in. It’s like the moon, when the moon is
in the proper position, you look at a full moon, it’s beautiful, but it doesn’t
have any juice, it doesn’t have any batteries, it doesn’t have any light of its
own, it’s reflecting the light of the sun.
And the only time it fails to do that, is when the world comes between
the sun and the moon. And when the world
comes between you and I and Jesus Christ, there’s an eclipse, it’s when we
don’t reflect the light that we are made to reflect. And God has for 40 days on the mount, created
this remarkable hunger in Moses for more.
He comes down the mountain to an orgy and a party, and he looks around,
what a contrast, here he was 40 days up on the mountain with God, his heart is
stirred, his mind is blown, he must have wanted to go down all excited. When he gets down there, he just ‘Oye
vey,’ he just wants to get back up again.
‘LORD, whose going to go
with me, these two million, don’t send me alone, LORD, with this crew. You haven’t told me whose going to go with
me.’ “Yet thou hast said, I know thee
by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight.” (verse 12b) ‘LORD, you’ve told me that
you know my name, and you told me that I’ve found grace in your sight, we talk
together as friends, mouth to mouth, and yet you’re not going to go with me,’ “Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found
grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way,” show me thy way, and it’s
singular, reason? “that I may know thee,” secondly, “that I may find
grace in thy sight: colon “:” he
must have waited a long time, and then said, and consider that this nation is
thy people.” (verse 13) It says in Psalm
103, ‘He made known his ways to Moses, and his works to the children of
Israel.’ Show me thy way. Moses is hungering for something. And as he’s going along with the LORD, he’s developing a
greater and greater hunger for the LORD. You understand this. My kids, each of them have a way, Joanna my
oldest, has a way about her. I’ve broken
the code, to a good degree. I understand
when she says something, whether she’s saying what it sounds like she’s saying,
or if she’s really saying something else.
My son Michael, he has a way, he has a way about him, you might know
him, you think you know him, I know him.
Joshua, he has a way, he moves what he thinks, what he says, how he
reflects. My wife, she knows my ways, ‘Honey,
do you want to go to the mall with me,’ ‘ya,’ she knows what that
means. ‘LORD, show me your way, LORD, that I might know
thee. LORD, I know you just
didn’t let frogs go into the land of Egypt because you’re doing some freaky
frog-show, LORD, you didn’t just do these
things, I know you didn’t just part the Red Sea, I know you didn’t just bring
these people out here just because, I know you didn’t just show me everything,
you want them to do worshipping, my brother Aaron, you knew he was going to
fail, LORD, show me your way, that I might
know thee. How can I find grace in your
sight if I don’t know. You say I’ve
found grace in your sight, show me your way.’
And
as we sit alone with him, the more time you and I spend alone with him, the
more we know his way. You know, the
thing is, he’s infinite, we’ll never discover the completeness of it. Even in the ages to come he’ll still be
revealing to us his mercy and his grace.
He’s conforming us into his image and likeness, we will always be
approaching and never arriving, because he’ll always be infinite and we’ll
always be finite, of his way, who he is.
Just think of the greater measure of what Moses is asking for, that is
represented in this room tonight. Think
of the measure of God’s way that he has handed to you through the blood of his
Son. We see God in Christ on the cross,
reconciling the world to himself, he has made known unto us his way. John the Baptist Jesus said was the
greatest of those born among women, and he who is least in the Kingdom is
greater than John. [Now we have to
understand what Jesus meant by that, what he was saying in essence is that we
as believers have way more information about Salvation coming through the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, that John was not allowed to see or
witness or come to understand.] What
Moses would have given to see of his ways, of what you and I see. ‘Show me your way, LORD, that I might know
thee, if I have found grace, that I might really find it in your sight,’ and for a long time he
thinks, and he says ‘and LORD consider that this
nation, it is thy people.’ And in response, and
this isn’t cold, calculated, and theological, this is so genuine, and God says
to him “And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give
thee rest.” (verse 14) like a father, isn’t it? We will never have rest without his
presence. Oh, we might have rest in the
sense of sleeping, we might buy one of those mattresses that you can adjust,
depending on, you know, how hard and soft you want it, and you get one of those
machines to play waves and make you go to sleep [at my age I need melatonin,
and you know how the Prophet being quoted by Peter in Acts 2 said “and your
young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” (verse 17b),
well that’s not wrong, I’m finding at my age, 76 now, I’m constantly dreaming
all kinds of weird dreams just before I wake up each morning, guess our brains get
filled with so much information that it has to go somewhere, so it goes into
dreams I guess, wish it weren’t so].
What we long for, Jesus saying ‘Come unto me all ye
that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ God says to Moses ‘Alright, I will go
with you.’ but he says ‘but
you’re going to send an angel with me,’ ‘No, no, no, not with these two
million…’ ‘Alright Moses,’ God
knows what he’s calling for, ‘I will go with you, my presence, and I will
give you rest.’ (verse 14) Let
me tell you something, if I’m short tempered, and I’m not, I’m just saying that
for your benefit, because I know some of you, if I’m ever crabby, barking at my
wife, it’s because I haven’t been experiencing his presence, because when I
spend enough time there, he destressifies me, I get destressified, that’s a
word that you should write down [it’s a new word, now I have to program it into
my Microsoft Word program 😊], it’s
important. I get destressified in his
presence. In fact he did it for me this
afternoon. “My presence shall go with
thee, and I will give thee rest.” (verse 14) You’re struggling this evening, with
worry, you’re struggling this evening with anxiety, you’re struggling with
doubt, get alone with him, talk to him mouth to mouth, as a friend. You have a greater open door than Moses had,
he’s made known unto us his way, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life,
no man comes to the Father but by me.’ Get into his presence and he will give you
rest, he will give you rest. If that
isn’t true, we might as well all go home.
We’re not here to play church, we’re not here to play religious games,
we’ve all had enough of that at some point in our lives. We’re here because this is his Word, heaven
and earth is going to pass away, this is going to abide forever, it’s alive and
it’s powerful, it’s his Word, and he’s choosing to reveal it to us, to preserve
these things in this dialogue with Moses and put them before us, ‘My
presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.’ “And he said unto him, If thy presence go
not with me, carry us not up hence.” (verse 15) ‘don’t do that to
me.’ “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.” (verse 16) Now he’s saying ‘Not just with me, LORD, consider this is
your people, and it’s you going with us, LORD, that proves you have
extended grace, it’s the Pillar of cloud, the Pillar of fire, your presence,
you being with us that demonstrates there is grace. And that’s the only way other people will
know.’ “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.” (verse
17) Beholding
God’s Glory Verse 18, Moses says, “And he
said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.” Moses is thinking ‘Man, I’m batting a
thousand here, I’m on a roll, he’s yielding and giving everything, I’m going to
go for the whole kit-and-caboodle, ‘LORD, show my your glory.’ Lord, there’s a time in all of our lives,
when we want you to smite our Pharaohs, there’s a time in all of our lives when
we want you to deliver us from our enemies, there’s a time in all of our lives
when we want you to part the Red Sea in front of us because there’s some
obstacle. There’s a time in all of our
lives when we want you to turn our Marah’s, our bitter experiences into
something sweet, there’s times in all of our lives Lord when we are hungry and
thirsty and we want you to care for our physical needs. But there are times Lord, when none of that
is sufficient, when it’s only Lord, you yourself that can satisfy, it’s only
you Lord.’ Isn’t it funny to see people
driven by what the world offers, thinking that there will be satisfaction. This is a man who at one time had been
probably the wealthiest man on the planet.
This is a man who had a measure of pleasure, physical pleasure, above
and beyond anything that anybody in this room, or maybe all of us combined will
ever experience. This is a guy in
regards to wealth and power had more than anyone here will experience [in this
life], this is a guy in regards to ministry, a congregation with 2 million
people in it, a charismatic congregation, stuff coming out of the sky and
miracles, there’s nothing lacking, except there’s one thing. Moses says ‘all of that keeps pointing
me to you God, there’s something you haven’t revealed about yourself to me. There’s something that haunts me about your
presence, there’s some thing that I haven’t seen, that I know is the epicenter
of your love, your power, and your grace, and your personality, LORD, show my thy glory,
let me see your glory.’ We live in
relationship to that, again, in things that Moses never dreamed of, Jesus in
his intercessory prayer in John 17, in verse 24
says “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me
where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of
the world.” No one else could
say that to God, “I will,” and we only find Jesus doing it this one
time, all the rest of the time it’s “not my will, but thine be done…I don’t
say anything unless the Father says it,” one time in John 17 verse 24
he says ‘Father, I will, I will, this is my will, may them thou hast
given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory,’ Jesus is asking ‘that they may
behold my glory which thou hast given me, you have loved me before the
foundation of the world.’ Paul
says it this way, ‘Now the Lord is that spirit,’ after he talks
about Moses’ face glowing, he says ‘we don’t have to look at the Lord
with hidden face, where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty, but we all,
with open face beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into
the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord,’
we have the opportunity to do the very things that Moses is asking for. There’s not another people group on the
planet in human history, today or any day, that can have that, that the
one True God beckons us to come and to behold his glory. Here he’s saying to Moses under the Old
Covenant, it’s not gonna happen. He
interprets what Moses is asking for in verse 19, when he says “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 boy I’m glad, “and will
shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.”
“And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.”
(verse 20) So in his mercy he
doesn’t allow Moses to look into his face.
Now Moses would when he stood on the Mount of Transfiguration, but not
here. “And the LORD said, Behold, there
is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: and it shall come to pass, while my glory
passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee
with my hand while I pass by:” (verses 21-22)
That sounds like an interesting morning to me, God says ‘You can’t
see my face and live, but I’m going to make all of my goodness, all of my
grace, all of my mercy pass before you, I’m going to put you in the cleft of
the rock, and Moses I’m going to put my hand over top of you while I pass by,’
“And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.” (verse 23)
King James says “my back parts,” literally “my back” the idea, some translators
will say it’s the idea of the afterglow, the back parts of his glory, ‘but
my face thou shalt not see, Moses, you’ll get this close, I know what you want
to see, so I’ll make all of my goodness, that’s what you’re asking for Moses.’ ‘Behind my power, you prayed ‘Don’t destroy
this people’ and I said Alright Moses, I won’t.
But I’m not going to go up, I’ll send my angel. And you said, LORD, take my name out of
your book, and I said ‘No, I’m not going to do that, I’m going to deal with who
I want, and then Moses you said, ‘LORD, if I’ve found grace
in thy sight, then reveal yourself to me, let your presence go forth,’ and I
said alright, Moses you want to know my way, my presence will go with you, I’m
going to give you rest.’ And then Moses says ‘Well,
what about this people, if you don’t go in our midst, nobody’s going to know…’
and he says ‘Alright, I’m going to do that too.’ And yet Moses, his wheels are cranking,
behind all of this there’s this God condescending, God being gracious, God
looking past the sins of his people, God who says ‘I should destroy them,
but I’m going to be gracious, I’m going to be merciful, I’m going to be
gracious to whoever I’m going to be gracious to, I’m going to be merciful…’ and
he says ‘Moses, I’m going to make all of my goodness pass before you,’ he
knows what Moses is longing to experience, but he says ‘You can’t look at my
face, so I’m going to do a flyby, I’ll put my hand over you, and once I get
past you I’ll remove my hand and you can see my glory.’ What does the back of God look like? What does the back of God look like? You’re alone on the mountain and just see the
glory of him after he’s passed by. Exodus
34:1-9 “And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew
thee two tables of stone like unto the first:
and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the
first tables, which thou brakest. 2
And
be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and
present thyself there to me in the top of the mount. 3
And
no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the
mount; neither let flocks nor herds feed before that mount. 4
And
he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in
the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him,
and took in his hand the two tables of stone. 5
And
the LORD descended in the cloud, and
stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6
And
the LORD passed by before him, and
proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and
gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7
keeping
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that
will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the
fourth generation. 8 And Moses made haste,
and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. 9
And
he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O LORD, let my Lord, I pray
thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our
iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.” What
God Asks Of Us Every Morning “Now look, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew
thee two tables of stone like unto the first:
and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the
first tables, which thou brakest.” (verse 1)
Evidently
Moses didn’t hew the first two tables, he’s going to hew these two, ‘which
you broke.’ And look, now
instructive, this is beautiful, “And be ready in the morning, and come up in
the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the
mount.” (verse 2) ‘Come up, in the morning, unto the mount Sinai, and
present thyself there to me,’ is what God’s asking, notice ‘in
the top of the mount, and no man shall come with thee.’ Moses, morning. Isn’t it interesting? Not the afternoon, not the evening, tomorrow
morning. I don’t think Moses slept that
night, ‘in the morning, O Lord in the morning, I lift up my prayer unto
thee, and will look up, weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the
morning. Awake suffering heart, wake
early, those who seek me early shall find me, I am the bright and morning star,
in the morning.’ I think of Spurgeon and so many who said “Let us not
see the face of man today, until we have seen the face of God,” “Let us scale
the mount of communion,” Spurgeon said, ‘and not see the face of man
until we have seen the face of God.’ “A
day wasted is a day that hasn’t begun on the mountain,” Spurgeon said. Come up in the morning, isn’t it a great
exhortation. Do you think that he wanted
to meet with Moses more than he wants to meet with you, or I? If we listen closely before we go to bed, ‘Oh
don’t make me do that Pastor Joe,’ I’m not making you do it, I’m just
saying, there are Aarons, and they make golden calves once in awhile, God has a
place for them, and they serve, but there are Moses and Mosesses, whatever girl
Moses are, there are those who hunger for the things that are higher, who will
leave the valley below, where the immorality is, who would go not just halfway
up, but come to the top, Moses. He knows
how to appoint a place of meeting, he knows our frame, he knows it is dust, he
doesn’t beckon us to something that is too difficult for us. He doesn’t say rise early and seek me, and we
say ‘Oh Lord, I can’t get up that early,’ he remembers our frame, he
knows that we’re dust. The thing is,
with Moses and the children of Israel, under the Old Covenant anybody who
scaled the mountain of the Law to find him would come, it would kill you if you
were under the Law, it will kill you to climb that mountain. And when you get to the top it’s barred off,
the Law is written there and you can’t approach God. It will kill you. But he beckons us outside the camp, to
Golgotha, there is a mountain, and he asks us to come all the way to the top,
there’s a cross there, and it’s scalable for all of us. And what a way, every day to begin there, at
the top of that mountain. “Let no
man come with thee,” as Christians we’re not contagious unless we have
that time alone with him. Moses wanted
to get away from the 2 million people, he was lonely and restless with them, he
wanted God, ‘Whose going to go with me, LORD?’ He wanted the LORD’s presence, and he
wanted to find rest there. Isn’t it
interesting, God says ‘Moses, tomorrow, get up early in the morning, and
come up to me in the top of the mountain, and no man shall come with thee. Meet me alone, in the morning, meet me
alone. And no man shall come with thee.’
When you pray, go into
your closet, shut the door, the Father who sees in secret will hear thee, and
reward thee openly. “And no man shall
come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount;
neither let flocks nor herds feed before that mount.” (verse 3) And look at Moses, “And he hewed two
tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning,
and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him,
and took in his hand the two tables of stone.” (verse 4) Evidently he didn’t sleep that night, he had his
hammer and his chisel out. Moses, the
servant of the LORD, Revelation 15, ‘and they
sang the song of Moses, the servant of the LORD.’ Obedience is relative
to closeness, not earned, salvation is not a reward, it’s a free gift. But fellowship, Jesus said it this way in John,
he said this, “He that hath my commandments,” and these are in
red letters, I’m not making it up, “He that hath my commandments, and
keepeth them,” is in the process of keeping them, “he it is that
loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love
him, and will manifest myself unto him.”
Look, Satan kind of gets us in the mindset that obedience a drag,
‘I’m saved by grace, you know!’ Satan’s
content to leave us there, ‘Well you can’t ever earn it, you can’t be a
Christian goody-two-shoes,’ wait a second, I don’t want to settle for
anything less than he has. I don’t want
to go halfway up the mountain if he tells me to come all the way up the
mountain. He’s not going to ask me, he
knows I’m 57 years old, he knows how high a mountain I can climb without
dropping dead of a heart attack, and spiritually he knows that too, and he’s
calling me to a place where I want to go there, if he says ‘Hew two tables
of stones,’ I want to do that, I want to be obedient, because I know
there’s communion there, and I know I’ll find his presence there. ‘If you love me, keep my commandments,
I and the Father, we will manifest ourselves to you.’ The servant of the LORD, what a great
handle. “And he hewed two tables of
stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up
unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him,” there it is, “as the LORD had commanded him,”
“and took in his hand the two tables of stone.” (verse 4) Now he’s 80-what at this point in time?
and he’s climbing a mountain with two tablets of stone. He’s got two tablets of stone and he’s
climbing to the top of the mountain. What
Is The Glory Of God? “And the LORD descended in the
cloud,” help
me understand this, “and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of
the LORD.” (verse 5) I could read that all night, thinking about
that, “the LORD stood with him there.” “And the LORD passed by before him,
and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and
gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving
iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the
guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon
the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”
(verses 6-7) Exodus 20 had said “of those that hate me” he
qualifies that. “And Moses made
haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.” (verse 8) I bet he did.
Here is the LORD going by, he stood with him
there, now that wasn’t face to face, because he just said you can’t see my
face, his presence, Moses was incredibly aware of that, God stood there, and
then God passes by, putting his hand over, and Moses must hear “The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and
gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,” Let me ask you something, if you were going to
show your glory to somebody, what do you glory in? That you can dunk from the foul line, I mean,
what would your glory be, your company, how much prosperity, what your profit
margin is, your PhD, what’s your glory, if you were going to show someone your
glory, what would it be? The interesting
thing is, God’s glory is what he doesn’t have to be at all. Because he could just be just and wipe out
the children of Israel. His glory is
that he’s merciful, and gracious, and longsuffering, and filled with goodness,
and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, that’s his glory. Isn’t it
amazing? The holiest being in existence,
that doesn’t have to be any of these things, is all of these things. And it’s his glory and his goodness, and his
love and his power. He will be both just
and the justifier of the ungodly, it says ‘I will by no mean clear the
ungodly, I’m not just going to push aside sin, I’m going to deal with it.’ “visiting
the iniquity” the twistedness, “of the fathers upon the children, and
upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”
“of those who hate me,” the unbelieving world that refuse him. “And Moses made haste, and bowed his head
toward the earth, and worshipped. And he
said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O LORD, let my Lord, I pray
thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our
iniquity” notice
he includes himself, he had murdered a man in the second chapter (of
Exodus), “and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.” (verses 8-9) Isn’t it amazing? He, in the presence of the LORD, says ‘Let me
see your glory,’ the goodness and the graciousness and the mercy of God
is not sloppy in its application, it is infinitely just and incredibly
unimaginably holy. And when Moses
experiences it, here he is, he’s the leader, he’s faithful in the House, this
the man of God, and the children of Israel down there, they were the ones who
were immoral and were partying and in idolatry.
And yet when he experiences the presence of God, he realizes ‘We are
all in the same boat, and LORD, you’re the perfect
God for us, because we are a stiffnecked and rebellious people, this is a match
made in heaven, this is perfect.’ And yet he’s
overwhelmed with the LORD’s presence. Daniel would say, when he saw the LORD, that all of his
comeliness, his beauty, this was Daniel the Sage, he rode on top of Empires,
who it says had a good and a perfect and upright spirit, an excellent spirit,
he stood head and shoulders above his peers, and when he saw the LORD, he said ‘All
of my beauty turned to ashes, when I saw him everything I thought was good in
mankind was ash.’ John the
apostle on the Isle of Patmos, when he saw the Lord he said ‘I fell down
like a dead man, when I saw his glory (cf. Revelation 1:13-18 is what he
saw).’ And in heaven, the
cherubim fall down, the multitudes and the angels fall down and throw their
crowns in front of the Lamb, who’ve seen his face, the Lamb that was slain,
that’s in the midst of everything. How
remarkable our God is. It’s why Paul
says ‘it’s the love of Christ that constrains me, it drives me, it keeps
me, it holds me in, it hedges me round about.’ I have to believe that if we’re deliberately
living in rebellion, we have not seen him face to face. And every measure of all that he allows us to
see, will only make us hunger for a greater measure of it. Every measure of himself that he gives to us,
every time we get up early and we seek him, every time he says let no man be
with thee, I want to be alone, and he was alone with John the Baptist, he was
alone with Moses here, he was alone with John on Patmos, and got so many
alone’s, there’s a special part of his sanctified loneliness. There are certain things, look, intimacy,
intimacy is not just physical. My wife
and I have intimacy, that is, we have certain things that we don’t share with
anyone else. Not just physical intimacy,
intimacy. And he desires that
intimacy. With each of my four children,
I have intimacy, there’s certain things that I would never say, certain things
I wouldn’t repeat, certain things they share with me, certain things I see, I
know their way. And the Lord wants that
with us. He doesn’t want to restrict us,
doesn’t want us to live legalistically, in choking. He says to us, ‘there’s a mountain
that’s above all of this golden calf stuff, all of this partying, all of the
immorality and orgies of this world there’s a mountain, I want you go come to
the top in the morning and be with me there, and I want you go come alone, and
I’ll make all of my goodness pass before you.’ And we can’t come away from that place
unchanged, it is impossible, we cannot come away unchanged. Let’s have the musicians come, and we’ll sing
a last song. But let’s do this first,
stay seated, let’s bow our hearts, just let’s bring them before him, and ask
his presence…[transcript of a connective expository sermon on Exodus 33:1-23
and Exodus 34:1-9, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia,
13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA
19116] related links: It was never the ideal for
humankind, created in the image and likeness of God, to be living in the
immorality the Canaanites were living in--to be living in a degradated state
they were living in, to be living sacrificing their children to idols, see https://www.unityinchrist.com/kings/1.html Audio version:
https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED563 |