Exodus 33:12-23--Moses' Intercession

Moses' Intercession​
12 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 favor in my sight.’ 13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” 14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

17 And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” 18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

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An interesting passage here as Moses once again pleads for God to go with His people and says that they would rather not leave Mt. Sinai then have to go into the Promised Land without God going with them.  Moses also says that cannot make the journey alone and needs God to be with him every step of the way (even though God had promised His angel to go before them, that was not enough for Moses).  Moses says that it is the presence of the LORD living among the people and leading them that made them different from every other people and nation in the world--think about that and let it sink in.  Is it still not the same way with us as the Church?  Should it not be obvious to the outside world that the Spirit of God lives in and among us and leads us in every way that we should go and is also our Provider, Defender, and Protector?  Should not the same fear of the LORD be upon our enemies that was upon the enemies of Israel at that time because God is the same yesterday, today and forever and He will one day judge the nations with plagues just like those that He judged Egypt with--just all the more powerful because their wickedness and rebellion for rejecting the God and gospel they know is worse than rejecting the God and gospel they did not know in Egypt? (see the book of Revelation)?

Then God says He will do this for Moses because He loves Moses (Moses has found favor in His sight) and God wants to do good things for Moses because of that love and because God knows Moses intimately (remember, someone's "name" is their identity so God is saying that He knows Moses better than Moses even knows himself).  Moses is grateful, but not satisfied, because Moses wants to know God in the way that God knows Moses.  He asks to be shown God's full glory (because he had experienced the glory of the LORD on the mountain veiled by smoke and in the Tent of Meeting veiled by the pillar of cloud and he wanted to experience it unveiled) and to know God by name.

God said that wasn't possible for a man to look on the fullness of the glory of God and live, but that God would cause all of His goodness to pass before Moses and that He would proclaim His name before Moses--but this is not the same name that God gave Moses at the burning bush.  Notice it says "The Lord" and not, "The LORD."  That may not seem like a big deal to you, but I promise it is and I'll explain why in a second with a reference to something from the Psalms.  "The Lord" is the Hebrew word Adonai.  It is used mostly to refer to a sovereign (king, master, or other ruler) when his subjects or servants replied to his command with, "Yes, my lord," so it is not a title used exclusively for God.  I believe that Moses saw a preincarnate appearance of Christ here because "no man has seen God (the Father)."  Even Jesus will come back and say that later.  We also know that Jesus is the embodiment of all of God's goodness, and we've already talked about the LORD sending "His angel" before Moses and the Israelites.  But what is it specifically about saying "The Lord" and not "The LORD" that makes me think this--honestly, even if the passage said "The LORD, I might still think this, because Jesus also claimed to be the "I AM" several times--specifically His seven "I am" statements that He made in the gospel of John--two of which will be in The Gospel Project's lesson for this week--"I am the Door/Gate" and "I am the Good Shepherd."  But here's a passage from the book of Psalms where the Father is talking to the Son and David is listening in on the conversation and records it.

Psalm 110
English Standard Version

Sit at My Right HandA Psalm of David.
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Psalm 110:1 The Lord says to my Lord:
    “Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”

2 The Lord sends forth from Zion
    your mighty scepter.
    Rule in the midst of your enemies!
3 Your people will offer themselves freely
    on the day of your power,
    in holy garments;
from the womb of the morning,
    the dew of your youth will be yours.
4 The Lord has sworn
    and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever
    after the order of Melchizedek.”
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5 The Lord is at your right hand;
    he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
6 He will execute judgment among the nations,
    filling them with corpses;
he will shatter chiefs
    over the wide earth.
7 He will drink from the brook by the way;
    therefore he will lift up his head.

Notice how the title of Adonai is used to refer to the Son, but YHWH or "I AM" or "The LORD" is still used to refer to the Father.  We know Psalm 110 to be a prophetic and Messianic Psalm talking about someone greater than David--Jesus would point this out to the Jews later that God was not talking to David here, which was the traditional interpretation given by the scribes and religious leaders of the time (and maybe even to this day).  Bear with me for a minute here.  Is it possible that "The Lord" that is mentioned here in Psalm 110 (that is the Christ) is the same person that Moses saw pass before him?  I have one more passage for you to consider before wrapping up here today.

Hebrews 1:3, speaking of Jesus, says, "3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,"  Did you catch that?  He is the radiance of the glory of God!  Isn't that what Moses had asked to see?  There are a few other passages like this one, but I would like you to dig deep and find them on your own.  Do a word study on "glory" in both the Old Testament and New Testament sometime and see where are the places where "gory" is described as a person or group of people (very few times and they seem to have something in common)   So, it's my opinion (not something that I'm stating as incontrovertible fact) that Moses saw the preincarnate Christ pass before Him.  Actually, a couple more verses that I hinted at earlier to wrap up.

John 1:18--"18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known."
John 10:30--"30 I and the Father are one.”  (Keep reading after this because it's clear the Jews understood what He had said by their reaction of picking up stones to try to kill Him)

John 14:1-14 (ESV)
I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life​

14 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

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I hope you don't walk away today feeling that I "majored on the minors" but I believe we need to see Jesus as the visible glory of the LORD and God is also going to say this about the Church (one of the reasons I wanted you to do the word study I mentioned).  It is our job to be the visible representation of the God that people cannot see because God is Spirit and those that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.  We cannot see the Father or the Holy Spirit, though some people saw the Son in the flesh and that flesh was a sort of veil to hide His full glory that we could not possibly look on (see the Mount of Transfiguration and the accounts of Jesus immediately following His Resurrection where He was emanating glory and His face and clothes were a brilliant white).  Even if we get just a partial glimpse of God's glory and character and nature through Christ and the Church, is that not enough for the rest of the world to know that God's people are unique and special because His presence and glory dwells among them and leads them every step of the way?  Would this be something others would say about you?