Exodus 33

Ex. 33 19 And he said, Shew me, I pray thee, thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for man shall not see me and live. And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon the 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 until I have passed by: and I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back: but my face shall not be seen.

Ex. 34 1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon the tables the words that were on the first tables, which thou brakest. And be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me on the top of the mount. And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount. 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 two tables of stone.

De. 10 1 At that time the LORD said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. And I will write on the tables the words that were on the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. So I made an ark of acacia wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand.

Ex. 34 5 And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, the LORD, a God full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy 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 8 children’s children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation. And Moses made haste, 9 and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let the Lord, I pray thee, go in the midst of us ; for it is a stiffnecked people ; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.

De. 9 18 And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights ; I did neither eat bread nor drink water ; because of all your sin which ye sinned, in doing that which 19 was evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and 20 hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me that time also. And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him : and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.

25. So I fell down before the LORD the forty days and forty nights that I fell down ; because the 26 LORD had said he would destroy you. And I prayed unto the LORD, and said, O Lord God, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, 27 which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wicked- 28 ness, nor to their sin : lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised unto them, and because he hated them, 29 he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness. Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy great power and by thy stretched out arm.

De. 10 10 And I stayed in the mount, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights : and the LORD hearkened unto me that time also ; the LORD would not destroy thee.

The Crowning Petition of Moses and the Promise of God in the Tent of Meeting.

19. Moses makes a very grand prayer, “I BE-SEECH THEE, SHOW ME THY GLORY.” What, had he not seen it in the burning mount, when the earth shook, and Israel trembled, and the mount was crowned with a coronal of the intensest glory ? Had he not seen God’s glory when they marched through the channels of the deep dry-shod ? Had he not seen it in the rock in the wilderness ? Had he not seen it in the pillar of fire by night ? J. C.—He had seen much more of God’s glory than all other men. The bush that burned, and yet was not consumed ; the Red Sea moved out from its bed ; the manna rained down from above ; the arid rock changed to a source of living streams ! Alone, upon the top of Sinai, and amidst most dreadful signs, he had received the Law of God ; moreover, with the elders of the Israelites, he had beheld the pavement which the King of Israel laid for the palace where he sits enthroned—what seemed transparent sapphire-stone. Yet more this insatiable, this high-minded servant of the Lord desires. Van O.

The “God of glory” had appeared to Moses at the Bush, and had spoken to him the incommunicable Name. He had seen the glory of God on that night, so much to be remembered, when Jehovah’s royal ensign fired the firmament, and under Heaven’s immediate guidance the glorious march began. And but a few days were past since this Sinai smoked, and while the glory of the Lord, like devouring fire, encircled the mountain-top, the voice of the Eternal filled the surrounding solitudes with words which echo still and shall never pass away. But all this did not suffice, and in the mind of Moses there was only enkindled a longing for some manifestation more intimate and soul-contenting. Jehovah’s answer shows in what direction the heart of Moses pointed. “I beseech thee, show me thy glory,” says Moses. “I will,” answers Jehovah, “I will show thee my goodness, my kindness, and my grace.” Of majesty and grandeur he had already seen as much as heart could wish, as much as the frail body could endure. The personality, the might, the holiness of the Most High, were never likely to be effaced from his awe-struck spirit as long as he had any being ; but still amid all its condescension, what wonder if the terrible majesty still left an impression of something far off and formidable ? But just at this very instant in the devouring fire had opened an inlet mild and merciful, and Israel’s intercessor glimpsed a glory still interior—the heart of Jehovah, rich in forgiveness, and radiating forth its ceaseless loving kindness. Not only had he pardoned a most scandalous insult to his supremacy, and in answer to Moses’s bold entreaty consented still to abide by the ungrateful people—“My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest”—but with overflowing tenderness he had spoken most friendly words to the intercessor himself—“I will do as thou hast spoken, for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.” Grasping at that gracious word, pressing up into the exalted intimacy of which he had obtained an earnest so encouraging, Moses replied, “I beseech thee, show me thy glory.” “Let me come still nearer. Prolong this blessed moment, and admit me still further into thy presence.” Hamilton.

The high spiritual state to which the man Moses had been brought, and which irrepressibly prompted this lofty yet heart-yearning cry, was not reached at once. It was wrought within him as an ultimate effect, after successive exercises of faith working mightily through prayer. With a faith that had gathered boldness and courage by success, turning from Israel to himself, partly perhaps from a deep consciousness of his own need as Israel’s leader, and partly from an intense spiritual craving after a larger, more satisfying knowledge of God and closer approach to him, now it is, as the ultimate highest effect of living, pleading, expanding faith, that he throws all his soul into the fervent entreaty, “I beseech thee, show me thy glory!” For something other; something more than a visible glory; something that neither miracle nor portent could disclose. For something spiritual assuredly: something that could reach and penetrate his soul with soothing and support, with restfulness and peace. Here spake out the consciously disquieted, unsatisfied man. In this fervid entreaty is the expressed conviction of a felt ignorance of God, more than all, the outbreak of a feeling of deep spiritual want; a want of closer, more endearing fellowship with God. “Show me thyself! Reveal thine inmost heart to me, thy holy, loving, gracious nature, which maketh thee most truly glorious!” The instant answer shows that this was what he craved. Meeting exactly, fully, the want of the suppliant’s soul, Jehovah Jesus unveiled to him with far greater distinctness than had been unveiled to man before the very heart of the Godhead. To the fervid entreaty of his servant he answered, “I will make ALL MY GOODNESS pass before thee, and I will PROCLAIM THE NAME OF THE LORD before thee!” B.

The nearer he came to God, the swifter was the course of his soul, and the more burning its ardor toward him. Thus it is and ever must be that the idea of God, just in proportion as it opens on the soul, absorbs the whole being, entrances all the faculties, and fills and satisfies the holy mind and heart with bliss ineffable, inconceivable. And thus are the desires of holy souls described in God’s own word, as drawn out after him, and only after him, everything else passing into forgetfulness and nothingness in the comparison: “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon the earth that I desire besides thee.” Cheever.—A humble heart cannot be satisfied with so much grace as will bring it to glory, with so much of heaven as will keep it from dropping into hell; it is still crying out, “Give, Lord, give; give me more of thyself, more of thy Son, more of thy Spirit; give me more light, more life, more love.” Brooks.—All that are effectually called to the knowledge of God and fellowship with him, though they desire nothing more than God, yet they are still coveting more and more of him, till they come to see as they are seen. H.

God will cause “His goodness to pass before him;” and will “proclaim His Name,” or His glorious attributes before him; hereby intimating that to know God in His glorious attributes or moral perfections was of much greater importance than to be admitted to the immediate sight of that outward Divine Glory, even though he had been able to behold it in all its unutterable splendor. Leland.—How precious is the thought that when God is seen to be most good to his creatures, he is then seen to be most glorious in the universe; that the glory and the goodness of God are so connected together that where the one is most revealed, the other shines in its richest splendor. Not power in creating, not justice in punishing, but goodness in saving sets forth most the glory of God. Creation is the mirror of his power; Sinai is the pedestal of his justice; but Calvary is the scene of his goodness and therefore of his great glory. Not the manifestation of power, not the manifestation of justice, but the manifestation of goodness, is the most impressive on the heart. God adds also, “I will proclaim the name of the Lord.” Thus we see that God’s goodness, God’s glory, and God’s name are one and the same thing. J. C.

21-23. Into a rocky recess in some part of the mount near where the cloud was abiding Moses should enter, and after being still further overshadowed by the Divine hand (Arab. “I will overshadow thee with my cloud”), should be permitted to behold a transient glimpse of the overpowering brightness of Jehovah. But even this was not to be a view of his face. The interposing medium was to screen the vision from his sight till it had passed by, and then he was to look upon it and behold his back parts, as one might behold the back of a royal personage as he moved along in majestic state in front of his train. Bush.—I will take away mine hand. When the full splendor of my majesty is passed I will remove that cloud which covered thee; and thou shalt have a shaded and imperfect view of the symbol of my presence; but thou shalt not see my glory in its fullest lustre. Bp. Patrick.—The bright side of the glorious light, where it shone with its full unveiled lustre, is called the fore part, or “face;” and the dark side, where there was a lower degree of brightness, is called its “back part.” There is no danger that any one who reads the Scriptures should think that the Divine Essence consists of any bodily form or parts; since he is described as “filling the heaven of heavens” (1 Kings 8:27), as “a spirit” (John 4:24), “whom no man hath seen, nor can see” (1 Tim. 6:16). Leland.

The revelation asked for was reserved until Moses should prepare two other tables of stone all ready for the final restoration and renewal of the covenant. S. R.—The promise here given was to be fulfilled on the morrow, when the mediator was to receive the twofold reward of his spiritual wrestling; the covenant was to be renewed with the nation according to its original terms, and he himself was to be permitted to penetrate more deeply into the mysteries of the Divine nature than had ever before been granted to mortal man. Clark.

At Jehovah’s Bidding, Moses Hews Two Stone Tables, Makes an Ark, Ascends Sinai, and Presents Himself before God.