How should we understand Exodus 33?
Seth Erlandsson
Translated by Julius Buelow
How did the one true God reveal himself to Moses and the prophets?
Moses had a unique position among the prophets of the LORD. “Never again has a prophet risen in Israel like Moses, who knew the LORD face-to-face” (Deut 34:10). “Face-to-face” means that the LORD spoke to him directly and uniquely, “as a man speaks to his friend” (Ex 33:11). It does not mean, however, that Moses saw the Father’s face. The Father was always hidden by darkness or clouds when he spoke directly to Moses. “If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, will make myself known to him in a vision. In a dream I will speak with him. Not so, however, with my servant Moses. … With him I speak face-to-face, clearly, and not in riddles. He sees the form of the LORD” (Num 12:8). But, as we shall see at the end of Exodus 33:18-23, Moses wanted to see more.
Neither can the Helper, the Holy Spirit, be seen without the assistance of images. At Jesus’ baptism he showed himself as a dove (Matt 3:16). When Joel’s prophecy about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28f) was fulfilled, the Holy Spirit showed himself in tongues of flame (Acts 2:3). The Spirit speaks and works through God’s Word. “Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God!” (Jn 3:5). When the LORD’s prophets spoke, the Holy Spirit was speaking through them. Around 400 BC, Nehemiah spoke against the selfish and hardhearted children of Israel. He wrote, “You were patient with them for many years, and you testified against them by your Spirit through your prophets. But they would not listen…” (Neh 9:30).
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have always worked together in complete unity. The Son said, “The one who does not love me does not hold on to my words. The word that you are hearing is not mine, but it is from the Father who sent me. … The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I told you” (Jn 14:24-26).
The Son, the “One Sent Out” by the LORD,” was not inactive before he was born of the virgin (Isa 7:14) and before he carried out his substitutionary work of living under the law “to redeem those under the law” (Gal 4:4). As the “Word,” the “One Sent Out,” he revealed himself many times before his incarnation. He often appeared in the form of “a man” (see Gen 18, Jos 5:13-15, Jdg 2:1-3; 6:11, 21; 13:10, 20; Dan 3:25, 7:13) who was one with the LORD. He could also show himself as “a flaming torch” (Gen 15:17, when the covenant of grace was established with Abraham), as a “blazing fire”(in the burning bush, Ex 3:2), and as a “pillar of cloud” (Ex 14:19ff, 33:9, with both light and darkness, Deut 1:31-33). Again and again he showed that salvation through him had to happen through a divine miracle; it could not be a human work. He showed this, among other times, when the Egyptians pursued the Israelites: “When they came up from Egypt, Israel traveled through the wilderness to Yam-Suf” (the “Sea of Destruction”) (Jdg 11:16). As they left Egypt, “the Angel of God (the Mal’ach, the One-Sent Out), who was going in front of the Israelite forces, moved and went behind them. The pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and stood behind them. It went between the Egyptian forces and the Israelite forces. The cloud was dark on one side, but it lit up the night on the other. Neither group approached the other all night long” (Ex 14:19-20). When the Israelites believed they were going to killed (v 11), Moses said to them: ““Do not be afraid. Stand firm, and see the salvation from the LORD, which he will perform for you today. For the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you. You must wait quietly” (Ex 14:13-14). Then the LORD used his staff to “divide the sea so that the Israelites can go through the middle of the sea on dry ground” (v 16). “On that day the LORD saved Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore” (Ex 14:30). When the Egyptian army was destroyed, the sea where they were drowned was called “the Sea of Destruction” (Yam-Suf).[1]
Through the Son, that is, “the One Sent Out by the LORD”, the LORD could reveal himself in a more personal way, accompany sinners, and speak with them. He “sat under the oak that was in Ophrah” in order to speak with Gideon (Jdg 6:11). When the LORD revealed himself to Abraham, Jacob, Gideon, Samson’s parents, among others, it was always through the Son, “the Angel of the LORD”. This is how the Son could reveal himself, in the form of a man as he did, for example, to Abraham (Gen 18:1-19:1), Jacob (Gen 32:22-31), Gideon (Jdg 6:11-22),and Samson’s parents (Jdg 13:3-23). He stood before Joshua as “a man”, as “the commander of the army of the LORD” (Jos 5:13-15), in order to make sure Joshua remembered who the true general of the LORD’s army was, and who it was who gives them victory. It was probably the Son who walked around in the garden after Adam and Eve fell into sin and called out to them in order to speak to them about the serious consequences of sin and their only hope of salvation (Gen 3:8ff). Because the Father speaks to sinners through his Son, the Son is called The Word (John 1:1-3, 14-18). “This is my beloved Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” (Matt 17:5). “Listen, so you may continue to live!” (Isa 55:3). I repeat: No sinner can see the Father and come to him except through the Son.
Now back to Exodus 33
The Word of the LORD through Moses after the grave sin with the golden calf showed how serious it is to fall away from the LORD. The people deserved the death sentence of being forsaken by God. “But I myself will not go up among you, because you are a stiff-necked people, and I would consume you on the way” (v 3). The words spoken to Moses created great sorrow among the people. The seriousness of the situation was further emphasized when the Israelites were told to remove their jewelry, which they did (v 4-6). In addition, Moses took his tent and “set it up outside the camp, far away from the camp” (v 7), which showed that the holiness of the LORD was incompatible with their sin. The Tabernacle had not been built yet, so before then Moses’ tent became the temporary place for God’s revelation. There, completely covered with smoke and darkness, God spoke with Moses, so that Moses would not be destroyed by God’s holiness. “Whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stand at the door of the tent, and the LORD would speak with Moses” (v 9).
Moses, however, had a hard time understanding how the LORD was, at the same time, a consuming fire against all sin who therefore could not accompany Moses, and yet also the same God who promised that his “One-Sent-Out” (Malach) would go before them (v 2) and also said, “[You] have also found favor in my sight” (v 12). That is why Moses said to the LORD: “Look, you yourself have been telling me, ‘Lead this people up,’ 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’” (v 12). How can the Holy God both be a consuming fire against sin and simultaneously be gracious toward sinners? This was hard for Moses to understand. So he said to the LORD, “[If] I have found favor in your sight, please show me your ways, so that I may know you, so that I may find favor in your sight” (v 13).
The deep secret, which goes beyond human understanding, is that the one true God, the LORD, is three persons in one godhead, the completely united Trinity. God is not just the Father, but at the same time both the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The good news for all sinners is that the Son, the “One-Sent-Out”, is the way to the Father. Learning to understand the only way to the Father gives certainty of his gracious favor. Only through the vicarious sacrifice of the Son can sinners be declared clean, so that they are not destroyed by the holiness of God. Isaiah, who teaches so much about the Messiah, God’s Son, calls him “Wonder” and “Mighty God” (Isa 9:6) and “the holy way” (Isa 35:8). “No one unclean can walk on it, but it is for them” (Isa 35:8, SE). That means: The purity which sinners need in order to come to the Father can only be found with the Son, and it is offered to all sinners by grace alone. Those who believe in him [=those who travel on the way to the Father] are not condemned but have gone over from spiritual death to life.
No sinner can see the face of the Father, but the Son is the gracious face of the Father. To clarify how this grace and the holiness of the LORD exist together, the LORD says: “My Face will go with you and give you rest” (v 14, SE). When the Son, “The One-Sent-Out by the LORD”, goes with them—which had been promised earlier—then the Father and the Spirit go as well. This was an important clarification for Moses when he said, “If your Face is not going to go with me, do not send us up from here. After all, how would people know that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Isn’t it in this way: that you go with us…” (v 15-16)? 1400 years later, Jesus spoke concerning the way to the Father to his disciples: “ ‘You know the way.’ “Lord, we don’t know where you are going,” Thomas replied, “so how can we know the way?” Thomas also needed to come to a better understanding of the way. “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. If you know me, you would also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him… Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. Or else believe because of the works themselves.” (John 14:5-11).
The Conclusion of Exodus 33
Verses 18-23 talk about hos Moses wants to see the Father directly, not just indirectly through the Son, the “One-Sent-Out by the LORD.” “Let me see your glory! (v 18). But no sinner can see the Father directly and live. Moses could see the Father’s incomprehensible goodness and even hear the Father’s voice more directly than any other prophet. “The Lord said, ‘I will make all my goodness pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD [YHWH] in your presence. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.’ He said, ‘You cannot see my face [apart from seeing it through the face of the Son], for no human may see me and live’” (v 19-20). The LORD now allows Moses to see as much of the Father’s glory as possible without being destroyed by it: He lets his glory pass by and holds his hand protectively over Moses (the Hebrew verb used here is sakak = cover over). Only when he has passed by does he take away his hand, so that Moses can see his back. Once again the Father emphasizes: “No one can see my face” (v 23). Only when this age is over, on Judgment Day, will all who through faith are clothed with the Son’s righteousness be able to “see him as he really is” (1 John 3:2).
[1] According to many Bible passages, such as Deut 2:1 and 1 Kings 9:26, the Bay of Aqaba of the Red Sea.