Exodus 33 Please Go With Us

God is exasperated over Israel’s sin. As further punishment, He withdraws His presence from among them. Moses pleads for them. PLEASE go with us! We can’t go without You.

Israel had made the most egregious sin. They broke the FIRST commandment He gave them. “You shall have no other gods before me.” Moses convinced Him not to kill them ALL and start over. NOW what is He supposed to do with them? Let’s join in the story and find out.

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The Father looks to the Son and shakes His head. “What am I supposed to do with them?”

“Love them” replies Son.

“I DO! But they don’t love me!”

“They are children” supplies Spirit.

“Rebellious children!”

“Yes. They are at that” answers Son.

“It’s going to take time for them to learn to TRULY trust Me. And it’s going to take time for the hurt to fade in My heart” comments Father.

“So what will We do in the interim” asks Son, with love.

“I will take them where I promised, but I won’t personally go with them. I will send an angel in my place” commits Father. “If I were to go with them personally, I would wind up KILLING them! I’m still THAT hurt.”

Father, Son, and Spirit are all in agreement, as they are all One also. God has decided. It’s time to inform Moses of the decision.

Moses stands alone, looking over the graves of all who had fallen either by the sword or plague as a result of the Lord avenging the peoples’ sin. His heart is heavy at the cost, but he KNOWS it is a just punishment.

“Moses” called God.

“Speak Lord, for Your servant is listening” replied Moses.

“Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” (Exodus 33:5)

Moses immediately went back into the camp and called for the elders. “The Lord is still angry, and rightfully so. You ARE a stiff-necked people! And you have dishonored Him in the worst way by making gods for yourselves. This is what He commands of you. ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” Moses looked at each of the elders who were themselves wearing ornaments. “Pass this COMMAND to EVERYONE. There is not to be an ornament left on a finger, neck, arm, wrist, or ear by morning.”

The elders began to spread the word throughout the camp. As the elders moved off, the Lord addressed Moses again.

“Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” (Exodus 33:1-3)

Moses’ heart broke. God was saying that He would withdraw from the people. He was putting them back on Moses’ shoulders! The Lord was affirming that He would keep His promise, but He would do so grudgingly and from a distance. He was exasperated with the people. At this point, Moses was too!

Moses cried out in pain, tore his garments, and fell to the ground weeping, when the full weight of the Lord’s words settled on him. All those around him turned to see what was happening. The elders rushed back and knelt beside him. The waited for him to speak.

Finally, Moses raises his head. He shares the Lord’s heavy words. “I will keep My promises, but I will NOT go up among you” was the crushing message Moses conveyed.

The weight of this second message put the first one in perspective. Removing the ornaments was VITAL now! The people MUST show their obedience and repentance. They would be lost forever without the Lord. And He would not allow them to hold fast to both; their ornaments and Him.

Word quickly spread throughout the camp of the Lord’s withdrawal from them. Cries of sorrow flowed from every tent. The people ripped their ornaments off as if they were hot metal pressed against their skin and they had to be freed from the pain being inflicted. By morning, even the most stubborn among them had discarded ALL of their ornaments.

The next morning, no one put on any ornaments as they dressed. The whole camp waited in sorrow. They knew that they were lost without the presence of the Lord. God had told them to leave this place, but where would they go? Instead of packing up camp, they stayed within their boundaries and did not approach the Lord’s Mountain.

They waited. Mana continued to greet them each morning. There was plenty of water and food for their animals. No enemy came near them. They were safe, but their spirits were so low that they scraped the ground.

Moses had pitched a special tent away from the rest of the people. He called this tent, the Tent of Meeting. This is where he would go to meet with the Lord when he hadn’t been called to the mountain. Moses brought Joshua with him each time as a scribe. When they went into the tent, the pillar of cloud, representing the Lord’s presence, would settle in front of the door, blocking anyone else from entering.

Each time Moses set out for the tent to meet with the Lord, the people all watched from the doors of their own tents. They didn’t take their eyes off of Moses until he passed through the door and the Lord’s presence settled in front of it. Once the pillar settled, the people began to worship the God they had offended so badly. Their worship lasted the entire time Moses met with the Lord. No one moved from before the doors of their own tents until Moses returned.

Moses continued to pray for the people and wait on the Lord each time he entered this special tent. He longed for restoration. This journey was, after all, the Lord’s work; not his own. And these people were the Lord’s; not his own. Finally, one evening, Moses laid it all out to the Lord. He left his heart bear before 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.’ 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.”… Moses then reminded God that He had said, …“My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”… Finally, Moses laid out his heart’s deepest cry. …“If Your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 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?” (Exodus 33:12-16, some paraphrasing)

God’s heart melted at Moses’ words. This was indeed what He was waiting for from His people. “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” (Exodus 33:17)

Moses’ heart sang with joy at the words of the Lord. He wanted to be even closer to the Lord at that very moment. He wanted to see Him face-to-face. “Please show me your glory” (Exodus 33:18) cried Moses.

God’s heart was moved again by Moses’ deep desire for intimacy. But what Moses sought could not be. “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.” (Exodus 33:19-20)

Moses face lost a shade of its excitement. Before his heart fell any farther, God continued.

“Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 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. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” (Exodus 33:21-21)

Moses eagerly awaited that experience! And he was overjoyed that the Lord would, once again, dwell with His people.

(to be continued)

Father God, I would LOVE to experience that gift! But our relationship is not the same as Yours and Moses’. I don’t believe I have ‘earned’ that right. I WILL see You one day, face-to-face. I will hold fast, and cherish, the relationship we have now. The relationship where You allow me to view Your stories in personal ways. My heart soars every time You open one of Your stories to me. When You ‘play the movie’ in my mind and allow me to give it voice on the page. If pray the words I share allows others to ‘come into the story’ with You too.

THANK YOU that You don’t stay angry forever! THANK YOU for Your forgiveness and mercy. If not for those gifts, Israel would have been wiped off the face of the earth, and SO WOULD I. Thank You for restoration! For Your unfailing love! I need them as much as Israel did.