Starting Over . . . Again! | Exodus 33: 1-23

Perhaps I should not assume this is true for everyone. But for some, perhaps many, I expect you know what it’s like to find yourself tripping over the same relational stumbling blocks again, and again, and again. This is especially true in a marriage when the same old annoyance, the same irritating habit, the same trigger sets off the same old offense. And when it happens, relational and emotional muscle memory kicks in, resulting in the same old response. And then the same old discouraging reality strikes. Here we are again. Will we ever get beyond this? Will we ever get better? We will ever make progress? Will there ever be a day when it will no longer be necessary to take a relational mulligan – when we won’t need to back up, and start over again?

Last week we left off with the Israelites under God’s corrective discipline. On account of their sin - their blatant, high-handed sin, Ex. 32 ends on a note of tension and gloom. Ex. 32:35 says,

 “Then the LORD sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.”

From day one, this marriage between God and Israel has been one step forward and two steps backward. It’s been rocky to say the least. And now here, at Ex. 33, it feels like things are at a breaking point. The entire aim and purpose of God in the Exodus is to make and to take a people for his own so that He might dwell with them. And then this “sin-fest.” Is this it? Is this marriage over before they’d even built the house? That’s the context we find ourselves looking in on at the outset of Ex. 33. Now, just before we read this text, let me say that the purpose of this passage is to engender hope, hope for all who are discouraged and ashamed by their own disheartening unfaithfulness in relation to God. It may seem like a broken record, skipping, repeating – here I am again, at that same place it seems like I can’t get beyond. But our hope is that our God, the God we are worshipping today, is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. We simply cannot hear that enough. If you find yourself, today, aware that in relation God, you are in need of a fresh start, in need of a relational re-set, my prayer is that God, the Holy Spirit might encourage you, and assure you that God is eager and welcoming and prepared to take you in His arms, as it were.

My outline includes four points – a severe mercy; a hopeful response; a faithful friend; and an audacious request. First,

Severe Mercy

Ex. 33 begins with some good news and some sad news.

“The LORD said to Moses, “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.’ “

—Exodus 33:1

That is good news. God’s first words following a more than likely, deadly and prolonged plague are, “Go up to land I promised.” V. 2,

 “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 the land flowing with milk and honey.”

That is such amazing news! God promises safe passage to the promised land. But, it is also profoundly painful news.

 “But I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”

—Exodus 33:3

Land? Yes. Divine presence in your midst? NO! No tabernacle. No more of God’s nearness. Everything is different now. Everything has changed because of their sin. They forfeited God’s personal presence. Now all they’ve got is an angel. Phil Ryken writes,

 “Although the Israelites were still going to the Promised Land, God had canceled His reservation.”

Still, this severe expression of discipline is an expression of mercy. For If God had remained with them, they would be no more. 

 “Say to the people of Israel (notice God refers to them as “the” people, not “my” people), ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you.”

—Exodus 33:5

Severe mercy. If God went with them, and they triggered His wrath, He would consume them. Therefore, not accompanying them into the Promised Land is actually, an expression of kindness. But despite the promise of safe passage, and the fulfillment of the Promised Land, the Israelites, rightly, took this news very hard.

“When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments.”

—Exodus 33:4

Which is a good thing. It’s an appropriate response – and therefore - 

A Hopeful Response

They mourned. Grieving this loss is the right thing. And because their outward appearance should reflect their internal mourning, obeying God’s command to remove their ornaments is a further step in the right direction. In v. 5, God says,

 “Now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” Therefore, the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.”

In chap. 32 we know the Israelites had contributed at least some of their “bling” to make an object to worship. Now they’re removing whatever “bling” remained in sorrowful remorse. And in mourning and in removing their articles of adornment, they are showing that their repentance is sincere. They weren’t interested in the Promised Land without the God who had so graciously rescued them and promised the land to them. They apparently had come to their senses, and realized that being personally accompanied by an angel was not a satisfying substitute to God Himself. It is a significant thing when anyone actually and sincerely wants God Himself, and not just God’s gifts.

When I was a tender-hearted ten-year-old, the notion of going to hell frightened me. It scared me religious. But it does not require “new birth” to desire heaven over hell. It does not require regeneration to prefer peace over pain. But it does require regeneration, - it does require being made new - to desire God Himself over anything else. And so, God tests their sincerity. “Take off your adornments, that I may know what to do with you.” 

One might conclude that God isn’t quite sure what to do next. That would be a wrong conclusion. The author’s intent is NOT to teach that God doesn’t have a plan, or that God might be weighing His next move, or that God’s actions are in some way ultimately dependent on what people do. NOT AT ALL! God knows the end from the beginning. Rather, the author intentionally leaves us hanging in suspense, in order to direct our attention to the heart of true friendship with God. So, third -

A Faithful Friend

Ex. 33:7-11 introduce the existence of a tent. And it’s a different tent than the tabernacle which was described in chaps. 25-31. And we are meant to understand that it is the sin-fest that took place in Ex. 32 that prompted the making of this tent. In other words, the plans that God had given for the tabernacle – the place for God to dwell among His people – those plans have been scrapped. The plans for that tent have apparently now been replaced by this tent. But especially, notice its location. V. 7.

 “Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp . . . (8) outside the camp.”

So, this little “pup” tent, and its location, is a visual reminder to the people that God had distanced himself from the people. God was NOT dwelling with them, and it is because of their sin. And if anyone wanted to inquire of LORD, they’d have to take a long jaunt – past 2-3 million downcast souls – outside the camp to Moses’ little tent – and every step was a reminder that God was now “far off” on account of their sin. 

But even though God had distanced Himself from the people, He had not abandoned them. Whenever Moses, God’s appointed mediator, entered that pup tent, the people watched as the visible manifestation of God’s glory would come down. And when the people saw this spectacular pillar of cloud descend on Moses’ little tent, they would each stand at their own tent doors AND WORSHIP. 

And inside Moses’ little tent, something even more spectacular was happening. God Himself communicated with Moses personally and intimately. According to v. 11, God spoke to Moses,

 “Face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.”

Now, “face to face” doesn’t mean Moses could see God. V. 20 says, no mortal human can see the face of God and live. Rather, “face to face” is a figure of speech describing the kind of access Moses had to God. Moses and God were close. And the description of the intimate relationship Moses had with God sets the stage for what then happens in vv. 12-23, namely, Moses’ audacious request. 

An Audacious Request

Beginning in v. 12, we are taken inside Moses’ tent, and permitted to eavesdrop on Moses’ prayer. And what we hear is the passionate disposition of Moses’ heart. Listen in. V. 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.’  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.” 

—Exodus 33:12-13

Moses has the daunting responsibility of leading 2 million people. The incredible weight of that rests upon his shoulders. It presses down on his soul. That task is challenging enough WITH the Lord’s full engagement. But it was an inconceivable task, an utterly impossible task without the Lord. And so Moses prays, “Ok. Ok. So, an angel will go before me. But what I need to know is who will go with me. My job description hasn’t changed. ‘Bring up the people.’ But you can’t tell me, ‘Bring up the people,’ and then back out on me! You’ve said, ‘I know you by name. You’ve found favor in my sight.’ It doesn’t feel like favor. Is that how you treat your friends?” (Remember, they’re talking like friends. I have a friend, who said me a couple months ago, “If I find you’re still not taking a day off, I’m coming down there. And I’m gonna clean your clock.” That’s how friends talk.) 

Do you see how many times Moses uses the word “favor”? Or, “you said.” “I’m just asking you, God, to act consistently with what you have said. So, IF I’ve found favor, like you said I’ve found favor, and IF you have promised favor, and IF I’m the object of your undeserved love, unconditional election, and saving grace, THEN come on! Show me your ways.” That’s a pretty amazing thing to come from Moses’ mouth. If ever there was a man familiar with God and God’s power and God’s ways and God’s will and how God operates, Moses would top the list. And then the Lord, Moses’ friend, answers in v. 14.

 “And he (God) said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 

Wow! What a relief! Talk about an upgrade from an angel. But Moses isn’t done. He’s paying attention the pronouns. He heard God say, “you” singular, not “you” plural. He heard God say He would go with Moses, to help Moses, to alleviate the weight of it all from Moses. But clearly, the relationship between God and the people has NOT YET been repaired and restored.

 “And he (Moses) said to him (God), “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 your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

—Exodus 33:15-16

Moses appeals for God’s presence to accompany not him alone, but the Israelites as well. And unless God agrees to go up with THEM, then neither Moses nor the Israelites are interested in going anywhere. 

Moses isn’t satisfied with the promise of safe passage to the Promised Land. Moses isn’t satisfied with the promise of elimination of ALL their enemies. Moses isn’t satisfied with the promise that he would enjoy all the abundance that awaited them in this land. Moses isn’t satisfied with ALL THAT – safety, deliverance from every enemy, abundance of milk and honey and provision for millions – IF IT DOESN’T INCLUDE A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD, and the experience of the active and dynamic presence of God – Moses is not interested. Forget the journey. Forget the land. Forget the victories. Forget the rich abundance. Forget ALL THE GOOD STUFF! If God is NOT in it, if God is NOT actively and dynamically present, if God is NOT glorified by it all, and through it all, and in it all, then chuck it! 

This is so important. Notice – Moses’ request confirms the solidarity of his relationship with the Israelites as their mediator. Notice – every request is based on God’s undeserved favor. Moses knows very well that he cannot appeal to God on the basis of anything in the Israelites. They have committed a scandalous sin. They are a stiff-necked people. 

And so, Moses, the mediator, leverages his own favor with the LORD in order to repair and restore Israel’s relationship with the LORD. Moses understands that God’s active and dynamic presence is what makes the Israelites unique. Acquiring a piece of land or property – that’s NOT what sets them apart or means they have “arrived.” That is NOT that big of a thing. NO! Their distinctiveness came from nothing within themselves. Their distinctiveness came from God Himself. It’s their relationship with God. It is His active and dynamic presence with them. It is His dwelling with them. Loved ones, that is the only thing they had going for them. And listen. It’s the only thing we have going for us. God’s active and dynamic presence is the only thing that distinguishes us as special from all the other peoples and groups on earth. And to this audacious request, God graciously responds in v. 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.”

If there is anything that should encourage people whose spiritual nature is about as durable as grass, this display of God’s mercy – God’s agreement to renew His covenant promises to Israel despite their sin - it is nothing less than extraordinary. The LORD is going to accompany Moses AND the people to the Promised Land. But Moses isn’t done with his friend. In v. 18 Moses makes the most audacious request of all. 

 “Please show me your glory.”

—Exodus 33:18

Now, this request is not merely an expression of Moses’ personal desire to go deeper in his relationship with God. If anyone knows God, if anyone has seen God’s glory, it’s Moses. This IS NOT an ordinary, garden-variety devotional time in the life of Moses. This is prayer in the midst of crisis. This is prayer in the midst of judgment. This is prayer in the light of God’s command to depart and lead this stiff-necked people to the Promised Land. And this request cannot be rightly understood apart from the context in which it is expressed. What Moses wants, in light of the awesome news, the stunning reversal, the re-start – he wants assurance. “I need to know, I need to really, really know that the promise you have just made to renew the covenant with Israel – to give this people a “do-over”, the promise you have just made to be personally and dynamically and discernibly present with us – I need something. In light of the great sin these people have committed, in light of the broken tablets that are laying here on the ground, in light of God’s painful declaration that He would NOT be going with them to the Promised Land – Moses wanted some assurance – some special assurance, from God confirming what He had just said to Moses in v. 17. “This very thing you have spoken I will do.” One commentator says, “this is like Moses asking God to put his promise in writing.” 

In other words, Moses isn’t simply looking for a personal spiritual jolt of joy and wonder. John Piper writes, 

“This request to see God’s glory should be understood in this context as a desire to have God confirm His astonishing willingness to show His favor to a stiff-necked and idolatrous people.”

—John Piper

So, how can Moses know? How can we know God won’t consume us because of our ongoing sin? How can we know God won’t consume us, people whom He has saved, people whom He has made his own – AFTER we repeatedly and inconceivably turn away from Him, and away from His rich and extraordinary promises to the empty promises, the deceitful promises held out to us by our respective idolatrous desires? How? How can we know the glory of God’s character, from which we can be sure – absolutely sure – He will act in mercy toward Christians like you and me who continue to sin?

“Show me! Please show me Your glory! O give me a sign confirming the promise you just made to me! Before I take another step toward the Promised Land, I need you to confirm the promise you just made to go with us.” And the LORD immediately answers. V. 19,

“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.”

—Exodus 33:19

God is going to once again proclaim His name, the LORD – just like He did at the initial encounter, back in Ex. 3, when He first proclaimed His name to Moses from the midst of a burning bush. It’s Him. It’s that God, who will once again reveal Himself to Moses. And He will do it in a way the exceeds anything Moses had previously experienced. And He will do it so that Moses might be fully assured of his own call, and assured that the covenant has truly been restored, and assured that God would go with them, and dwell with them in the Promised Land. God is about to give Moses a sign that He is willing to start over again.

The glory of God is expressed in His goodness. And the goodness of God passing before Moses will be a sign to Moses assuring him that the covenant between God and His people is restored. “You want a sign that I’m willing to start over, again, with this people? Here’s the sign that I’m willing to start over, again, with the people. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” That one sentence is the entire message of the entire book of Exodus in a nutshell. That sentence is a summary of what God has done in rescuing the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. That sentence is a summary of what God is doing in renewing His covenant with them in the aftermath of their great sin. It’s mercy! It’s all mercy!! Mercy toward the undeserving and the ill-deserving. Just when God’s covenant seemed to be irreparably broken, God will show His mercy again. Moses asks for assurance of God’s favor – and what a display of God’s favor it will be. A display of God’s favor – bigger than the burning bush, bigger than the plagues, bigger than the parting of the Red Sea, bigger than the pillar of cloud and fire, bigger than the provision of mannah and quail, bigger that all of it. This revelation of God’s glory will be greater and higher than any previous display of God’s glory.

“But you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the LORD said, “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 the 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 33:20-23

Now, just one brief word of application. 

Deep Assurance

Here is what we can be assured of today. If the LORD was merciful to the idolatrous Israelites, then He will be NO LESS merciful to us. The LORD God does not change. If them, then us also. Our story is no different. You can start over with Lord, AGAIN, today. For we have been given an even greater sign of God’s glorious goodness. And we have been given an even great assurance of God’s nearness. For we have been given Christ, and Him crucified. Jesus is the better mediator. Jesus is One who has favor – infinite and deserving favor in God’s sight. Jesus is the image of the invisible God. In Him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, making peace by the blood of His cross. By Him, through Him, you and I can start over, again.