In Exodus 34:9, Moses admits to the Israelites being “a stiff-necked people” deserving of punishment, but he pleads to Yahweh to “forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.” 

Yahweh’s response in verse 10 is amazingly forgiving, because he says to Moses, “I’m going to make a covenant with you, that in full sight of your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. And the people you’ll be living among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you.” Not a mention of punishment for sins past; instead, Yahweh is giving the Israelites a totally fresh start and a great future to look forward to. 

And all would go well if the Israelites then “stuck to Yahweh’s instructions” (11), “rejected all other gods” (14), and “steered clear of making any sort of treaty with the locals in the land” (15). Not because this was some sort of condition to be met for the covenant to work, but because of what Yahweh said in verse 14, that his “name is Jealous and he’s a jealous God.” Which opened up a whole new view of Yahweh as an emotionally reactive being, because it could mean serious consequences if the Israelites’ loyalty and affections strayed elsewhere.

But look at it from Yahweh’s point of view. His loyalty to Israel and his affection for the Israelites were absolute. He loved them, which he’d clearly shown by his amazing miracles to rescue them, by putting up with their grumbling, and even relenting on wanting to wipe them out for their blatant rebellion. He was “jealous” all right, like a jealous lover who gives his all to make the relationship flourish and prove he’s totally committed. How shattering it becomes, then, when the one he loves seeks affection elsewhere and dismisses him entirely.

In Yahweh’s relationship with Israel, therefore, he’s reacting exactly like a jealous lover, so expect him to be shattered too when his love and commitment, his trust and loyalty, and his wanting the relationship to flourish, are all contemptuously dismissed. When that happens in marriage, and husband or wife seek affection elsewhere it carries a terrible risk of arousing deep rage – so deep that it drives out all thoughts of forgiveness, and instead in pours the desire to punish.   

And that was the risk Israel took with Yahweh, because they just didn’t get it that he loved them that much. It didn’t take long for them, however, to discover “The consequences of contempt”….(next blog)

“The Lord,” having shown Moses his glory in terms of his “mercy and compassion” in Exodus 33:19, doesn’t stop there, because in Exodus 34:1, he has Moses “chisel out two more stone tablets like the first ones he broke,” and then has Moses climb Mount Sinai with the tablets to “present himself to me on top of the mountain” (2).

And it’s there that he again “passed in front of Moses” (6), but this time “proclaiming his name” to Moses in more detailed form than the first time, saying, “The Lord, the Lord” and specifically saying it twice (6) – but with a difference between the two, because the first “Lord” in Hebrew is just Yahweh, but the second “Lord” is Yahweh El – the “El” bit meaning the one true God of the universe, the mighty God supreme in his authority and power over all gods. But why the need to know both Yahweh and Yahweh El?

There’s a clue in what “the Lord” says next in verses 6 and 7, describing himself as “the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” This is the Yahweh Moses had come to know too, since their very first meeting together back in Exodus 3, from Yahweh first saying “the cry of the Israelites has reached me” (9), to rescuing them from the Egyptians and “taking you as my own people, and I will be your God” (6:6-7). Because this, Moses would learn, was the nature of Yahweh: in a word it was “love.”

But Exodus 34:7 then adds the word “Yet,” so there’s a change of tune coming up, revealing another side to Yahweh’s nature, because “he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” And Moses would come to know this Yahweh too, Yahweh El, the Yahweh who still loves but as the supreme God of the universe also administers justice. And Moses got a whiff of this side of God’s nature as well in Exodus 32, when he pleads with Yahweh to forgive the Israelites for making their own gods of gold (31-32), appealing, therefore, to the merciful nature of Yahweh he’d come to know. The response he got back from Yahweh was, “Go on, then, lead the people to the place I spoke of. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin” (34). Which he did in verse 35 with a plague.  

So Yahweh forgives but he also punishes. What, then, decides his “Forgiveness or punishment”?….(next blog)

In Exodus 33:14, God promises Moses, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” The first part must’ve been very encouraging for Moses, because he and God had become so close (11) that Moses couldn’t bear the thought of continuing their journey into Canaan without God’s guaranteed presence with him (15). 

But what did God mean by “I will give you rest”? There’s a clue in Moses’ reply, because “rest” to him in verse 16 meant God making it known that he was well pleased with Moses himself, but also pleased enough to continue his promise to Abraham through the Israelites, despite their stubborn, “stiff-necked” resistance to him.

In verse 17 God’s all for providing that “rest” for Moses, because “I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” In other words, “I know you well, Moses – and you’re very dear to me – so of course I’ll give you the rest you desire.”

But how did God then make that “rest” known and real to Moses? It was by “a show of his glory” in verse 18 – first of all in verse 19, by having “all my goodness pass in front of you, because that’s my name; goodness is who I am,” which God had been showing Moses and the Israelites from the moment he’d “heard them crying out because of their slave drivers” (3:7). But how did God show his goodness to Moses in such a way that, at this touchy moment in Moses’ relationship with him (33:15-16), it would give Moses that very personal “rest” he needed?

That came in God’s second statement in Exodus 33:19, when he told Moses, “I’ll have mercy on whom I’ll have mercy, and compassion on whom I’ll have compassion.” Rest assured, Moses, that no matter what happens on this planet, or to you personally, I am “the Lord” above it all ruling everything by mercy and compassion. Meaning, Moses, that I’m totally aware of both you and your circumstances, and if it’s my mercy you need to see you through, then you have it, and the same with my compassion. Which God immediately showed by having Moses chisel out two new tablets to replace the ones he broke – and no telling Moses off for breaking them either (34:1).

Instead, in Exodus 34:5-6, God showed his glory a second time to Moses, to expand on what his name means to include “Both love and justice”….(next blog)

In Exodus 33 the time was ripe, in both Moses’ life and the lives of those stiff-necked Israelites, for God to reveal where his glory truly lay. Was it,  as Moses had requested, in seeing God in his actual person (like us “seeing him as he is” in 1 John 3:2)? 

Instead, God left Moses with a bit of a riddle, that in fact his glory would be best seen in knowing what he meant by “I will have mercy on whom I’ll have mercy, and compassion on whom I’ll have compassion” in verse 19. In reality, though, it wasn’t much of a riddle for Moses, because his entire life up to this point – and the lives of all the Israelites – was founded and preserved on God personally selecting them as an example of his mercy and compassion (3:7-12). 

The Israelites, for instance, escaped sure death because “God heard their groaning” as slaves in Egypt (2:23-24), and he was “concerned about their suffering” (3:7). His compassion for them then led to him doing “mighty acts of judgment” on their behalf to free them (6:6).

The Israelites then escaped sure death again in Exodus 32:9-10, when God was about to wipe them out and start afresh with just Moses, but following Moses’ appeal God “relented”(14). It was a close call but this time it was God’s mercy that kept them alive.

God was dropping a huge clue here, that his plan through Israel would never have got started, nor would it have continued, without his compassion and mercy. Moses would learn the same lesson too, because when he brought God’s plan through Israel to a grinding halt in the next chapter (33:15), God didn’t tell him off or threaten to wipe him out; instead, he answered Moses’ need, “because I’m pleased with you and I know you by name” (17). God took into account the trying circumstances Moses was in, and how well he knew Moses himself. Moses too, then, was an example of pure mercy and personal compassion on God’s part.

Which fitted in very nicely with Moses asking God back in verse 13 to “teach me your ways,” because at the heart of “God’s ways” – and his glory – is knowing about his mercy and compassion, that he will have mercy when mercy is needed for the furtherance of his plan, and likewise his compassion. 

But why did Moses need to know that God’s glory was in his mercy and compassion? Because God had promised Moses in verse 14, “I will give you rest”….(next blog)

It seems like an odd request for Moses to ask God to “teach me your ways so I may know you” in Exodus 33:13, when he’d already had forty years of God teaching him his ways and “speaking to Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend” (11).

Something must have happened, then, to make Moses think he maybe didn’t know “God and his ways” so well after all. Up to this point he’d been fine with all of God’s teachings, all the laws, sacrifices and offerings. On those things Moses was on firm ground, dutifully passing on every teaching from God to the Israelites word for word, without a concern or even a question on his part. 

But then the ground began to move under him when God and his ways didn’t make sense. Why on earth, for instance, would God want to destroy the Israelites after all that he’d gone through with them, rescuing  and protecting them so he could fulfill his promise to Abraham? And on a personal note, why wasn’t God letting Moses know “whom you will send with me” on their final journey into Canaan (12)? Was God not happy with Moses’ leadership? It was all a bit worrying, stirring Moses to push God a bit as to where he and Israel really stood with him (15-16).

Was there something about God and his ways that perhaps he’d missed? Well, the opportunity soon came up for God to answer that need when Moses went for broke and asked God to show him his glory (18). And that’s when God taught him a huge lesson that went far beyond Moses’ request to see him in person. Because seeing God in his form couldn’t fully reveal his glory, since “no one can see my face and live” (20). But God could show his glory in showing why he’d responded to Moses’ extraordinary request in the first place. 

And that happened when God told Moses in verse 19, “I will have mercy on whom I’ll have mercy, and compassion on whom I’ll have compassion,” because this was God’s answer to all that Moses was asking him for – from “teaching me your ways so I may know you,” to putting his mind to rest knowing that God was pleased with him and his leadership over Israel, to knowing God’s Presence would still be with them on their way into Canaan, to knowing Israel was still special to God, despite them being so “stiff-necked,” and finally to having God reveal his glory to him.

All of these things piled up in Moses’ head would be loosed and freed by simply “Knowing about God’s mercy and compassion”….(next blog)

No one up to the time of Moses had ever dared to ask God, or even thought of asking him, to “show me your glory,” Exodus 33:18. So what stirred Moses to do it? And how did he know there was more to God than what he’d already seen of him too, having spent a long time with him on Mount Sinai (19:20 and 32:1), and many more hours having God speak with him “face to face as with a friend” as well (33:11)? 

But the circumstances in which Moses found himself wanting to know more of God than anyone before him – or even after too – were exceptional. A tipping point in the future of God’s plan had been reached. The Israelites were on the verge of entering Canaan at last, in fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham, but Moses had called a halt, unsure of where he and Israel really stood with God. Twice now God had threatened to destroy every Israelite, so was God with them or not?

Moses was feeling pretty shaky, to the point he couldn’t – and wouldn’t – take one step further unless he knew God was still truly and convincingly with them (33:15-16). God’s reply in verse 17, therefore, was super encouraging, because he not only promised Moses to “do the very thing you’ve asked for,” but also his reason for doing so was because “I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” God was deeply and personally honouring the Moses he knew and loved so much. 

And that was enough for Moses to ask God: “Well, in that case, let me see you as you really are in all your glory.” And what he got was the answer he hoped for too, that yes, “the Lord” would appear in “all his goodness in Moses’ presence” (19) – but – what God meant by that was more than just seeing “my glory passing by” for Moses’ eyeballs to see (22), because in what seems like a disconnect, God also says in verse 19, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 

But why say that in the middle of promising to show his glory? Because God had promised Moses back in verse 14, “I will give you rest,” and what better way for God to put Moses’ mind to rest than showing him why he was doing this exceptional thing for him? It was purely out of compassion for Moses himself and what he was going through, and mercy toward the Israelites, despite their stupidity. Because this is where God’s glory would really come to light for Moses, in how God responded to him “When God’s ways didn’t make sense”….(next blog)

Boosted by God’s promise to be with Israel on their long-awaited journey into Canaan, Moses boldly says to God in Exodus 33:18, “Now show me your glory.” 

Which seems like an odd request, because hadn’t Moses seen a ton of God’s glory already? He’d had God speak to him through a burning bush, seen God blast Israel out of Egypt with ten amazing plagues, seen the pillars of fire and cloud protecting Israel through the desert, and seen and heard the frightening racket when God came down to Mount Sinai. What more did Moses need for God to show his glory? 

There’s a clue back in verse 13, when Moses says to God, “If I’ve found favour in your eyes, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favour with you.” God’s miracles had been a marvellous show of his power and his love for Israel, yes – but what Moses was after from God in verse 16 was, “I need to know from you personally that you’re pleased with me and with your people, and that you truly have singled us out from all the other people on the face of the earth.” 

It’s an understandable request, because God had been so angry at the “stiff-necked” Israelites for totally dismissing him in favour of a homemade golden cow, that he told Moses he’d had it with Israel and he was wiping out the lot of them (32:7-10). And soon after that, God had also announced to Moses he would not be accompanying the Israelites into Canaan, because if they got stiff-necked again on the journey there, this time he really might destroy them (33:3). 

So Moses had no idea what God might do. On the one hand, God had promised Moses he’d see things through, so not to worry (33:14). On the other hand, did God really approve of Moses himself, and still see Israel as his specially chosen people? To which God replies, “Of course I’ll be with you, because I’m really pleased with you” (17). And that’s when Moses jumps in desperately with, “Then show me your glory” (18). Not in more words of assurance, or in more promises, or in more burning bushes – he’d had all those from God already – this time it had to be in a show of “the Lord” himself in person. 

And the Lord’s reply is amazing, because he tells Moses in verse 19, “I’ll cause all my goodness to pass in front of your eyes, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence.” But was that all there was to “What God meant by glory”?….(next blog)

So God’s way of reassuring Moses that he was well pleased with him, and without doubt had totally “found favour in his eyes,” was to tell Moses in Exodus 33:17, “I know you by name.” He’d said the same thing to Moses at an earlier time too, because Moses reminded him in verse 12, “You have said to me, ‘I know you by name.’” 

And God got that point across from the very start in his dealings with Moses, because the first two words God spoke to him in Exodus 3:4 were, “Moses, Moses.” God then quickly went on to explain why he’d called Moses by name too, and that was the massively important job he wanted Moses to do in “bringing my people the Israelites out of Egypt” (10) to kickstart the earth-shaking promises he’d made to Abraham. But how did God know Moses was the right person for the job?

There’s a clue in verse 11 when Moses says to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” That’s amazing, because Moses was “educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and powerful in speech and action” (Acts 7:22). With all his power, money and prestige, he could’ve been a great man, with ambition oozing out of every pore. But forty years with sheep had humbled him and dulled the eloquence and confidence he’d gained in Egypt (Exodus 4:10). At which point God knew Moses was ready – ready, that is, to trust in him, not in himself, when impossible situations arose leading hundreds of thousands of people through extremely trying circumstances.

And God was proved right, because “for three days” after leaving Egypt the Israelites “travelled in the desert without finding water,” and the first water they found was undrinkable too, Exodus 15:22-23 – and what was Moses’ first reaction? He “cried out to the Lord” (25). And the same again in Exodus 17, when for days the Israelites had travelled from place to place and again “no water for the people to drink” (1). And this time the Israelites were really angry (3). But again, Moses “cried out to the Lord” (4). He didn’t try to sort the situation out by himself; he looked to God. Moses was a man God knew he could work with.

God was proved right on that score too, because Moses’ humble trust in him meant that God could “speak with Moses like a friend” (33:11) – and respond happily to Moses’ highly personal request to God to “Show me your glory”….(next blog)

The seeds of concern began for Moses when God told him in Exodus 33:3, “Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you (Israelites) are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.” And to Moses again in verse 5, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you (to Canaan) even for a moment, I might destroy you.’”

The Israelites had really done it this time – making that stupid image of a golden calf and claiming it had saved them from Egypt, and not God. So if that’s what they thought of him, then one more insulting dismissal of his obvious love and power on their behalf would rightfully risk the death of them. Which really distressed the Israelites (4), but it also deeply concerned Moses who said to God in verse 15, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.”

To Moses there was no point in going one step further toward “the land that God had promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (1), so in reply to God he boldly said: “Then everything stops right here, because life is nothing without your Presence with us.” And Moses didn’t finish there either, because he went on to say in verse 16, “How will anyone know you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? And what else will single us out from all the other people on the face of the earth?”  

Bold words again, but in reality, what was the purpose of God doing all he’d done for Israel if, by deserting them, it looked like he didn’t care for either Moses or Israel after all? And why do all those outstanding miracles to release Israel from the most powerful nation on earth if they now ended up looking like any other nation that God wasn’t with? “Remember that this nation is your people,” Moses said in verse 13, so why, at this crucial point when the whole purpose of God setting up Israel to be the “great nation” God promised to Abraham was about to happen, would God not be present with them to see it through?

Well, God was clearly deeply pleased with Moses – and wanted him to know it too, because he replied in verse 14, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” His “rest” being verse 17, that “I will do the very thing you have asked (finding favour in God’s eyes, verse 13), because I am pleased with you,” but then the best assurance of all when God then says to Moses, “And I know you by name”….(next blog)

Who in the whole history of humanity knew God like Moses did? Who had God call to them personally by name, for instance, from a bush on fire that didn’t burn up in Exodus 3:2-4? Who had God express his own personal concerns like he did to Moses in verses 7 to 9? Who had God personally tell them in his own voice, “I will be with you” (12)? And to whom did God first reveal his own name and the meaning of it (13-14)? 

And who had deep and detailed conversations with God like Moses did all through thirty chapters in Exodus, including a strong appeal to God by Moses to not destroy the Israelites, which God agreed to (32:11-14)? And who had “the Lord speaking to him face to face, like a man speaks with his friend” in Exodus 33:11? 

Moses came to know God in an extraordinary way, and look at the effect it had on him. From being a timid man afraid of what God was asking him to do (4:10-13), he became so angry at the Israelites for not doing what God had asked them to do, that with no fear whatsoever he actually smashed the very tablets that God with his own hand had inscribed his laws on (32:19). How bold was that?

From timid to bold, then, Moses’ relationship with God had transformed him. And what he learnt about God along the way was extraordinary too. He knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of God’s “burning” anger (4:14), including God wanting to kill him (4:24). But he also experienced God’s encouragement (4:14-16), and the huge elation of God doing the impossible, freeing the Israelites as he’d promised from the most powerful genocidal tyrants on the planet. 

So why, having experienced all these things about God already – about his power, his utter faithfulness to his promises, and his deep love and concern for his people – did Moses then say to God in Exodus 33:13, “If I have found favour in your eyes, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favour with you”?

Well, since everything else in Moses’ life up to this point had been God’s doing, then this must’ve been God’s doing too – which was bring Moses’ mind into sharp focus, that the most important thing we humans can experience in our lifetime is a very real and always present God revealing himself and his love for us. Because as Moses came to realize: “Life is nothing without God’s presence”….(next blog)