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)
Buck To Basics 