Exodus 33

AND the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people, which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it.

And I will send an Angel before thee, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee By my own special and gracious presence, as hitherto I have done, but I will depart from thee. In pursuance hereof God removes his tabernacle without the camp, ver. 7. I will only make good my promise to thy fathers, and send an Angel to accomplish it, but I will show no peculiar and further kindness to thee.: for thou art a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee in the way Lest thy sins should be aggravated by my presence, and favour and thereby I should be provoked utterly to destroy thee. So he shows that their perverseness makes this severity necessary for them, and that God even in his judgement remembers mercy to them..

And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments Their precious garments, or jewels, which the women reserved, as we saw ver. 3. This was a visible sign and profession of their inward humiliation and repentance for their sin and of their deep sense of Gods displeasure..

For the LORD had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiff-necked people: I will come up into the midst of thee To wit, in anger; not in favour, ver. 3. where the words are the same, but the sense differing. in a moment, and consume thee Obj. But God had promised he would not do so, ver. 14. Ans. That was signifyed to Moses, not to the people, to whom the threatning was most proper and profitable; and this threatning has a condition implied, to wit, except they repent, as the next words plainly show.: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee That I may either inflict my judgments or suspend them, as thou art penitent or impenitent..

And the children of Israel stript themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.

And Moses took the tabernacle A tent set up by Moses for the people to meet in for sacrifice and seeking of God and other parts of Gods Worship, untill the great Tabernacle should be finished: for such a place was necessary or highly expedient for that use, and therefore it is not probable they would be without it for a years space., and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp In testimony of Gods alienation from them and displeasure against them, this being a kind of e... communication, and all was too little to bring them to a thorough repentance., and called it the tabernacle of the congregation It was so before, but he called it so now, to show that God had not wholly forsaken them, and that, if they truly repented, he still permitted them to come into his presence and to seek the Lord.: and it came to pass, that every one which sought the LORD Either for his favour, or for counsel and direction: See Exod. 18. 1..., 19, 20., went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.

And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door and looked after Moses Testifying their grief for Gods departure, their respect to Moses whom they had lately despised, their earnest desire of his intercession for them, their longing for Gods favour, and their humble expectation of a gracious return from God by the hands of Moses. until he was gone into the tabernacle.

And it came to pass as Moses entred into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended Whereby God testified his approbation of Moses and of that which Moses had done, which might seem to some severe and cruel., and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses.

And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door.

And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face Or, mouth to mouth, as Numb. 12. 8. Not that God has face or mouth, or that Moses could behold it, which is denied, verse 20. but the sense is, he spake with him freely and familiarly, and immediately, not by an Angel in a dream or vision, as he did to other Prophets. See Deut. 34. 10., as a man speaketh to his friend. And he turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle Who abode there either to keep it from injury or inconvenience, for as it was set up by mans help, so it needed mans care to preserve it; or to assist and direct those who resorted thither to seek God in Moses his absence. And Ioshua seems to be appointed for this work rather than Aaron or any other of the Elders, because they had one way or other been guilty of the late Idolatry, and God would hereby punish them with a temporary suspension from his service and their office..

And Moses said unto the LORD, see, thou sayest unto me, bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me (i. e.) What Angel it is, whether it be a created Angel, for then I profess I am unsatisfied with him, verse 15. or the same increated Angel Christ, who has hitherto accompanied us, and then I am content. But I am at a great loss by thy withdrawing thy cloudy pillar from the people to whom it is to be a guide.. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name (i. e.) Distinctly and familiarly, as one whom I have much converse with and great kindness for: thy name is written in my book. Compare Exod. 32. 32, 33. Psal. 87. 5, 6. Phil. 4. 3. And knowing here notes approbation and affection, as Psal. 1. 6. Matth. 7. 23. compare Ier. 1. 5., and thou hast also found grace in my sight.

Now therefore I pray thee, If I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way The course and manner of thy dealings with men, and particularly thy purpose and will concerning me and thy people, and the method which thou wilt choose for the fulfilling of thy promise, and the course which thou wouldst have me take, and the way by which I shall conduct thy people to the promised Land., that I may know thee (i. e.) Thy mind herein: men are said to know God when they know his mind and will: or, that I may experimentally know thee to be what thou hast promised thou wilt be to me and to thy people: Or rather, that I may thereby know the..., namely that I shall find grace in thy sight, as it follows, that I may be assured that thou wilt be reconciled to and present with me and thy people., that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people Both by thy own choice and purpose and promise to their parents, and by their recognition of thee for their God, and their returning to thee again.

And he said my presence Heb. My face, i. e. I my self, by comparing this with 2 Sam. 17. 11. The Angel of... y presence. Isa. 63. 9. the pledge of my presence, the clou... y pillar, and I will not turn thee over to an Angel, as I threa... ed, ver. 2. See Deut. 4. 34. shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest Not only rest from thy present anguish and perplexity of mind for thy people, but in du... time I will bring them to their restingplace and settled habitation: for it is evident from verse 15, 15. that Moses his care and prayer was more for the people than for himself..

And he said unto him, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence Let us rather live and die in the Wilderness with thy presence and favour, than go into Canaan without it: for even that promise of rest I value not without thy presence. So he ecchoes back Gods words to himself, and turns Gods promise into a prayer..

For wherein shall it be known here By what other token shall other nations and after ages know., that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I, and thy people, from all the people (i. e.) Distinguished by thy peculiar kindness and priviledges afforded to us. Or, be made wonderful or eminent or glorious above all other people. that are upon the face of the earth.

And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for tho... hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.

And he said, I beseech thee show me thy glory. (i. e.) Thy glorious Majesty, the brightness of thy countenance, some such manifestation of thy self as becomes thy excellency, and such as shall be seen in the other life, or that glorious shape which together with an humane voice thou hast now assumed. But for the essence of God, as that was and is and ever will be invisible to bodily eyes, 1 Tim. 6. 16. so a man of such great reason and deep knowledge in divine things and universal Learning could not be ignorant of it, and therefore would not desire it..

And he said, I will make all my goodness Or, My beauty, for so that Hebrew word is sometimes used, Gen. 6. 2. 1 Sam. 9. 2. or, my excellency, or my glory, as appears from verse 22. which was the thing Moses desired to see: And the difference between his request and Gods answer does not lye in glory and goodness, but in showing his glory so as Moses might gaze upon it, and making it only, as it follows, to pass before him, to wit, in a sudden and very transitory vision. Though it may be understood properly of Gods goodness and kindness to men, of which the following words speak, and that was the great, if not the only, thing ascribed to God, chap. 34. 6, 7. pass before thee, and I will proclaim the Name of the LORD (i. e.) My name: The noun for the pronoun, as is very frequent. I will give thee notice when I come that thou maist attend, I will not surprize thee, nor steal by thee. Or, will proclaim or publish of the name of the Lord, or, of my name, i. e. some part of it, especially my goodness which may seem to be here principally intended, 1. by comparing this with chap. 34. 6, 7. 2. By the following words, which seem a limitation of this general expression. q. d. I will proclaim, manifest, and impart my goodness, but with a difference, not to all men, but to whom I please. 3. By other places, where the name of the Lord is principally, if not solely, understood of his goodness, as Isa. 50. 10. and in many places of the Psalms. before thee: and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious This may seem to be added with reference to the people for whom Moses is interceding, lest Moses should misunderstand or misapply what is said here and chap. 34. 6, 7. The sense is, I will show this peculiar favour to thee, I will also be gracious towards the people thou pleadest for, but not promiscuously. Some of them I will severely and eternally punish for this and their other sins, and some of them I will pardon and save, not because they are righteous or innocent or less sinners than the rest, but merely out of my own good pleasure and most free grace, whereby I will show mercy to some when I will not show mercy to others. Thus this place is interpreted by the Apostle, Rom. 9. 16, &c., and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

And he said, Thou canst not see my face Either 1. My essence. But that no man can see, neither in this life, nor in the next. Or rather 2. My glorious presence.: for there shall no man see me, and live This may note either 1. Gods purpose that that blissful vision of God in glory shall be given to no man here, but is reserved for the future life. Or rather 2. The impossibility of the thing from mans weakness, which is such that if God should display all the beams of his glory to him, it would certainly astonish, overwhelm, and destroy him..

And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me In this mountain where my residence and glorious presence now is, and in that part of it whence my voice now cometh to thine ears. and thou shalt stand upon a rock

And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand That thou maist not be undone by thy own desires, nor swallowed up with the sight of my glory. while I pass by.

And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts (i. e.) Imperfectly and in part, as when we see only a mans back-parts and not his face. Thou shalt see a shadow or obscure delineation of my glory, as much as thou canst bear, though not as much as thou dost desire.: but my face shall not be seen.