For Unto Us is Born the Revelation of God- Exod. 33:19-23

As we continue our journey through the Scriptures this Christmas season, I want us to consider the traveling that many of us will be doing over the next couple of months. Whether by plane, train, or automobile, trips are punctuated with helpful signs along the way that guide people in the right direction (departure lists in an airport, train stops, exits, traffic lights, etc.). Such signs help point people in the right direction as they head to their ultimate destination. In our own textual journey we have already passed two signs that in their own way point toward Christ: the “seed of the woman” (indicating that Jesus would be born of a virgin and ultimately defeat sin), and “the substitute” (foreshadowing Christ’s sacrifice for sin). As we press on, I’d like for us to consider another journey that, in many ways, is similar to our own—I’m thinking of the Israelite’s journey out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and to the Promised Land. Somewhere between the wilderness and the Promised Land, the people of God took an exit and stopped off at Mt. Sinai where Moses went up the mountain and received the Ten Commandments—a helpful guide that God graciously provided his people so that they might live distinctly different from the rest of the world and enjoy a meaningful relationship with the Divine. However, Moses’ extended time on the mountain with the people down below left the former slaves vulnerable to falling into idolatry (some learned habits picked up in Egypt must have been hard to break). Imagine your shock when after spending time with God and receiving the Law you return to the people you are leading, only to find that they are worshipping a golden calf! After discipline ensues and Moses pleads with the Lord on behalf of his people, God, again out of grace, calls the hebrews to continue the journey they began, assuring them that He would indeed, despite their wicked ways, continue alongside. We pick up the story in Exodus 33:19-23. After being reassured of God’s presence, Moses continues his conversation with God and is provided with an inspiring revelation of God—the kind of revelation that foreshadows the greatest ever revelation of God who would perfectly represent the Divine for all the world to see.  

I. PART #1: MOSES’ REQUEST-33:18

Again, immediately preceding this, God has just encouraged Moses by assuring him that His presence would go with him despite the wickedness the former slaves had displayed. You might think that this would have satisfied Moses and come as a great relief, and yet Moses desired more. He requests of God “I pray You, show me your glory” (33:18a).

What is up with this request? Did not Moses witness God’s glory more than almost anyone else in the Bible? Here we have a guy who had seen the plagues of Israel, witnessed God parting of the Red Sea, light a pillar of fire, and form a protective cloud. Had not, God spoken with Moses face-to-face and had he not come to know his personal name at the base of a burning bush? The truth is, Moses had indeed seen many elements of the glory of God in the past. However, he now desired to see it again, in any form God would allow. The purpose for this request was even more assurance as they left and continued the journey. Just as God’s glory had gone with them before, Moses wanted a sign to bolster his confidence that this would continue to be the case.  He wanted to know that God was indeed still close, still protective, and still interested in him and the Israelites.

When I was fifteen, my dad was looking for a car for me. One day we came across a car that I would eventually drive for years and we took it for a test drive. I remember my dad accelerating, pushing all of the buttons, playing with all of the gadgets in the car in order to prove for himself that this would be a good car to drive in the future. It meant more to us that we could have this experience rather than just take the seller’s word for it. It was the same for Moses, although he should have trusted in what God said, He desired an experience, a special revelation of glory, in order to give him full confidence.

II. PART #2: GOD’S RESPONSE-33:19-20

Following the bold request God responds with “I Myself will make all my goodness pass before you” (33:19a). The promises that God had made between Himself and Israel despite all that was working against it would continue to follow them into the Promised Land. While any reasonable person would no longer trust in the Israelites, God’s grace decides to keep His promise. This reestablishment of the covenant is seen here as God’s “goodness” will be made to pass before Moses—not his wrath or anger or judgment, but his undeserved, unmerited, unfathomable goodness. What an awesome picture of the love and grace of God!

Second, God says to Moses “and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you” (33:19b). Names do not necessarily mean much to us in our society, however, in biblical times, names were the representation of who someone was. When God says that he is going to “proclaim His Name” before Moses, he is really saying that he is going to reveal his character and essence (or, in other words, what he is like). This would be provided in an effort to encourage His people to be like him. In other words, he is saying, “I’m going to tell you what I’m like in order that you can learn what to be like.”

God’s third determination is as follows: “and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion” (33:19c). Both these two parallel phrases reveal much concerning the character of God. Rather than taking this as a personal word to Moses, there is a general principle that God is revealing here. God’s mercy and compassion were granted to all of his covenant people, but they are not automatically available to all other people unless they join the covenant. Put another way, God’s special mercy and compassion is reserved for those who belong to Him—it is not for everyone. For anyone to enjoy these things, they must become, one of God’s own.

Romans 8:28-“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

God’s comments were to reassure Moses that despite the wickedness his people demonstrated, both Moses and His people would receive grace and mercy because he had made them a promise. You may say, “that’s does not seem fair,” or “that doesn’t make sense” but to do so would be to question the perfect one who invented fairness, justice, and goodness. Like it or not, God is free to do as he pleases and whether or not it makes sense to us, it is perfectly proper to Him.

One illustration might be that of parenting. Good parents are naturally more inclined to extend mercy and compassion toward their own children because they belong to them. (They are also more willing to discipline and rebuke their own children). This comes from the personal relationship the parents have with the child that does not exist between the parent and just any child they don’t even know. Likewise, this special grace and mercy shown to Israel by God, while not easily explainable to us, makes sense when we realize the personal relationship He had with his children.

While God is willing to reveal his goodness, his name, his grace, and his compassion to Moses and his people, he stops there and refuses to show Moses’ his face—“but, he said, ‘You cannot see my face’” (33:20a). Full disclosure of God’s glory is something humans are not prepared to see in this life (and, quite possible, the next).  

To see God’s face would mean death. Either it would kill you to see God, or it requires death of a believer to see Him—“for no man can see my face and live!” (33:20b).  

III. PART #3: GOD’S REVELATION-33:21-23

As the conversation continues, God almost seems to be doing something he just said that he would not do—“then the Lord said, ‘Behold there is a place by me…” (3:21a). However, What God is doing here is allowing Moses to experience as much as he can without killing him. His glory is so vast and so beyond anything that everything God now instructs Moses to do in order to have this experience must be on God’s terms.   

Here Moses is instructed to stand on the rock—“and you shall stand there on the rock” (33:21b). It is incredible to reflect on how God uses the elements in different experiences in Moses’ life. We have him passing through the water, standing on holy ground, we are shown a pillar of fire, etc. It is through these concrete things that God chose to speak and reveal things to Moses and the Israelite people.

It is insinuated in the original text that the term, “the rock” refers to Mount Sinai. This was God’s special meeting place for Moses and him to have their pow-wows. The Israelites had received their Ten Commandments from this mountain and dwelt themselves in its shadow for some time (a period of time that spans over ten chapter in Exodus).  

God’s glory would not be something that Moses would be allowed to gaze upon for long. He also wouldn’t be allow to take a picture of it 😊. It would rather be something only visible for a split second as it was moving away from him—“and it will come about, while my glory is passing by” (33:22a). Therefore, if he happened to have an Iphone or Android and tried to take a picture of it, it would be a blurry image that not even the fastest high speed camera could adequately capture. 

The vantage point from which Moses would enjoy this revelation of glory is also chosen by God—“that I will put you in the cleft of the rock” (33:22b). God himself is the one planning all of the things involving this experience (probably because it is a God-sized task). God is going to provide everything this experience requires.

As God continues his run down of what is about to happen, he says something curious—“and cover you with My hand until I have passed by” (33:22c). God doesn’t really have hands, feet, a face, or a body of any sort. These are anthropomorphisms, or a way to communicate how God was going to shield Moses from the impending death that would be experience if he saw God in human terms. Only God could protect Moses from the death he would experience from witnessing the presence of God.

Following all of these preparatory measure, God says “then I will take my hand away” (33:23a). This describes the point in time in which Moses will be allowed to see the fast-moving, blurred image of God he would be allowed to witness.  

Just what would Moses be allowed to view? “and you shall see my back but My face shall not be seen…” (33:23b). Typically we don’t see much when we see someone’s back walking away from us. However, if we know the person, we can still tell who it is. Moses would be allowed to see the minimum of what was required to know that it was God he had just witness, even for a brief second. Though not a complete portrayal, Moses could rest assured that God was there in his midst.

In the past 50 or so years there has been much talk about the atom. The fundamental building block of life. Scientists have constructed diagrams and detailed pictures of what these atoms might look like. However, no one has ever seen an atom in real life because of its incredibly small size. Not even the most powerful of microscopes can capture a picture of this building block. The best they could do was arrive at a reflection or atomic shadow by which to form their inferences into the smallest unit of structure.  In the same way there is a Hebrew saying that states to see only the back and not see the face means to see nothing at all.

God had allowed Moses to catch a glimpse of his glory. Figuratively this fast-moving sign of God’s back moving away provided Moses with the assurance that the Lord was still leading his people towards the promise land and it was up to them to follow Him. This experience parallels the experiences that began every major phase of the Israelite’s journey. It was the sign at the burning bush that led Moses back to Egypt. It was the sign of the many plagues that pointed the way out of Egypt. It was the sign of the parting of the Red Sea that thrust the freed slaves into the desert an out of Egyptian slavery. It would be this sign in the rock that would push the Israelites the rest of the way from Sinai to the Promised Land.

So What?

After having observed Moses’ request, God’s response, and the Diving revelation we can gleam incredible insight into the special privileges we have as children of God. Like Israel, we as God’s children can trust that God will be gracious to us and show us special mercy and compassion. While this should not make sense to us, it is because of his love for us as his kids that allows us to experience this undeserved. Likewise, we realize that God takes an active role in assuring and leading those who are on the right path, guiding them every step of the journey.

However, there is at least one important difference between Moses’ experience and our experience. Moses received a partial revelation of God that directed him and his people the rest of the way to the Promised Land. Today’s believer has been given the full revelation of Jesus Christ that guides them to the glories of heaven.

In fact, so much of the Exodus story prefigures elements of Christ’s ministry. For instance, the Hebrews went down into the Red Sea (on dry ground) as slaves escaping the tyranny of Pharaoh and come up out of the water on the other side as freed people heading to the Promised Land. Later Joshua would lead his people across the Jordan river (miraculously again) demonstrating yet another change of identity for God’s people from wandering wilderness dwellers to conquerors of the land of promise. Jesus comes much later (sharing a name with Joshua) and is baptized in the same Jordan river in an effort to instigate his ministry that would pave the way for enslaved sinners to find freedom in Christ and entrance into heaven (symbolized in their own baptism with water). Or how about this: following their Red Sea experience, the people of God wandered in the wilderness for 40 years and were tested in their faith (failing at times to keep up their trust in God). Following his baptism, Jesus wandered in a wilderness for 40 days, was tested by Satan, and passed with flying colors. In the Exodus, Moses scales Mt. Sinai and brings down the Law so that the people of God know how to live under the old covenant. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus scales the Mount of Galilee and provides a series of sermons known as the sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Therein, Christ provides his commentary on the law of God and educates his disciples in how they should live as citizens of the kingdom of God under the new covenant. In Numbers 21, God disciplines his people with a painful plague of poisonous serpents. After Moses intercedes, God instructs him to raise up a serpent on a bronze pole. All who looked at it were healed. Jesus comes into a world of suffering sinners, takes the sin of the world on himself and is raised up on the cross (“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,”-John 3:14). All who look upon the cross and trust in the one upon it are healed of their problem of sin and spared the judgment of God.

All of these Old Testament signs point to the greatest sign of all—Jesus Christ—who fulfills these predictions and is capable of leading all in every phase of their life both now and forevermore. He is the greatest revelation of God and God has given us all that we need in providing us Jesus!

Colossians 1:15-“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”

Hebrews 1:3-“And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

Are you following Jesus today? Are you paying attention to the signs that God has provided you? For unto us is born the Revelation of God! His name is Jesus and he is the way the truth and the life, no one comes unto the Father expect through him.