(Exo 32:31) Then Moses returned to the LORD and said, "Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold! {32} "Yet now, if You will forgive their sin; but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written." {33} And the LORD said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. {34} "Now therefore, go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, My Angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin." {35} So the LORD plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made.

 

(Exo 33 NKJV)  Then the LORD said to Moses, "Depart and go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, 'To your descendants I will give it.'

 

For the moment, they are to proceed to the Promised Land.  God’s disapproval is noted as He says, “the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt.”  God still isn’t claiming them, nor is the score completely settled.

 

(Ex 33:2) "And I will send My Angel before you, [another work of angels.  This time a particular angel] and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. {3} "Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people."

 

“For I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way,”  It reminds me of language parents would use:  “Don’t make me come in there!”

 (Ex 33:4) And when the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. {5} For the LORD had said to Moses, "Say to the children of Israel, 'You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments [jewelry], that I may know what to do to you.'" {6} So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb.

 

ornaments [jewelry]: or expensive outer garments according to the Septuagint.  The Septuagint is not translating based on the original language, but rather the customs of that day, or the times shortly after this.  It was apparently a sign of repentance.  Later, tearing the clothing came to be a form of repentance until it became a ritual without meaning.  Speaking for the Lord, Joel said: "Now, therefore," says the LORD, "Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning." {13} So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.  (Joel 2:12-13)

(Ex 33:5) “. . . That I may know what to do to you.'"  Apparently, God will base His decision on how they respond to His call for repentance.

Moses “distances” himself from the Children of Israel:

 

(Ex 33:7) Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting.

 

 

(Ex 33:7b) And it came to pass that everyone who sought the LORD went out to the taber-nacle of meeting which was outside the camp.

 

The Hebrew writer makes reference to “outside the camp.”

 

(Heb 13:11-13)  For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp.

(Heb 13:12) Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. {13} Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.

 

 

(Ex 33:8) So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle.

 

 

(Ex 33:9) And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.

 

 

(Ex 33:10) All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door.

 

 

(Ex 33:11) So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.

 

 

(Ex 33:11) And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.

 

“And he would return to the camp.”  Why?  That’s where duty calls.  He feels a burden to work with these people to reconcile them to God

“Joshua the son of Nun, a young man,”  Some calculate his age to be about fifty which hardly seems young, so some wonder if the word should have been rendered “a single man.”  I submit that 50 is young from the view point of an 80 year old, but it could have been a “single man.”  Many of God’s servants were called “young men.”

 

 Why “did [he] not depart from the tabernacle?”

Some have suggested that he needed to guard the tent.  Others have suggested that he needed to be there to take any messages from God that needed to be communicated to Moses.  Along this line: that it would be wrong to abandon a tent with God’s presence visibly present at the door.

 

(Ex 33:12) Then 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 grace in My sight.'

 

“Whom will You send with me?” – God, are You going to go with us?  Is Your angel going?

(Ex 33:13) "Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people."

 

“Show me now Your way:”  What is your plan for these people.

 

“That I may find grace in Your sight” – Am I okay with you God, or am I just one of this group of rebels?

 

“And consider that this nation is Your people.” – Are you going to forgive them and take them back, or are they eternally separated from You?

 

(Ex 33:14) And He said, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." {15} Then he said to Him, "If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.

 

God’s Presence is the critical issue.  Moses has some idea of the multitude of problems that lie ahead of them.  He is unwilling to start the journey if God is not going to be with them.

(Ex 33:16) "For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth."

 

 

(Exo 33:16 NASB)  "For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Thy sight, I and Thy people? Is it not by Thy going with us, so that we, I and Thy people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?"

 

 

(Ex 33:17) So the LORD said to Moses, "I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name."

(Ex 33:18) And he said, "Please, show me Your glory." {19} Then He said, "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." {20} But He said, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live." {21} And the LORD said, "Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. {22} "So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.

 

 

(Ex 33:23) "Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen."

 

Exodus 33 ends.  Ex 34 begins with getting the ten commandments re-written.  The pieces begin to come together.  Life will go on.

 

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