1 And the I AM said to
Moses, "Leave here, thou and the
people which thou have brought up out of the land of Egypt, and go to the land
which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, 'To thy descendants
will I give it.'
2 "And I will send
an angel before thee, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the
Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:
3 [The angel will lead
you] To a land flowing with milk and honey. I will not go up in the middle of
thee because you are a stubborn people, and I would destroy you along the way."
4 And when the people heard these evil words, they mourned, and no man did put on him his ornaments.
4 And when the people heard these evil words, they mourned, and no man did put on him his ornaments.
5 For the I AM had said to
Moses, "Say to the children of Israel, 'You are a stubborn people. I will
come up in the middle of thee in a moment, and destroy you. So then, take off
your ornaments, so I may know what to do to thee.'"
6 And the children of
Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.
God tells Israel to
leave Sinai and travel across the wilderness, but He says He won't be traveling
with them. He will provide an angel to protect them, but He Himself will keep
His distance because they keep making Him mad. From this time on, it appears
Israel quit wearing jewelry as a sign of mourning over God's opinion of
them.
The Tent of Meeting
7 And
Moses took the Tabernacle, and pitched it outside the camp, far off from the
camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the Congregation. And it happened, that
everyone who sought the I AM went out to the Tabernacle of the Congregation.
8 And it happened, when Moses went out to the Tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and everyone stood at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the Tabernacle.
They showed proper
respect.
9 And it happened, as
Moses entered into the Tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at
the door of the Tabernacle, and the I AM talked with Moses.
I don't believe there is
anyone else that the Bible tells us God talked to this way on a regular basis.
10 And all the people
saw the cloudy pillar stand at the Tabernacle door, and all the people got up
and worshiped, every man in his tent door.
11 And the I AM spoke to
Moses face to face, just like a man speaks to his friend. And Moses turned back
to the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, didn’t leave the
tabernacle.
Certainly, Moses gets a
great deal of attention- in the Bible and out- for his relationship with God,
and rightly so. But look at Joshua. He was just as faithful, and it appears he
was there to hear the voice of God, too.
The Glory of the I AM
12 And Moses said to the
I AM, "See, Thou say to me, 'Bring up this people.' and Thou have not let
me know whom Thou will send with me. Yet Thou have said, 'I know thee by name,
and thou hve also found grace in My sight.'
Moses wants to know who is going to help him accomplish what God has told him to do.
13 "Now then, I ask
Thee, if I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thy way, that I may know
Thee, that I may find grace in Thy sight, and think of this nation as Thy
people."
Moses also wants to know
God better. Imagine, he is speaking to God face-to-face, yet craves to be even
closer to his God.
14 And He said, "My
presence will go with thee, and I will give thee rest."
15 And he said to Him, "If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence."
"God,
If You aren't going with us, don't bother sending us."
16 "Because how will it be known that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Isn’t it because Thou go with us? This is how we will be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are on the face of the earth."
Moses says the whole point of leaving the Egyptians was to demonstrate God's power and love of those who serve Him. If God doesn't go with then, why should they bother going on?
17 And the I AM said to Moses, "I will do what you have asked also, because thou have found grace in My sight, and I know thee by name."
18 And he said, "I
beg thee, show me thy glory."
Moses wants to see God.
19 And He said, "I
will make all My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the
I AM before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show
mercy on whom I will show mercy."
In a way God is saying
Moses has already seen His glory.
20 And He said,
"Thou cannot see My face, because no one will see Me, and live."
God is so great and so
pure that mere, fallible, human flesh can't tolerate seeing Him.
21 And the I AM said,
"Look, there is a place by Me, and thou will stand on a rock,
22 "And it will
happen, while My glory passes by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock,
and will cover thee with My hand while I pass by,
23 "And I will take
away My hand, and thou will see My back parts. But My face will not be seen."
God said it was ok for
Moses to see His backside, but no more.
I have often wondered if
"the glory of God" is actually all of history, not God's physical
form (God being a Spirit, He likely has no physical form to see). If so, no one
can see the future and live. Science Fiction has thoroughly explored the
problems with time travel and changing the past by knowing the future. Always
seems to totally mess everything up.
On the other hand, Moses
is credited with writing the book of Genesis, the history of the human race up
to that point. When he saw the "backside of God" did he see the past?
Did God show him Adam and Eve, all of the act of Creation, Abraham, etc?