Exo 33:17-23 | KingComments | STEP | Moses again pleads for the people. There is never a better basis to plea for others than to take the place of separation from evil. This position places him in the presence of God and therefore gives him an even closer connection with the people. This is the result of separation sought to be faithful and where only the glory of God is the motive that leads to that separation. Moses is not content that an angel will go with them. He wants the LORD to go with him. He appeals to what God has said to him: that He knows him by name and that he has found grace. These are two things with a special meaning: 1. the LORD has a personal relationship with Moses and 2. Moses acknowledges that that relationship is based on grace. He approaches God on that basis. Moses does not only want to know the way that will lead him and the people to the promised land. He wants to know God’s way. He reminds God that it is about His people. Taking the place of separation is done personally, but you are only there in the right way if you have the whole people of God in your heart and bring them in intercession before God. Moses points God to His people. He asks God: “Do not lead us up from here.” At the same time He appeals to God’s grace. He asks Him to prove it by “Your going with us”. God answers that He will do what Moses has asked. He Himself will go with them and give rest to Moses. Where God is present, there is rest.

‏ Exodus 33:17-23

The LORD Must Go with Them

Moses again pleads for the people. There is never a better basis to plea for others than to take the place of separation from evil. This position places him in the presence of God and therefore gives him an even closer connection with the people. This is the result of separation sought to be faithful and where only the glory of God is the motive that leads to that separation.

Moses is not content that an angel will go with them. He wants the LORD to go with him. He appeals to what God has said to him: that He knows him by name and that he has found grace. These are two things with a special meaning:

1. the LORD has a personal relationship with Moses and

2. Moses acknowledges that that relationship is based on grace.

He approaches God on that basis. Moses does not only want to know the way that will lead him and the people to the promised land. He wants to know God’s way. He reminds God that it is about His people. Taking the place of separation is done personally, but you are only there in the right way if you have the whole people of God in your heart and bring them in intercession before God. Moses points God to His people. He asks God: “Do not lead us up from here.” At the same time He appeals to God’s grace. He asks Him to prove it by “Your going with us”.

God answers that He will do what Moses has asked. He Himself will go with them and give rest to Moses. Where God is present, there is rest.

A Place by the LORD

Moses has not finished asking questions yet. He has assured himself of God’s presence for the way he must go. There is rest. From that rest he now asks to see the glory of the LORD. This goes beyond asking for His way. Going the way of and with God is the way that gives sight of the glory of God. Seeing God’s glory is also more than what he saw of God on Mount Sinai. There he saw the holiness of God.

God tells him that he will see His glory. Moses asks: “Show me Your glory!” The LORD answers that He will show all His goodness. God’s goodness is His glory. He wants us to know Him by the glory of His grace, more than by the glory of His majesty. The prophet Hosea speaks of a time when the Israelites will “come trembling to the LORD and to His goodness” (Hos 3:5).

The special thing about the glory of God’s goodness is its sovereignty. We see this sovereignty in that He will be gracious to whom He will be gracious. He is the sovereign Owner of every human being and completely free to make distinctions in granting His grace. Nowhere do we read that He says “I will be angry with whom I will be angry”, for His anger is always righteous and holy. Never does He predestine a man to judgment, for that man does that himself.

Paul quotes what God says of Himself to Moses here in response to those who accuse God of injustice. They find it unjust that He gives His grace to some, while righteously withholding that grace from others (Rom 9:15 ; 18).

Yet Moses does not get to see the glory of the LORD in full, but only a part of it, and standing on the rock in the cleft of the rock. In the Old Testament, God’s glory can only be seen in a limited way. At that time God cannot yet show what He showed in Christ later on. In Him God’s righteousness and God’s love have become fully visible. Christ can say: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9).

The rock is a picture of Christ (1Cor 10:4). Moses must stand on that basis to see God’s glory. He has to disappear completely in it. Christ is “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15).

Moses can only see the glory of God if He has passed him by. We can only see the glory of God when He has gone His way. We also see that in Christ. We look back at an accomplished work on the cross where the full revelation of God as light and love has become visible.