Each Day in the Word, Monday, January 13, 2025

Exodus 33:1-23 NKJV

33 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.’ And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. 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.”

And when the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. 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, that I may know what to do to you.’ ” So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb.

Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp. 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. 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. 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. 11 So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.

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.’ 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.”

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. 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.”

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.”

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. 23 Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”


After the horrendous act of idolatry that Israel had committed in making and worshiping the golden calf, Moses already interceded for the people once, seeking God’s forgiveness on their behalf. And the Lord agreed to send an angel before them to fulfill His covenant-promise to lead them into the Promised Land. But this was not a cause of rejoicing for Moses, or for the people, because the Lord’s anger remained. He informed them that He would no longer be accompanying them with His gracious, fatherly presence. They had already broken His covenant, and the tragic result was a broken relationship between God and the people.

But the Lord didn’t leave it at that. He called on them to remove their “ornaments,” their jewelry, to humble themselves before Him and repent, putting themselves at the mercy of the Lord, allowing Him to determine their fate. Then He gave them a visible sign of His lingering favor upon Moses, with whom His relationship was not in question but was still fully intact. Moses wasn’t sinless, but he was faithful, and so he retained God’s favor, though even he couldn’t see God’s face. Then Moses, whose heart went out to the poor, pathetic people, dared to intercede again before the Lord on their behalf, begging the Lord to accompany them again with His gracious presence. And, because of His favor toward Moses, the Lord agreed. His anger toward them was calmed. He would go with them after all.

This chapter provides us with a striking comparison between Moses, the mediator of the Old Testament, and Christ, the Mediator of the New Testament. All have sinned, even as all Israel had sinned. But God is well-pleased with His Son. Jesus does see the Father’s face! So, if God allowed Himself to be persuaded by the intercession of Moses to lay aside His anger and to reclaim the people as His own, how much more is the Father persuaded by the intercession of Christ, who is at the right hand of God, making intercession for us (Rom. 8:34)! Therefore, let us not hope to be reconciled to God through our own efforts, but only through the intercession of the one Mediator between God and man, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us pray: Father in heaven, forgive us our sins for Jesus’ sake, and go with us as we journey to the Promised Land. Amen.

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