Exodus 33

1. And the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it:

The LORD now commands Moses to leave the place where they were camped at Mount Sinai and to ascend from here, the place where they ascended to first when they came out of Egypt. He is sending them to the land He swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the three patriarchs of the nation. His promise was that their seed would receive this land, and now those promises are going to be fulfilled and proven true. That is, they would have been if the people had obeyed and been willing to go up! But that story is not given until the book of Numbers.

2. And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:

Instead of going with them himself, He instead promises to send an angel before them in their presence. In the next verse, He will explain that this angel is to take His place. Thus, we would believe this angel was not THE angel of Jehovah, Whom we believe is Jehovah Himself or a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ. Instead, this is some created angel, like Michael, who is said to be Israel’s prince.

Through this angel, then, He promises to drive out the inhabitants of the land. In this list, as is often the case, He lists only six of the seven nations of Canaan. The Girgashites of Deuteronomy 7:1 are not mentioned here. Instead, we only have the six nations of the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. We talked about these six nations and what their names mean in our comments on Exodus 3:8. In our comments on Exodus 13:5, we talked about the various times these nations are listed, and which nations are skipped in which lists of the nations.

3. Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way.

This is the fourth and last time Yahweh calls the land He is bringing them to “a land flowing with milk and honey” in the book of Exodus. Bullinger says milk and honey stand for all kinds of good things by the figure Synecdoche or “Transfer of Noun” of Species. The milk would indicate cattle, and the honey would indicate bees. Thus the land will be full of good grazing for animals, and full of good crops like honey that it will produce.

Yet He gives them bad news as well: He is going to send this angel He mentioned in verse two in His place, since He will not go up in the midst of them, as He has been doing up until now. The reason is that they are a people of stiff necks, meaning they are stubborn and obstinate. They certainly proved this when they refused to obey God’s covenant terms and instead asked for their own, made-up idol. In the presence of such a people, Yahweh implies that He will become so incensed against them that He will consume and bring an end to them at some point as they travel down the road, before they ever get to the land of promise.

We will find later in the chapter that Moses talks Yahweh out of this determination. In verse fourteen He relents and agrees to go up to the land with the people after all. So was this an idle threat? Was Yahweh just speaking in a temper, and did He not really mean what He said? Not at all! He not only meant it, but when He did go up with them, what He threatened is exactly what happened. Consider His pronouncement in Numbers 14:28-31. “Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: 29. your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward which have murmured against me. 30 Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.” So Yahweh did rise up in anger against that stiff necked generation, and He did decide to consume them along the roadway. He told them “your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness,” and they did. This was no empty threat. Yet it is good that He went up with them Himself, rather than sending an angel in His place. They should have taken His presence seriously, however, and turned from their stiff necked ways. Alas, they did not, and the consequences were exactly what He said they would be.

4. And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments.

The people hear this bad news and mourn, none of them putting on any of their usual decorations, a sign of sadness and distress. “Evil tidings” means a speech of calamity. “Evil” is the Hebrew ra’a, and means more along the lines of calamity than of sin. It was a calamity that Israel, the one nation on earth chosen by God, nearly lost His presence with them at this time. It was right that they mourned and viewed this as a calamity. Even though His presence killed them, it was better to die in His presence than to live outside of it. But if only they had learned from His words and softened their stiff necks!

E.W. Bullinger in his Companion Bible notes points out the fact that the people heard this news shows that Moses had descended the mountain again, though the text did not mention the fact.

5. For the LORD had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.

Here we learn that their leaving off their usual decorations was not spontaneous, for Yehovah had commanded them to do it. He pointed out to them their stiff necks, and the danger that He would ascend into the midst of them and, in His anger, consume them in one moment. This was a real danger, for sin and stubborn rebellion raise the ire of God. Yet He did not want to do this, and so He demanded they appear before Him undecorated, simply in their sinful condition, and wait for His decision regarding their punishment.

In light of this verse, Bullinger points out that Yehovah favored them while they were an afflicted people in Egypt, but now that they are a stiff-necked people, they need to be humbled. This was a sad descent. Better when they were enslaved to the Egyptians than to their own pride and stubbornness.

6. And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.

This was done in obedience to this command of the LORD. We might say that after they stripped off their ornaments, they stood, in a way, naked before the LORD, awaiting His determination regarding their fate. So it will be when the wicked stand before the Great White Throne in the far future. They will be stripped of all decoration, and will stand helpless in their sin. All they will be able to do is wait to see what the LORD will judge regarding them.

They are described as being “by the mount Horeb.” This is Chorev in Hebrew, and means the Desert Mountain. It is another name for Sinai. It was here that Moses saw the LORD in the burning bush in Exodus 3. There, Horeb was called “the mountain of God.” Horeb is mentioned three times in Exodus, nine times in Deuteronomy, twice in I Kings (once when Elijah travels there), and once apiece in II Chronicles, Psalms, and Malachi.

7. And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the LORD went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.

Moses takes the tent of meeting and removes it from the camp. This, apparently, was the solution for Jehovah not suddenly arising in anger and consuming the whole camp in one moment. He would meet with their representative Moses outside the camp, and so by distancing Himself from this stubborn people He would not arise in anger against them and destroy them in an instant when they deserved it. This shows how far this people was from being ready to dwell in the presence of the holy God. What a glorious day it will be when He can dwell among them and be pleased to do so!

This tabernacle of meeting is not to be confounded with that which afterwards was made by the commandments of God as the moveable temple. The word tabernacle just means a tent. This tabernacle of meeting was not the tabernacle that later would be built to hold the table of shewbread, the candlestick, the golden altar, and the ark of the covenant. Instead, it was a tent where Moses would meet with Jehovah, and it existed before the building of the moveable temple tent.

From this time forth, anyone in Israel who sought Jehovah for some matter went outside the camp to appear before the tent of meeting where Moses pitched it outside the camp. Bullinger has the interesting and important note on the fact that Moses moved the Tent of Meeting outside the camp: “In presence of corporate failure God withdraws Himself. Typical of our own day. Those who seek Him must ‘go forth to Him.’ Cp Heb. 13.13.” This is very true. We must leave the great congregation of human religion and go forth to our God where He resides: outside the activity of modern Christianity, yet where He has always been, dwelling in the truth.

8. And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle.

Because of the importance of Moses entering the tent to meet with Yahweh, it seems the Israelites practiced this sign of respect and interest, rising to stand in their tent doors to watch him until he entered the tent. This was a good thing they did, for he was entering the Presence for them, even as Jesus Christ sits in the presence of God acting as the One Mediator between us and God today, as we read in I Timothy 2:5. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

The word man here is ish, the common Hebrew word. While it technically means a man, there is no reason not to think that many of the women did the same thing.

9. And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.

As these men watched Moses, here is what they saw. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud that marked Yehovah’s presence with them descended from where it floated over the camp and stood at the door of the tent of meeting. Then, from within the pillar, the Lord talked with Moses. Yet there is no word for “the Lord” here in Hebrew, so it has been added by our translators as an ellipsis. Yet we can have no doubt but that it was indeed the Lord Who talked with him.

10. And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door.

Since the people were watching, they all saw the pillar of cloud descend to stand at the tent door for the LORD to commune with Moses. When they saw this grand sight, they responded by going into action and worshiping right there standing in the entrances of their tents. It seems this was a spontaneous thing. What a sight it would be to see their leader entering into the very presence of the mighty God to speak with Him!

11. And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.

Face to face means directly. Bullinger says face to face is “To emphasize the communion in the presence of corporate failure; this must ever be individual and personal.” The point is that Jehovah did not use a mediator. He did not speak through an angel or a prophet. He did not speak through a dream or a vision. Instead, they talked together like friends talk. This is quite a thing, to imply that Moses was Jehovah’s friend. Yet it is not unique. Abraham is called God’s friend in James 2:23. The Lord Jesus Christ called His eleven apostles His friends in John 15:15. Thus in the Bible it is possible for God to consider a member of Adam’s race a friend.

We would suspect that the way Jehovah actually spoke to him was in the preincarnate form of the Lord Jesus Christ, and so they did speak face to face, being able to see each other. This raises the question we mentioned earlier if the physical form of God, the Lord Jesus Christ as we know Him today but preincarnate, actually traveled within the pillar of cloud, walking or floating there or some such thing. We cannot possibly know the answer to such a question, of course. But to be in the face of someone means to be in his presence, and so Moses and Jehovah were in each other presence and speaking with each other. This could not be apart from the visible Logos or Expression of God, Who in the New Testament is called the Lord Jesus Christ, being present.

We learn that Moses was not alone in Jehovah’s presence; his servant Joshua the son of Nun was there with him. Bullinger says the word for servant in Hebrew means personal attendant. This is the first time we have Joshua called the son of Nun, though there can be no doubt but that this is the same Joshua we read of earlier, since he was also called Moses’ attendant in Exodus 24:13. Nun (pronounced noon) probably means Progeny from the idea of a sprout or extension of oneself. Joshua is described as a young man. Moses was over eighty years old at this time, and as far as we can tell Joshua was about thirty years younger than that. While that is not exactly what we would think of as young, it certainly is relatively young compared with Moses.

When Moses left the tent to return to the camp, we learn that Joshua did not, but remained there awaiting Jehovah’s return. Of course, we take this to mean that he did this during this period, for of course Joshua had been out of the tent before and would be out of it again. But during this important epoch he remained in the tent of meeting awaiting the return of the other two, Jehovah and Moses. Of course, we know that Joshua was not a priest, since he was of the tribe of Ephraim, not of Levi. But since this tent was not the temple tent, he was not in the holy place or the most holy place and had every right to be there.

The picture is interesting, with Moses passing in and out to communicate Jehovah’s words and commands to the people, and to return to communicate with Him, while Joshua remained in the Presence continually without leaving it. When we recall that the name Joshua, coming from the Hebrew Yehoshua, was changed to Iesous in Greek and which we render as Jesus, we realize that here Moses is going in and out of God’s presence while Jesus is remaining always in it. In a very real way we understand that the New Testament Jesus is also always in God’s presence, and we who are in Him can enjoy the same privilege. As Paul writes in Ephesians 3:12, we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him (meaning our faith related to Jesus Christ). We too in Christ are privileged to remain constantly in God’s presence. We are not among those outside who wait eagerly for a mediator to come out to them to communicate God’s will. We are in the One Who remains always in the Presence. We have our great and privileged position in Him.