Recap of Chapter 32
Last week, we saw how Israel’s fear led to control which led to idolatry. They didn’t know if Moses was coming back and they wanted assurance that they’d have someone to lead them home, so they took their future in their own hands and made a golden calf to “go before” them.
They needed someone or something to center their lives on, to put their hope in for the future. When things were scary, they decided to “dance around” a golden calf rather than their covenant God.
Behind our idols is our effort to control our lives because we’re afraid. Idols are downstream from fear. One way to find your idols is to find what you’re afraid of. The way to kill your idols is to live in the fear of the Lord. Then our fears are overcome by a greater fear. When we live in the fear of the Lord, we don’t have anything else to fear.
Israel’s idolatry understandably made the Lord very upset. It was a covenant betrayal, a breaking of the marriage they’d just entered, which is why Moses broke the stone tablets. The Lord was going to wipe them out but decided to spare them after Moses prayed for them.
Chapter 32 ends with an ominous tone (v. 34b). The prospect of God’s judgment hangs over the people like a dark shadow. The fallout from their sin will extend into the future. What will the Lord do with his people? What will their consequence be going forward?
Sin Hurts Relationships
As we move into chapter 33, we see that the consequence of Israel’s sin is that the Lord’s presence in their lives is hindered. Their idolatry hindered their nearness to the Lord. We can summarize this section like this: We were made to live with the Lord, but our sin takes us away from him, and him away from us. Sin hurts relationships, including our relationship with the Lord.
In 33:1-11, the Lord’s presence with Israel is hindered because of their sin. In these verses, we’ll see a disastrous word (vv. 1-6) and a distant tent (vv. 7-11). Then we’ll close by thinking about how we can know if God is among us, or how we can decipher his presence.
A Disastrous Word
In verses 1-6, we see a disastrous word. The first two and a half verses seem positive. The Lord tells the people to leave Sinai and head to the Promised Land, “a land flowing with milk and honey” (v. 3a), and that he’ll “drive out” all the nations who currently live there (v. 2).
But if we look closely, we see that something has shifted in how the Lord addresses Israel. His displeasure is evident in the phrases “the people” rather than “my people” in verse 1, and “an angel” rather than “my angel” in verse 2. He’s still going to keep his promises, but now there seems to be distance in his posture toward them.
The middle of verse 3 is the real gut-punch: “But I will not go up among you.” This isn’t an outright rejection of his people, but it is a distancing. It’s like he’s saying, “I may be around you, but I won’t be among you.” He’s saying that he won’t allow them to build the tabernacle.
Can you imagine what the people are feeling in this moment? Imagine someone you love saying to you, “I’ll still be around and I’ll keep my promises, but I don’t want to be close to you.” Distance in relationships is tragic, especially in covenant relationships. Many husbands and wives are essentially roommates instead of soulmates. They’re around each other, but not among each other. They’re together but there’s no depth, no emotional or spiritual nakedness.
This is crushing news, but it’s the result of their sin. They craved a direct display of God’s presence to lead them on their journey. The golden calf was their attempt to capture this presence and make them feel safe. But, as one commentator says, “As part of their punishment for that folly they would have to live with less than they had before.”[1]
Because they made the calf to represent the Lord’s presence, now the Lord threatens to remove his presence. What they tried to manufacture on their own was now further removed from them. As I said last week, our idols aren’t just bad, they’re counterproductive. Dancing around them instead of the Lord takes us further away from the peace and security we desire.
Grace in Judgment
Before we look at the people’s response in verses 4-6, I want to point out that the threat of limited divine presence is actually an act of mercy from the Lord. Even in judgment, the Lord is gracious.
What do I mean? Because God is holy, he cannot tolerate sin in his presence, so the closer a sinful people is to a holy God, the more danger they’ll be in. This is why he says in verse 3, “I will not go up with you, lest I consume you (or “destroy you”) on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” God’s presence with sinful Israel could result in their possible annihilation. By distancing himself from them, he’s giving them a chance. They may yet have a future with him.
The threat of withholding his presence doesn’t mean he won’t help them get to the Promised Land and doesn’t mean he’ll have no more contact with them. It does mean that, because of their sin, he can’t have contact with them as things currently stand. But, as we’ll see next week, rebellion can be overcome through mediation.
Take Off Your Jewelry
In verses 4-6, Israel responds to the Lord’s word. The threat of the Lord not being among them is a “disastrous word,” leading the people to respond with mourning and repentance.
Verse 4 says the people “mourned” when they heard the Lord’s word of judgment. But it also says that their mourning was coupled with action, “no one put on his ornaments.” The Lord told them, “Take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you” (v. 5), so the people responded by “stripping themselves of their ornaments” (v. 6).
It’s not entirely clear what the “ornaments” were, but it’s most likely the jewelry that was left over from the collection for the calf (32:2-3). Taking them off was a sign of their mourning.
Mourning in the ancient Near East involved changing your appearance (eg. wearing sackcloth) not just your attitude. Mourners wouldn’t wear anything fancy because that would contradict what they were feeling. They wanted the outside of their lives to match the inside. This is why many people today wear black to funerals.
What they’d previously taken off to sin they now take off to mourn their sin, and verse 6 says they kept the ornaments off for the rest of their journey, “from Mount Horeb onward.”
Repentance is Mourning and Action
Moses the author is also showing us how Israel is no better than the Egyptians. He uses the same verb for “stripped themselves” in verse 6 that he used earlier when he describes how Israel “plundered” the Egyptians (3:22, 12:36). These ornaments probably came from the Egyptians (12:35), so Moses is saying that, because of their idolatry, Israel deserved to be plundered just like the Egyptians. The Lord will judge idolatry wherever he finds it.
The Lord tells Israel to take off the stuff they used to betray him, so they did, thus renouncing their sin. True repentance is both mourning and renouncing your sin, it’s hating it and stopping it. You haven’t repented just because you feel bad about something. True repentance is godly grief plus action. Judas Iscariot felt bad about betraying Jesus (Matt. 27:3), but he never repented, so he perished. Israel’s mourning (v. 4) points to their repentance, but their obedience in renouncing their sin is why we know they actually repented.
A Distant Tent
The Lord’s presence with Israel is hindered because of their sin. We’ve seen a disastrous word (vv. 1-6), now we’ll look at the distant tent (vv. 7-11).
This short section is a transition between the golden calf incident and what follows. The people are under judgment but, as we’ve already seen, grace is starting to come. This section also provides the context for Moses’ next intercessory prayer (vv. 12-23).
This tent isn’t the tabernacle. The tabernacle was supposed to be in the center of the camp, but this tent is “outside the camp,” a fact emphasized in verse 7, where Moses says this tent is “outside the camp” twice and also says it’s “far off from the camp.”
Moses emphasizes the separation between the Lord and the people. The Lord meets with Moses at this tent, away from the people.
In 32:1, the people spoke disparagingly of Moses, saying “this Moses” isn’t coming back. But now, after the Lord’s judgment and Moses’ intercession for them, they respect him (v. 8). This “rising up” indicates their admiration and affection for him, and also their contrition. They know they owe him their lives and they love him for it.
But it also reveals their alienation from the Lord. Moses is meeting with the Lord and they’re not. The pillar of cloud in verses 9-10 indicates that the Lord is still with Israel, kind of, to a degree, somewhat removed. He’s not in the center of the camp, but outside. He’s around but not among. The Lord hasn’t given up on them, but there’s separation and estrangement. Because of their idolatry, the Lord has put some distance between himself and his people.
Verse 11 says that the Lord would speak with Moses “face to face.” This isn’t to be understood literally, but as an idiom expressing intimacy. What the Lord says 33:20 isn’t a contradiction. God’s “face” refers to the essence and fullness of his personal glory, and no one can see that on this side of glory without dying (vv. 21-23).
Verse 11 shows us that God’s grace is on the move. Israel has betrayed their God, but God continues to speak to his friend Moses on their behalf.
This tent, just like God distancing himself from his sinful people, is a sign of grace. The people have nearly driven the Lord to the point of no return. The Lord threatened to separate. The tabernacle doesn’t seem like it’s going to be built. Moses pitches an alternate tabernacle where at least he can have access to the Lord. The cloud goes down to Moses alone while the people watch from home. And Joshua guards the tent to prevent the people from profaning it too.
But the temporary tent and the meetings with Moses signal that God isn’t entirely done with Israel. This temporary tent will soon give way to the splendor of the tabernacle and the glory cloud will descend over and guide the whole camp. There was rebellion and judgment, but more mercy through mediation is coming.
Deciphering His Presence
We’ve seen that Israel’s sin hindered the Lord’s presence in their lives. Their idolatry hindered their nearness to the Lord. We were made to live with the Lord, but our sin takes us away from him, and him away from us.
Some people in churches are around God but not among God, not with him. How can we know if we’re around but not among the Lord, or if he’s around but not among us? What should we look for to decipher whether his presence is with us? How do you know if God is with you?
First, people with the Lord mourn and renounce their sin. When the Lord called Israel to take off their ornaments and mourn their sin, they obeyed, and for the long haul (v. 6). People who’re among the Lord can’t bear the separation their sin creates. They know he won’t give up on them, but they also know that they must keep fighting and praying and confessing their sin to him.
Second, people with the Lord will do whatever it takes to be near him. Verse 7, “And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.” Those who want to be with the Lord will go to where he is. They won’t be content to watch other people experience his presence while they keep their distance (“at their tent door,” vv. 8, 10). They’ll go to him even if the people around them aren’t. Their relationship with God is active and real. They’re participants, not spectators. They’re not content to watch other people sing and pray and serve and give. They jump in and seek the Lord.
Third, people with the Lord have tasted what Moses had in verse 11 and know that more is coming. They have an intimate friendship with the Lord, but they long for the day when they’ll see the Lord fully. As Paul says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12).
Those with the Lord have a real and growing intimacy with the Lord, but they understand that their vision is imperfect, so they long for better and clearer sight. They long to see the face of God.
“They Will See His Face”
We were made to see the face of God, to live with him and him with us, to be with him not around him. Our sin has taken us away from God, but Jesus came to bring us back to him, to show us his face. He was cast out so we could be brought in. The Father turned his face away from the Son so that he could turn his face toward us.
When you’re honest about your sin and your faith becomes active participation rather than watching others, you’ll start to see the face of God through faith. And one day your faith will become sight, as John says at the end of Revelation, “They will see his face” (22:4).
Do you know the feeling of seeing someone you love after you’ve been apart for a while? The feeling of a longing fulfilled. The feeling of reunion after separation. The feeling of home after being away. This is what it’ll feel like to see God’s face. This is the relief we long for and will have, but only if we seek his face today.
[1]Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus, The New American Commentary, vol. 2 (Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2006), 691, emphasis his.