Can You Truly Know An Invisible God? (Exodus 33:18-23) Series

Last week, we left off in the middle of our story. We pushed right up against arguably the most famous, well-known verses in all of Exodus. And I just wanted to stop before I got to them, and give them the time they deserve.

At the same time, this is a really complicated passage. I could gloss over all the tricky parts, without you maybe realizing what I've done. But we are just going to take our time with it, and really wrestle with it. Some of what I teach, you'll find yourselves agreeing with. Other parts will be new, and you won't sure. Which is fine. But we will inch our way forward through the text, and we will assume that we don't perfectly understand everything up front. And if you find that the end result today feels too nit-picky, and complicated, I apologize in advance. From my perspective, this is one of the coolest passages in the entire Bible, and I want to do my very best to understand what exactly I'm reading. So let's put on our nerd glasses, take a big drink of coffee to get the caffeine flowing, and get at it.

Let's start, by backtracking a bit, and pick up from Exodus 33:7:

(7) Now, Moses would take the tent,

and he would pitch it outside of the camp, far off from the camp,

and he would call it "The Tent of Meeting,"

and then, everyone seeking Yahweh would go out to the Tent of Meeting,

which [was] outside of the camp,

(8) and then, whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise,

and each one would stand at the opening of his tent,

and they would watch after Moses until he went to the tent,

(9) and then, whenever Moses went to the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend,

and it would stand at the opening of the tent,

and He would speak with Moses,

(10) and all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the opening of the tent,

and all the people would rise,

and each one would worship/bow down at the opening of his tent,

(11) and Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face,

just as a man would speak to his friend/neighbor,

and he would return to the camp,

while his servant Joshua, son of Nun, a young man, wouldn't leave from the midst of the tent.

(12) and Moses said to Yahweh,

"Look! You are saying to me,

'Bring up this people,

while you haven't revealed who you will send with me,

while you said, 'I have known you by name,

and, what's more, you have found favor in my eyes,'

and so then, if, please, I have found favor in your eyes, Reveal to me, please, your way,

that I may know you,

in order that I may found favor in your eyes,

and look/consider that your people, this nation [is]. ["your people" is focused],

Let me just pause here, and say one thing, because this is key to understanding today's verses. God knows Moses. God knows him by name. And Moses has favor in God's eyes.

What we see in verse 12, is that Moses doesn't feel like he knows God, the way that God knows him. There is a gap-- an imbalance-- in the relationship. Keep that in mind, because we will come back to this.

(14) and He said,

"My face/presence (plural?) shall walk/go,

and I will give rest to you,"

(15) and he said to Him,

"If your face/presence (plural!?) isn't going (plural!?), may you not bring us up from here,

(16) while how will it be known that I have found favor in your eyes-- I, and your people?

Is it not by your going with us?,

that we may be distinguished -- I and your people-- from every nation that is upon the face of the land?,

(17) and Yahweh said to Moses,

"What's more, this matter/word that you have spoken [about], I shall do,

because you have found favor in my eyes,

and I know you by name,"

So up to this point, Yahweh has given Moses what He's asked for. Despite what He had said earlier-- in contradiction to it, really-- God promises that He will go up with Moses and Israel, in their presence. Moses and Israel will be distinguished from every other nation, by God's presence among them.

And God tells Moses why He does this, in verse 17. God did all of this because of Moses. Moses has God's favor. Moses, God knows by name.

So God promises Moses that He will do what Moses has asked. God tells why He's doing this-- that it's because of Moses. And now we come to new verses. We get Moses' response. And let me just say, up front, that there is a total lack of scholarly consensus, at almost every point, on what's going on here. I'm going to give you my interpretation/reading. And if you want to explore the other options, I'd be happy to give you my more detailed manuscript. But there are so many different views, on so many different things, that I can't possibly begin to address everything [there would be zero flow]. So, verse 18: