Moses Intercedes for the People

INTRO

The word we have used to describe the Messiah in all of Exodus is Deliverer. Why? Because we believe Jesus is the One who delivered the people out of bondage in Egypt. Jude 5 says, “Now I want to remind you, though you know all these things: The Lord first saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe.” Moses came down from the mountain with all the instructions from the Lord that were written on the tablets by the finger of God. But during this time, the Israelites had become impatient, so they built a golden calf.

TEACHING

To quickly summarize Exodus 32: Aaron led the Israelites in fashioning a golden calf from the jewelry they had taken from the Egyptians. When God saw the Israelites worshipping the golden calf, He was so angry He wanted to destroy the Israelites and start over with Moses (v. 10). Moses played a role like Christ, and he interceded with God for the people (v. 11). When Moses came down from the mountain and saw the calf and the Israelites dancing before it, he smashed the tablets written by the finger of God (v. 19). Moses called “whoever is for the Lord” to stand with him, and the Levites gathered around him (v. 26). Moses commanded the Levites to kill their brother, friend, and neighbor: 3,000 men were struck dead (vv. 27–28). Then God “inflicted a plague on the people for what they did with the calf Aaron had made” (v. 35). This was the first judgment the Lord brought on His people: the killing of 3,000 men (v. 28) and the plague (v. 35). Sin always leads to death (Romans 3:23; 1 John 5:16–17)! The second judgment is in Exodus 33: God didn’t want to go with the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land.

Exodus 33:1–2: Notice that God referred to the Israelites as “the people you [Moses] brought up from Egypt.” God reminded Moses of His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob even in the midst of the Israelites’ rebellion. God promised to send “an angel” ahead of them to drive out the people in the land. However, this angel was not the angel of the Lord.

Exodus 33:3–6: Because God was angry, He would not go with Israel because He “might destroy you on the way” (v. 3). Sin had created a barrier between Israel and God. When the Israelites heard this, they mourned and didn’t put on their jewelry. Possibly this was the remaining jewelry from Egypt that hadn’t been used to create the calf. After all God had done for the people, they had the audacity to worship a golden calf! God remained separated from them until He decided what to do with them.

Isaiah 59:2 says, “But your iniquities have built barriers between you and God, and your sins have made Him hide His face from you so that He does not listen” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). In this Old Testament mentality, there was a penalty of eternal separation from the Lord’s presence and His glorious strength because of sin. But in the New Testament era, nothing can separate us from the love of God through Jesus (Romans 8:38–39)!

Exodus 33:7–11: God’s third judgment against Israel was telling Moses to set up a tent of meeting outside the Israelite camp. (This wasn’t the tabernacle, as it had not been built.) God moved Himself outside, away from the Israelites. Moses was allowed to meet God in the tent, but the Israelites could only watch while Moses entered the tent, and the pillar of cloud came down and covered the opening of the tent. Hamilton said, “When Moses ‘goes out’, God (in the pillar) comes down.”1 Perhaps when they saw the pillar of cloud, they remembered everything God had done for them. Whenever they saw the pillar of cloud, they bowed in worship at the doors of their own tents while God “spoke with Moses face to face, just as a man speaks with his friend” (v. 11). Other passages describe this friendship between Moses and God. Deuteronomy 34:10 says, “No prophet has arisen again in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.” While Moses met with God, Joshua remained inside the tent of meeting. He was learning; he was soaking in the presence of the Lord.

Exodus 33:12–13: Moses continued to intercede for Israel, which reminds me of the widow in Luke 18:1-8, who persisted in making her requests before the judge. The Father wants to bless us; the question is, “Are we asking?” Moses pleaded for God to remember “this nation is Your people.” Moses was an incredible example of how to negotiate with the Lord in prayer.

He asked God, “Please teach me Your ways.” Psalm 103:7 says God answered Moses’ prayer: “He revealed His ways to Moses, His deeds to the people of Israel.”

Exodus 33:14–17: God said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” The word “presence” is interchangeable with the word “face”, and “rest” meant the Promised Land. Moses continued this dialogue with God by saying the other nations would not know Israel was God’s people unless God went with them because His presence “distinguished” Israel from “all the other people on the face of the earth” (v. 16). God promised to go with Israel because Moses found favor in God’s sight and God knew him by name. God knows each of us by name. He knows everything about us.

Exodus 33:18: Moses asked to see God’s glory. “Glory” means “holiness.” Moses wanted to experience God like he had never experienced God before. When Moses first met God at the burning bush, he took off his shoes and experienced God’s glory, but he hid his face “because he was afraid to look at God” (Exodus 3:1-6). Now he wanted more!

Exodus 33:19–23: God said He would pass in front of Moses and proclaim the name Yahweh before him, but He also told Moses: “You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live.” Judges 13:22 recorded that Samson’s father was afraid he and his wife would die because they had seen God. God told Moses to stand on a rock. God said He would put Moses into the crevice of a rock and cover him until He had passed by, then remove His hand so Moses could see His back. God would not allow His face to be seen. God allowed Moses to experience His glory but not all of it.

Moses showed us that when we seek His face, God will respond. Where are we seeking God’s face? How are we seeking His presence? Scripture invites us to seek God’s face:

1 Chronicles 16:11: “Search for the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.”

2 Chronicles 7:14: “And My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.”

Psalm 27:8: “Lord, I will seek Your face.”

Psalm 105:4: “Search for the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.”

CLOSING

The Lord showed Himself in a mighty powerful way to Moses while he was protected in the cleft of a rock. Moses was pretty exhausted. He was tired of the people and was exhausted by the people complaining and doing the wrong things. And yet he still interceded on their behalf. Wiersbe said, “When God’s servants are discouraged and disappointed because of the sins of their people, the best remedy for a broken heart is a new vision for the glory of God.”2 To overcome disappointment, we need a dose of the glory of God.

Things were a mess until Moses interceded and stood on a rock to experience the glory of God. Fast forward to today and the New Covenant. If you need the medicine of encouragement, you need to go before the Lord and seek His face until you experience His glory. But it doesn’t always have to look like it did for Moses. In 1 Kings 19:11-12, while Elijah waited in the cleft of the rock, God was not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire; He was in the whisper.