Bible Commentaries
Exodus 33

Verses 7-35

XXVI

THE BREACH OF THE COVENANT (Continued) AND ITS RENEWAL

Exodus 33:7-34:35

27. What was the second token that the covenant was broken?

Ans. – The temporary tent of the Lord, on which the cloud rested, when he communed with Israel, was moved outside the camp to show that the presence of the Lord was no longer with them. (See Exodus 33:7-11.) Their own conduct had made the Lord an outsider.

28. Analyze the third intercession of Moses.

Ans. –

(1) He recites as the ground of his petition the fact (a) that the Lord had placed on him the responsibility of taking his people to the Land of Promise and (b) had assured him of his own gracious standing before the Lord (Exodus 33:12).

(2) The petition itself, number 1.

(a) Show me Thy way.

(b) Consider this people as Thy people, i.e., take them back into favor.

(c) The petition granted in part; the presence of the Lord himself and not a deputy would be with Moses and he should find rest Exodus 33:4.

(d) Petition number 2. Moses renews and presses the petition for the people, that the Presence should be with them, and not him alone, and that they should be the Lord’s peculiar people separated from all other nations, Exodus 33:16.

(e) Petition number 2 granted, Exodus 33:17.

(f) Petition number 3. "Show me thy glory," Exodus 33:18.

(g) Petition number 3 granted in a modified way, Exodus 33:19-23.

29. How was the success of this intercession evidenced?

Ans. –

(1) New tables of testimony, to contain the Decalogue, were ordered to be prepared for God’s own inscription on the morrow, Exodus 34:1-3.

(2) The Lord did show Moses his glory, Exodus 34:4-7.

30. Analyze this glory and its modification.

Ans. –

(1) the Name proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah Elohim, i.e., (a) Jehovah is the Lord in a covenant of revelation and mercy with sinners, (b) This Jehovah is a revelation of the invisible Elohim. For example, in Genesis I the name of the invisible, unknowable Deity is Elohim. But in chapter 2, where he is revealed to Adam and enters into covenant with him, the name is Jehovah Elohim. After man’s sin Jehovah Elohim is not only a revelation of the invisible Deity but a revelation of him in grace as a Saviour. Adam could see and know, commune with, and enter into covenant with Jehovah Elohim but not with Elohim direct. Moses could see, talk with, Jehovah Elohim, both revelator and Saviour, but he could not see Elohim. This explains Exodus 33:23. See similar case, John 14:8-11.

It is also the explanation of the names of God throughout the Old Testament, "Elohim," "Jehovah," "Jehovah Elohim," over which radical critics have needlessly puzzled themselves and darkened counsel for others by words without knowledge.

(2) The character of this revelation of God as a Saviour:

(a) Merciful and gracious, Psalms 103:8-14; James 5:11;

(b) Longsuffering (as in the case of Paul the individual), 1 Timothy 1:16; and in the case of the world at large, 2 Peter 3:9;

(c) Abundant in goodness and truth;

(d) Keeping mercy for thousands;

(e) Will not clear the guilty; this is justice;

(f) Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation; law of heredity.

31. Who preached great but widely different sermons on "Show me thy glory," Exodus 23:18?

Ans. – Henry Ward Beecher and Spurgeon; the first, beautiful and rhetorical; the second evangelical.

32. What great Colonial preacher began but never finished a series of masterly sermons on Exodus 34:6-7?

Ans. – Davies of Virginia, who prophesied the greatness of Washington after Braddock’s defeat.

33. Explain Exodus 33:22 – Moses hid in the rock as God passed by, and what great hymn is based thereon?

Ans. – Now, the idea is that God, Elohim, is as a consuming fire out of Christ; man cannot see him and live. Hence Moses was placed in a refuge, while God’s hand closed the aperture as Elohim passed by. But after Elohim passed, Moses might safely see Jehovah Elohim, that is, God revealed as a Saviour. The hymn is Toplady’s "Rock of Ages." The idea is just the same when the children of Israel were placed behind the blood sprinkled door as the angel of death passed by.

34. What was the fourth intercession of Moses?

Ans. – See Exodus 34:8-9:

(1) Come back among us;

(2) Pardon our sins;

(3) Make us thine inheritance.

35. Result of this final petition?

Ans. – The covenant was renewed. Covenant Restored but Modified. –

36. The terms as renewed?

Ans. –

(1) On God’s part: He agrees to accept them again as his peculiar people and promises to do mighty things by them, driving out all their enemies, Exodus 34:10-11.

(2) On the people’s part:

(a) They must make no covenant with the Canaanites nor intermarry with them. Their altars, groves, and images must be destroyed.

(b) They must worship Jehovah only and make no idols.

(c) They must give to the Lord for service, or by ransom, the firstborn.

(d) They must assemble three times a year before the Lord to keep the three national feasts, Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, God himself guarding their frontiers while they were absent from home.

(e) They must keep his sabbaths. In other words, it is a modified restatement of the covenant, Exodus 19:1-24:11.

37. How long was Moses in the mount to receive again the written Decalogue and the other parts of the covenant?

Ans. – Forty days and nights as before.

38. What new fact is here brought out?

Ans. – He fasted absolutely the whole time.

39. Is it possible to fast that long without dying?

Ans. – (1) Elijah did it, 1 Kings 19:18; (2) Jesus did it, Matthew 4:2; (3) a Dr. Tanner did it in the memory of the author, only he used a little water.

40. What prodigy appeared in the face of Moses?

Ans. – His face was illumined.

41. What laws here fulfilled?

Ans. – (1) The law of assimilation, viz.: We become like that which we steadfastly contemplate, 2 Corinthians 3:18; (2) The inner light radiates through the body and glorifies the face.

42. What New Testament case is given?

Ans. – Transfiguration of Jesus; case of Stephen.

43. What style of art gives us the face illumined?

Ans. – The Rembrandt style.

44. Was Moses conscious of the shining at first and if not what made him conscious?

Ans. – At first, "Moses wist not that his face was shining." He learned it by noting the effect on the people.

45. What was that effect?

Ans. - "They were afraid to come nigh him," Exodus 34:30.

46. How did he cause them to come nigh?

Ans. – By veiling his face when talking to them.

47. Was this shining permanent?

Ans. – No.

48. Where, in the New Testament, is this incident expounded, and what use is there made of it?

Ans. – 2 Corinthians 3: Paul uses it to contrast the two covenants. He admits that the Old Testament was glorious, but like the light on the face of Moses was transitory, its light passing away when the greater glory of the covenant appeared.

49. Why, according to Paul, did Moses veil his face?

Ans. – That the people might not see the light fading away and so despise him, 2 Corinthians 3:13.

50. How do the Jews misunderstand the veiling and yet cling to Moses?

Ans. – They think the shining is still there behind the veil, and that the veiling is a mercy to them lest they be blinded by the too dazzling light.

51. How does Paul expound this delusion and its remedy?

Ans. – See 2 Corinthians 3:14: "But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which veil is done away in Christ."

52. How does he contrast Christians?

Ans. – There is no veil over their faces, and hence seeing Christ plainly, they are changed into his image from glory to glory, 2 Corinthians 3:18.

53. How does Paul explain that even the brighter and more enduring gospel light is veiled to some people?

Ans. – 2 Corinthians 4:3: "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."

54. How does the poet, Tom Moore, illustrate the misunderstanding of the Jews concerning the veiled face of Moses and the awful disappointment that must come at the unveiling if they reject Christ?

Ans. – In his poem "The Veiled Prophet of the Korassan" in Lalla Rookh. This prophet always wore a silver veil. He taught his victims that to unveil his face before they were prepared would blind and slay them. At the close of the story, having ruined the maiden Zeiica by what he called preparing her, he then unveils and shows to her despair the hideous face that had been covered.

55. Quote from the poem about this unveiling.

Ans. – But turn and look – then wonder, if thou wilt, That I should hate, should take revenge, by guilt, Upon the hand, whose mischief or whose mirth Sent me thus maim’d and monstrous upon earth, And on that race who, though more vile they be Than mowing apes, are demigods to me! Here – judge if hell, with all its power to damn, Can add one curse to the foul thing I am I" He raised his veil – the maid turned slowly round, Look’d at him – shrieked – and sunk upon the ground!