EXODUS 33
God could not go up in the midst of a stiff-necked people, and when the people heard this “they mourned; and no man put on his ornaments”. If God’s people find that He is not with them it is well to mourn. To take the low place is always open to them, and it is the first step to blessing. The way divine light has come in as to what is suitable in the present state of things is through the people of God taking a low place, and putting off their ornaments. All around us Christendom is putting on as many ornaments as possible, but the wisdom of faith is to take a low place and put them off. They put off their ornaments at Corinth when they got the first epistle. When we do that He opens up a path for those that love Him.
“And Moses took the tent, and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp; and called it the Tent of meeting. And it came to pass that every one who sought Jehovah went out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp”. Moses realized that the holiness of God required separation from the camp which had become characterized by what was idolatrous, and that each individual who sought [p. 284] Jehovah must go out to the tent of meeting. It is a striking picture of present-day conditions. There is the “camp” today — the outward and public order of Christianity — but it is marked under the eye of the Lord by men rejoicing in the work of their own hands. The Lord is not in the midst of that, and it is realizing this that moves those that love Him. I doubt whether realizing the evils and departure ever, in itself, moves persons in a spiritual way. But when a heart that loves the Lord realizes that it is in conditions which the Lord cannot countenance, the desire is awakened to be where He can be. “Every one who sought Jehovah went out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp”. It ought to be wonderfully good news to everyone who loves the Lord that we can “go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (Hebrews 13: 13).
The Lord is awakening the hearts of His people everywhere to seek Him. Nothing but affection will set us in movement. I suppose that every believer on earth is conscious of the evils that have come into the Christian profession, but how many remain in the camp! Moses pitched the tent, but it was the working of affection with each one that made them go out. It raises the question with each one of us individually as to whether we know what this means. It is not that they saw a nice few together, and joined them, but each one went out because he sought the Lord. It is going out to seek Him whose presence cannot be known or enjoyed in the camp. “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”. Those who find the Lord will find one another, for Moses called it “the tent of meeting”; it suggests a divine rallying point. One would like to raise the [p. 285] question with every believer, Have you sought the Lord, and found Him, “outside the camp”?
It would appear that there were not many who went out. The majority stood at their tent doors, interested in Moses, and looking after him, and seeing the pillar of cloud stand at the entrance of the tent, even worshipping, but not going out! They seem to represent those who have reverence for divine things, and are interested in the truth, but who remain in the camp. God-fearing persons, but not knowing the presence of the Lord in its attractive and satisfying power. There is no satisfaction for the Lord in tent-door worship; it does not go beyond our side of things. He wants us in His tent! “Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God” (John 20: 17). There were face to face communications at the Tent of meeting. It makes one think of John 20, when the Lord came into the midst. Each heart there was seeking Him, for they had been gathered by the message He sent His brethren, and they found Him. Is not such a privilege worth going in for? It is the Lord as having gone through death, and in the character of One ascending to the Father, who was known in the midst of His own. How completely it puts one outside all that is connected with “the camp”!
This section closes with a double type — Moses returning to the camp, and Joshua departing not from within the tent. Moses represents the energy of love that would serve the people of God. It is a man with whom Jehovah has spoken “face to face, as a man speaks with his friend” who can return to serve the people of God in all the holy separation of the [p. 286] spot where he has been, and of the communications which have been made to him. Such a man would not compromise the truth, nor would he allow himself to be entangled with what compromised the truth, but he would be in readiness to serve all in grace and faithfulness in relation to the will of God. But such service ever has as its attendant the spirit of Joshua. Whatever activities of service there may be, in spirit the servant does not leave his sweet retreat; he is always in spirit “outside the camp”. His affections have their abiding place there; his satisfaction and rest is in the Lord.
From chapter 32: 1 to 33: 11 is one section. It stands in relation to the camp, and the divine judgment of the idolatry which displeases and displaces God, and it shows the action of faith in relation to the camp as marked by idolatry. But chapter 33: 12 begins another section which stands connected with Moses as the man who has found grace in God’s eyes — typically Christ.
In chapter 32 we have painful evidence of what the flesh is, and of how Satan can work upon it even in those who are the people of God. And the flesh never comes out in a sadder or more humbling way than when its activities appear in those who profess to know God. To recognize this, and to know how faith acts so as to maintain what is due to God with reference to it, is very essential.
But it is refreshing to the spirit to turn from the enemy’s workings, and from that which shows what the flesh is, to see what God is about, and the ways by which He reaches His own ends. One could not for a moment suppose that God would allow Himself to be baffled by the enemy, or that what he purposed [p. 287] should fail to be accomplished. And, indeed, it is in seeing God’s ways in presence of man’s utter failure that we get to know Him. And in becoming the subjects of those ways we become such as He can take for His inheritance, and such, too, as can make the tabernacle.
This brings us to the consideration of a distinction which it is most important that we should understand. That is, the difference between Israel according to flesh and the true “Israel of God” — “the children of the promise”. Our attention is called to this in Romans 9, where the scripture now before us is quoted. Israel according to flesh represents those who are in outward relation with God as His people. Persons baptized and partaking of sacraments (see 1 Corinthians 10), but with most of whom God is not pleased. Many will say to the Lord, “We have eaten in thy presence and drunk, and thou hast taught in our streets; and he shall say, I tell you, I do not know you whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity” (Luke 13: 26, 27). To be in outward relation with God by profession and by sacraments is one thing; to be truly “children of the promise”, “vessels of mercy”, and to be found among the “remnant according to election of grace” is another. If we do not see this clearly we may attribute an efficacy to what is outward which it does not possess, and be grievously deceived, perhaps to our eternal ruin. And we may delude ourselves into the belief that things are of God because they are held in veneration by the mass of those who profess to know Him, when they may be really as idolatrous as the worship of the golden calf.
From chapter 33: 12 what is in view is “the Israel of God” — Israel viewed by Moses as “the children of the promise”; though he knew well what they were according to flesh. Jehovah had said to Moses, “I know thee by name” (verse 12). This carries our minds back to the thorn-bush in chapter 3, for it was there only that we read of Jehovah addressing him by name. He there made Himself known as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and He declared that He was come down to deliver His people, and that He would be with Moses, and that the sign to Moses that God had sent him would be that they should “serve God upon this mountain”. God having pledged Himself to this, it must be accomplished for His own glory, whatever the contrariety of the people might be. Indeed that contrariety presented itself to Moses in this chapter as an occasion for the development of God’s ways, and of the knowledge of Him. And therefore he prays, “If indeed I have found grace in thine eyes, make me now to know thy ways, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thine eyes; and consider that this nation is thy people”!
God had made promises, He had sworn by Himself, and His promises ensured that there should be a “seed as the stars of heaven”. Now Moses looks to know the ways of God in relation to His people. His ways are the course which He takes in faithfulness in order to give effect to that which He has promised. Could any other but God move in such a matter as this? Moses might well say, “Thou dost not let me know whom thou wilt send with me”. He knew well that no other but Jehovah could go with him in such a way as to secure the fulfilment of divine promise.
Jehovah answers, “My presence shall go, and I will give thee rest”. He undertakes to go — not because of one good thing in the people, but — in faithfulness to His own promise, and to give rest to every desire in the heart of the one who had found grace in His eyes — typically Christ. How wonderful to consider the place that Christ has with God! A blessed Man in the unclouded sunshine of divine favour! And One who delights to identify Himself with His saints — “I and thy people” (verse 16) twice repeated. All turns now on the place that Christ has with God, and on the fact that He identifies the people with Himself. If we believe on Him we are entitled to the comfort of knowing this. The Lord Jesus has identified us with Himself before God unalterably and eternally.
Jehovah going with His people, as identified in pure grace with Christ, secures their being distinguished “from every people that is on the face of the earth”. It ensures that instead of being consumed because of our stiff-neckedness we shall be disciplined and brought under divine teaching, so that the stiff-neckedness may be all set aside, and that we shall be brought into conformity with God so as to become His inheritance. God going with His people involves this — His ways all lead to it — and thus are they distinguished “from every people that is on the face of the earth”.
Jehovah promises to do this in grace, and this leads Moses to the further request, “Let me, I pray thee, see thy glory”. He rises to the blessed thought that God’s glory is the glory of grace, and he longs to see it. But that glory could only come into view when man in the flesh was altogether hidden. It could only be seen as having passed by that spot where man was covered “in a cleft of the rock”. “I will make all my goodness pass before thy face, and I will proclaim the name of Jehovah before thee; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy”.
The goodness of God; and His sovereign grace and mercy, are the only source and security of blessing for man, or of satisfaction for God in the accomplishment of His promises and the purposes of His love. All must be dependent on what God is, and He has caused that to shine forth in a wonderful way. Moses being put “in a cleft of the rock”, and covered with God’s hand, is man being put out of sight. It is a figure of Christ being found in death, that in His death man after the flesh might disappear from view, and that God might be revealed. If God had not “passed by” that way we never could have known Him. We cannot, as it were, meet God on His way, and anticipate what He will do. It is only after He has “passed by” that faith can see how perfect, and how worthy of Himself, are His ways. No one could have apprehended beforehand such things as the incarnation, and the accomplishment of redemption by the death of the Son of God. But when God has passed by that way we can see the beauty and perfection of it, and can, like Moses, bow our heads and worship. Promises there might be which showed that God had the end before Him from the beginning, but on man’s side it could only be apprehended when it was past. God’s ways are known in Christ, and by the death of Christ, and in result His glory is seen in the face of the Mediator of the new covenant. And that glory is now a conforming power that brings those who behold it into correspondence with it. God thus secures that [p. 291] His people, under new covenant conditions, are taught to know Him, and they become expressive of what He is. “This people have I formed for myself: they shall show forth my praise”.