Journal Through the Bible: Week 16 Tuesday

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Exodus 32:15-33:23
Replacing the worship of God with the worship of anything else is the beginning of a difficult path that leads to chaos. Drunkenness, immorality, and throwing away all inhibitions was exactly why God planned to replace the people who inhabited Canaan with the Hebrews!

Yesterday we read of the anger of God and the intercession of Moses. Today we read of the anger of Moses and how he euphemistically "stuck their noses" into their vile filth by making them drink the water containing the flakes of gold after first breaking the stone tablets containing the writings of God and also the golden calf representing the sacrilege of the people.

The wages of sin is death. And on this day about three thousand men died.

As a result of their sin the Tabernacle was moved outside of the camp because God will not reside in the middle of sin and the people had just proven that they didn't really want Him as their God. Moses and Joshua approached the Tabernacle where it was and God met with them there.

Moses petitioned God that if He would not be with Moses as he led the Hebrew people that God would release him from this obligation. When God agreed Moses requests to see God's glory as a sign of this agreement. God placed Moses in the cleft of a rock and covered him with His hand as He passed by.

Does God make any promises in this passage?

• God promised to have His angel lead them to the land of milk and honey but stated that He would not be in the middle of them because the people had been tested and had failed.
• God promised to be with Moses as he led the people.

Are there any references to Jesus?

• Moses attempts to atone for the people by asking God to make him the sacrifice for them by blotting out his name from the Book of Life instead of the names of the sinners. God refuses Moses' offer because Moses is not a faultless human being himself, but God did not refuse Jesus' offer to take the place of sinful humanity because Jesus had no sins of His own for which He must atone.
• The rock is a symbol of Jesus. We are placed in the cleft of the rock and protected while we wait to behold the glory of God.  In our natural bodies we cannot see God but we can behold Jesus, God in the flesh. This is what Jesus told Thomas in John chapter 14 when Thomas asks Jesus to show them the Father and it would satisfy them and Jesus answers him by asking, "Have I been with you so long, Thomas, and you have not known me?"

Are there any references to future events?

• Someday we will be able to see the glory of God and not die because our glorified bodies will not be sinful. Sinful flesh cannot see God and live. I John 3:1-2 tells us that we are now the sons of God and we do not totally comprehend what our bodies shall be like but that when Jesus appears for us we shall be like Him and see Him as He is.

Does God issue any commands?

• God told Moses to go back to the leadership position of the people. He reminds him again of the Angel that is to go before them and reminds Moses of His earlier warning not to provoke this Angel because there would be no forgiveness for doing so. God proved this by sending a plague among the people for provoking this Angel with the golden calf.
• God told them to leave off all their ornaments and baubles and to mourn for their sin of idol worship. The Tabernacle was then moved outside the camp as a sign that God was not in their midst anymore.