40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Episode 105 (Exodus 33:18-34:16)

Episode Date: December 14, 2017

Chad and Daniel get into a discussion about the theology of the cross as seen in the interaction between God and Moses. Moses wants to see God's face and glory but God will only show him His backside and goodness. How do we reconcile one of the most seemingly contradictory text's in the Bible and if we saw God's face, what would it look like? It's all in this episode. Check it out.

welcome to another episode of 40 minutes in the old testament i almost said new testament I was going to say that you almost got the Testament wrong. I almost got the Testament wrong. It's the older one. It's the first one. The superior. 40 minutes in the superior Testament. I feel like Jesus said something different than that.

Well, you know, you got to think. It was just the Bible. It wasn't the Old Testament. That's right. It just was the Bible. Yeah. Yeah, well, where are we in the superior Testament? uh we are we are kind of in the middle toward the end of of exodus 33 that is where we where

we left off we uh are still in the i don't know if you call it the aftermath of the the golden calf i mean we we kind of got that resolved in the last episode but this is still sort of the follow-up to that not everything is completely resolved yet as well as we'll see today but uh the worst is definitely over so we have the golden calf all of the the terrible mess resulted from that god threatening to destroy israel threatening to withdraw his presence from israel moses interceding even like putting his own neck on the line for israel and uh finally in uh verses 12 through 17 we had kind of have this back and forth uh intercessory prayer between moses and god and in the end god god relents and says all right all right uh i will go with you

i forgive them i will go with them so that's that's kind of where we left off now we've got uh we got a pretty fascinating section coming up here god showing moses or moses requesting that god show his glory and what god says in response to that so that's we're going to be talking about some uh theology of glory theology of the cross kind of stuff in connection with this and then we'll we'll get to uh what comes after that which is uh the the cutting of a new a new new tablets of stone and the ten commandments and the kind of the renewal of the covenant that follows that. So, that's where we're at. We're going to start with Exodus 33, verse 18. So, Moses, having prayed for Israel that God would forgive them, that God would not withdraw his

presence, all of a sudden, and seemingly out of nowhere, this is kind of one of those prayers as it just kind of catches you off guard. Moses says, I pray, show me your glory. Now, God had just said in the previous verse, God told Moses, okay, I'm going to do what you asked me to do. Moses had asked that God go with him. And God said, okay, I'm going to do that because you found favor in my sight and I've known you by name.

Now, Moses' response to this is not, thank you, or that's fantastic, or hallelujah. He says, I want you to show me your glory. So what's God going to do? Well, first of all, the very beginning of the way that God responds is pretty telling. Because he doesn't say right away, I'm not going to show you my glory, or I am going to show you my glory. He doesn't say that. He says, I myself pass before you and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. And then he goes on. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.

And then he adds this. But you cannot see my face for no man can see me and live. Let's pause there for a second before we before we finish this out. so Moses just had his prayers answered his prayers on behalf really not so much for himself as for as for Israel and his response is he wants to see he wants to see God's glory and God says to begin with what I'm going to do I'm not going to show you what you're asked for I'm not going to show you my glory because you can't you can't see my face he says no one can see me and live You can't see my face. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to make all my goodness pass before you. And I'm going to proclaim my name. And then he adds this.

He says, and I'll be gracious to whoever I want to be gracious to. And I'll have compassion on whomever I want to have compassion on. Now, the reason I think this is interesting is because what Moses is asking for is kind of this dazzling display of God's magnificence, of his glory. Maybe it's kind of an exclamation point to everything that's just happened with the threat of extinction for Israel and then God's relenting and God's forgiveness. It's almost like Moses wants God's glory to pass by so he can have this huge exclamation point at the end of all this. But God says that's not going to happen. But what I will do is I'm going to make all my goodness, not my glory, but my goodness pass before you. name i want that name connected with this indiscriminate grace that i show

and this indiscriminate compassion that i show as well i kind of hold hold that all in your mind uh and then i want to finish this this little section off and then we'll come back to it so god says you can't see my face because no one can see me and live and then he goes on he says to moses look there is a there's a place by me you shall stand there on the rock and it's going to happen that when my glory is passing by that i will put you in the cleft of the rock and i'll cover you with my hand until i pass by then i'll take my hand away and you shall see my back or my backside however you want to translate that but my face shall not be seen so here we have moses wanting to see god's glory and god says you know what i've got a better plan

here's what we're going to do i'm going to let you see my goodness and i'm also going to let you hear it's another important aspect of this god is going to show moses his back not his face his back or his backside and he's going to also let moses hear about what kind of god he is and what is connected with his name and that is grace and and compassion so god is going to pass by he's going to put moses inside this this cleft of this break in the rock little cave i guess you might say cover him cover him with his hand it's like almost like he's you know putting his hand over over someone's eyes so they can't see and then when he has passed by he'll take his hand away then moses can look but all he's going to be able to see is the back of god now this is uh

this particular story is so packed full of meaning that we could probably spend we could probably spend a whole conference in San Diego over this Dan, you think? Maybe we could pull a whole Theology of the Cross conference out of these verses

probably so, I think that's probably possible there's a couple parts of this especially where it's going that are just this is like one of my go-to texts for certain things yeah yeah we'll run with it we'll get we'll get there uh we'll get there when we get to this

i do think this is this part's interesting uh and it ties into what's going to happen i mean what he's going to say about himself but um when it is it is this bizarre thing where you do see like him sort of hiding moses um and he's like and he's like i'm not going to show you my face uh and i'm gonna so he's gonna turn like he's gonna come he's gonna like turn to have his back towards him because moses being a sinner uh god god can't can't look a sinner can't look on the face of god and live this is this whole thing right it's not as though when like in the new heavens and new earth we won't be able to to look god in the face we will but that's because we won't be sinners i think it's striking that this sort of same thing happens to jesus

when he becomes sin and god turns his face away from him i mean this is this is what happens for moses this is like sometimes this is a crazy thing because you don't get to look on god but jesus who says uh look i'm one with the father we're i mean like i i've i don't have any he has no problem seeing the face of god it's not as though jesus couldn't look god you know god the father in the face but not but not on the cross where the sins of the world are being poured into him uh god does the same move and so if there's this this striking thing where for moses this is a sort of incredible moment and for jesus this is a horrific moment where all where god does turn and turn his back on him this is i mean this is the why have you forsaken me kind of thing that

god turns his face away from from his son who which has never happened before to increase the irony even further here uh based on what what you've already said we have that uh analogous case of what happens with christ on the cross and what happens here with moses uh and yet it's it's on the cross it's in the crucified son of god that we see the the the crystal clear expression of the theology of the cross of how god works of how god hides himself beneath beneath his opposite so when jesus is on the cross he has shown the the back side of god he can't see the face of god because he has become our sin. And yet it's in that whole terrible, messy, bloody, painful, death-filled situation

that we see how God continues to work in the world, in the church, and in our lives. When we talk about the theology of the cross, of course, I think most people listening to us, they know the phrase, and probably know something about it. But it's important to keep in mind that theology of the cross is not just about the cross as a singular act. Theology of the cross is about

how God relates to the world. And you see this already in Exodus 33, but you see it clearly expressed, most clearly expressed on the cross. That is that God is always hiding himself. He's always acting in ways that are the exact opposite of what we'd expect counterintuitive.

You know, so we look up and God is down. We look left and God is right. We look for him and that which is which is beautiful and he often hides himself in that which is which is ugly. So in other words, we're we like Moses are always wanting to see the glorious, awesome, fantastic, beautiful face of God. But what God shows us is his backside. You know, we're looking at God's butt, if you will. He's always turning around. And what we see is him hidden in in suffering. We see him hidden in death. We see him hidden in simplicity, in the mundane and common everyday things of the world. I think it's interesting even when God does show you his face in Christ, that he chooses the most regular face he can possibly choose.

I mean, this is one of those things about Jesus is it says there was nothing about him in appearance that would make you think anything. so so even if you want to talk about the face of god in the incarnation there's nothing special about it right yeah and jesus was probably one of those guys you know you'd walk right past and and never never bat an eye yeah you just you look like everybody else right it's like you know sometimes you'll hear uh like some tv show you know someone witnesses uh witnesses a crime well what did what did the uh what did the suspect look like i don't think just like any other person you know it's like an average guy who's like you know maybe five eight five ten brown hair kind of brown eyes you know he's wearing a t-shirt yeah that's not gonna help at all well that that's jesus he

he wasn't gq material uh he wasn't some you know uh he didn't work have a halo he didn't have some shining countenance as he walked around he looks like a dude he just was a regular guy yeah and that's the face of god yeah i there's i used to be in a in a in a the largest uh outdoor drama in the country uh i was i was an actor in for a long time well for about three years when i was in high school uh for extra money and it's called the passion play and it's the passion week it's the last week of christ's life and what was your role we got we got we got to get some uh i i uh Initially, I started as a leper that got healed. But by the end of it, I was the Apostle John.

Oh, man. You climbed the – Yeah, I really did. The leper turned apostle. Yeah. They always wanted someone like a younger guy to play John. And so I was like 17, and so I ended up playing John. But one thing that I always thought was interesting because I was always like, wrong.

uh one and i understand that they did this for because it's a play and you need him to stand out they always had jesus was always like they always had a super tall guy play jesus so jesus was always like six four right yeah and uh and then they always like everyone else had like all the other apostles had blue like sort of sashes you know and his is always red it's different so it stands out and then when he's on trial with harrod harrod had this line that i always thought was curious i'm like what uh and he'd be like and he makes a comment about like how how like there's how blue his eyes are like did he and he says this harrod says it and he says something he's like doesn't he's like you don't seem like anything special except for your eyes and i'm like what is that

what is that i was like i was like where what what is that where does that where did that come from well some early greek manuscripts there is evidence ah dude and i and and i didn't have the theology i have now but i did always but i did always think like what is this desperation to make there something physically special about him i think that's what it is i mean there has to be something right we we think i mean i did something in his striking in his appearance right That made people stop Turn their heads Maybe it was his dazzling blue eyes

Or his height Or how broad his shoulders were Yeah I get to put a red sash on him Because it's a play and you need him to stand out I get to make him taller But this was like Nobody could see his eyes

This is an amphitheater It's just a statement that had to be inserted in there That were like Yeah he looks normal except and it's like no man he looks normal except nothing like he just looks normal normal period yeah yeah that's that's a great example uh i mean isn't that still the way that uh that we operate today i mean there has to be has to be something that is that is physically that physically stands out about jesus because i mean if he's if he's just like us what's that what was

that song from the 80s just a slob like one of us what if jesus was one of us yeah like one of us If he's like the guy I'm sitting next to on the bus, then how am I going to know who he is? Well, the way we know who he is is precisely the way that we still know who he is. It's by what he speaks and by what he does, right? It's not by how he looks. So, I mean, we're always dazzled by appearances, right? You know, it's funny that you bring that song up because I remember also when I was in high school listening to that song. and uh my my parents heard me listening to that song i got in huge trouble

uh because they thought that song was completely blasphemous and irreverent and uh irreverent yeah and you know like what do you what is this what if god was one of us like just a stranger on the bus like he's god yeah he's good he's the one with eyes of fire you better watch what you're listening to daniel and uh now i i so christians hated that song and i'm sure it didn't that song didn't mean to be like hey this is the you know theologically on point uh maybe it meant to be blasphemous but that's the that's like what's crazy about it is now i'm like no that song actually i still like that song and i like it because like on totally by accident this person kind of nails it where you're like yeah i know you think that you're like insulting god by like

making him common but actually you're right that's exactly how god in flesh is if the incarnation was now he would look like just another dude on the bus and he would be like homeless guy on the street because that's who he was is what he did yeah that's a scandal of the incarnation right is that he really is one of us just just like us with the exception of being without sin but you know in every other way just just like we are and and and the beauty of that is that he continues then to infiltrate our lives and in exactly the same way i mean he's always hiding beneath the common right he's hiding in plain sight because he's hiding in in common every day we tend to ignore we always have this this addiction to something that is uh that is fantastic that is awesome or

whatever but that's not the way that god works i mean he he works just like he did with moses we want to see his glory i mean we want to be impressed i mean this is god so we expect to be impressed but god works in in unimpressive ways unimpressive in the sense that it's not really going to be something that wows us it's gonna be something that saves us and that saving is going to take place through god's backside qualities as he as he hides himself beneath things like you know bread and wine and the supper and and the words of scripture and water of baptism and simple acts like giving water to someone who's thirsty and food to someone who's hungry and clothing to someone who's naked and and friendship and comfort to somebody who's in

prison. This kind of underside, the underside of the world is where God is hidden and where he's at work. We see that here in Moses' interaction with God as he shows him his backside and won't let him see his face. And this then becomes the precedent for all the ways that God and the rest of the scriptures continues to hide himself beneath his opposite. That's it. Yeah, so a lot lot of good stuff there we'll uh i'm officially some of this i'm sure i'm officially using what if god was one of us in my sermon this this week there you go good good good incarnational stuff very good incarnational stuff yeah we're actually going to get to this uh this appearance in just a second uh god is basically telling moses what he's about to do we have this this this little break

before we get there because we now we now we need two new tablets of stone it says to moses that he wants him to to to go get two stone tablets of course moses shattered the first ones when he came down and saw what the people were doing and so god says i want you to cut cut two more stone tablets just like the former ones right on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you broke so he tells him to get ready in the morning to come up to the top of mount sinai to present himself there and moses is supposed to be alone in fact it's like moses is going to be so alone that not only is no other person supposed to come on the mountain with him not even joshua but even even the animals aren't allowed to graze in front of the mountain so it's like

taking extremes to where Moses is going to be utterly alone when he comes up to God. So Moses does what he's told to do. Verse 4, he cuts these two stone tablets and gets up early in the morning, hikes up Mount Sinai, just like God told him to, and he's holding these two stone tablets in his hand. we have the stone tablets now so god is ready to engrave on in the 10 words and now we come back to what god said was going to happen to where it actually now does happen so verse 5 says that god then comes down in the cloud and he stands there with moses as moses calls upon the name of the

Lord. And then the Lord passes by in front of him and he has this sermon, two verses, very short sermon. And this parts of this end up quoted or alluded to or paraphrased over and over throughout the rest of the scriptures. I mean, these two verses even find their way into a lot of the festival liturgies of the synagogue of the jews it's called the uh i believe the 13 13 words or something like that the uh yeah the 13 attributes of god the uh shalom in hebrew so these these two verses form part of the jewish liturgy they form part of the scriptural story too here's what he says the lord the lord god compassionate and gracious slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth who keeps loving kindness for thousands who forgives iniquity transgression and

sin and yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished visiting the iniquity of fathers on the third on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generation let me finish this out we'll talk about it and he hurries up he bows down to the ground he worships and then he adds this moses adds this he says if now i found favor in your sight oh lord even though the people are so obstinate and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us as your own possession so this is like moses's final final prayer for a while uh i want to go back and talk about those those verses uh that we just just read so the lord passes by and he describes himself to moses in kind of classic twofold fashion i mean he starts out with the attributes of mercy

and grace compassionate he's gracious he's slow to anger he is spilling over abounding with loving kindness and truth and he it says he keeps loving kindness loving kindness there in the hebrew is is chesed. And chesed is one of those words that it's translated various ways. I think some translations render it as something like a covenant loyalty or covenant faithfulness. Some do say love. New York Record Standard translates it as loving kindness. Donovan Riley, if you know him, a good friend of ours who writes for Christ Old Fast and 1517. Just yesterday he texted me this uh this quote from luther where luther talks about this particular this particular word chesed and uh luther has a great way of of kind of putting into terms that

we can we can i think immediately connect with at least i did he says that uh that the word really means something like goodness in action which i thought was it was perfect so loving kindness or in hebrew chesed is like goodness in action so it's not just like as in his heart some emotion that he experiences but it's a love that goes outside of himself into this act of goodness this goodness in action so he's the god who keeps on being good in action to thousands and he demonstrates this by forgiving iniquity transgressions and sins so that's the first part and then the second part we've heard before i believe in connection with the ten commandments where he also it's not like he winks at sin it's not like he has abrogated the law it says he goes

on to threaten punishment upon those who uh who break his law who do not uh who who do not keep the covenant just like israel did not keep the covenant in in the breaking of the first commandment in the construction of the golden calf so we have this this two-sided gospel law aspect of aspect of god this is the thing that's amazing about this this is the part of the text i i think this is the this is maybe one of the clearest texts you have about why jesus is necessary because god literally traps himself with his own description of himself. I mean, he does it on purpose.

But he traps himself with his own words, with his own description of himself, because if I say to you, Chad, hey, I'm the most forgiving person that you've ever met. Also, if you cross me, i will i will bring down wrath on you like you've never seen and it's like wait a minute could you repeat that wait you're the most loving compassionate kind forgiving person ever

but if you cross me i i will not ignore it like that doesn't work man like people be like the bible never contradicts itself and i agree that that deal like in its theology it does not contradict itself but this sounds like a contradiction if you don't know what's gonna what's gonna happen because you're like these two things cannot both be true like you cannot pretty heavy tension between these two yes yeah like you can't be all forgiving and then also like come down and eradicate all sin like how does that work you can't be all about like acquittal and all about justice at the same time like how are you going to pull that off like you can't be one who dismisses forgets and forgives

sin but also one who will not let sin go unpunished you can't like what kind of like bipolar person is this you know uh and this is what this is where you see like the absolute need for christ because how is god going to be all loving all kind all forgiving and at the same time not allow sin to go unpunished and of course the answer to that question is the is the cross i mean this is the this is like the clearest in my mind text in the old testament that says jesus is absolutely necessary for god to be the things that he has declared himself to be because the cross resolves the tension between these two right absolutely resolves the apparent contradiction because he doesn't leave the guilty uh it doesn't let the guilty go unpunished

right right he does right i mean the cross is the punishment for our sins he does and he doesn't Like, I mean, it's sort of like, it's the ultimate Barabbas. Jesus is not guilty. Barabbas is totally guilty. Barabbas will go free and Jesus will go to the cross. And this is what happens for all of us. So you get to say at the same time that God lets all the guilty people off. and god has not let any of any any guilt go unpunished at the same time like i i go free

as a legitimate guilty person but my guilt i go free but my guilt is punished my sin is punished but i am not yeah which only god can pull off because only god has the power of of imputation Only God can take what is rightfully mine, which is my sin, my guilt, and take that, impute it to another, and then take what is rightfully that person's, which is goodness and righteousness and obedience, and impute it to me. Only God can do that. And so he does do exactly this. He is both of these things, and he does both these things at the cross. it's amazing who would have thought reading uh reading exodus 34 6 and 7 that here you have here you have everything that necessitated the cross compressed into verses yeah and i think

that i think the reason that he goes sort of gospel first and then law is because he he is explaining that he's going to pass over a whole lot of sin i mean you know uh you know this is taught i mean paul talks about this that he's able to be compassionate and long-suffering and forgiving through all these generations because of the second part like i will eventually deal with sin and so because i know how i'm going to deal with sin and that that is coming i'm able to i'm able to exhibit all of this compassion and forgiveness throughout all these generations because christ is coming and that is where i will deal with not just your sin and my sin but the sin of all those who came before christ yeah and it fits perfectly into the narrative uh in this in

this place because this was this is really the beginning of israel as a nation uh it beginning of israel's long and and terrible list of of major major sins because the golden calf was really the the first of many chapters to come and yet we see how god deals with that right he passes over it he moses intercedes and rather than destroying israel uh god lets it go yeah and he adds has this verse here about and gracious and slow to anger god because we see that expressed in the episode of the golden calf we're going to see that happen time and time again with israel with israel's leaders with all the various tribes leading up to finally when it's resolved in in the in the work of christ but until then there's a whole lot passed over

and uh then it's finally then it's finally resolved the tension is resolved between these two aspects of god and the cross amen amen one thing uh that i wanted to point out here the verses we were just talking about but one that i read just a couple minutes ago notice in verse 9 when moses responds to god that he includes himself in the nation so much so much of the time he's been interceding for them and talking about yeah i know they're they're really bad but be gracious to them but at the very end of moses's prayer he asked god to pardon and to take us as your own possession so which which i think is a is is a perfect is a perfect expression on moses part where he includes himself and the sins of the people even though he

was up on the mountaintop when all this was happening he understands that he is just as much as part of israel as aaron was who was in the in the thick of things with a golden calf so this is moses as well identifying himself with the rest of israel pardon our iniquity and our sent and take us as your as your own possession so that's the way he that's the way he wraps it up so I mean this is this is sort of the end of we have a little

bit more to go in this chapter but this is sort of the end of that particular episode a very dark episode in Israel's history Moses starts up on the mountain getting all this information about the tabernacle and while he's up upstairs doing that

downstairs the people are making the golden calf he comes down we have the whole mess of the confrontation, the destruction, the threat of expulsion, the threat of a draw of the presence. Moses intercedes. God relents. And this is finally now been completely, completely resolved, at least as much as it can be. Verse 10 and what follows is going to be sort of a restatement of God's intentions for Israel. And we don't have to spend a lot of a lot of time on this we'll kind of wrap up with this today um in the couple minutes we have left was this god rather starts out by saying that i'm going to make i'm going to make a covenant

people i will perform miracles which haven't been created in all the earth nor among any nations and all the people among whom you live will see the workings of the lord because it's a fearful thing that i'm going to perform with you and then he goes on to describe what all he's going to do how he's going to bring Israel into the land that he's promised to them. He's going to drive out the Canaanites and the Amorites and all the other indigenous people who are with their idolatry. But over and over in this section, what you hear is a warning that's going to resurface later,

a warning not to make any kind of covenant with the peoples that live there. This makes sense Given what has just happened with Israel Because what's the temptation going to be When Israel gets into The Holy Land And they Sort of purge it

Of the peoples who have been living there Well the temptation is to finally Just to declare peace with these people To make covenants with them And what's going to happen is Their sons are going to end up dating the daughters of the Canaanites and the daughters of the canaanites are going to be marrying the the sons of the israelites and you're going to have you're going to have all sorts of idolatry that begins to creep in through

these relationships and of course god knows this and so he's warning them now not to let that happen because what's going to end up is you're having you'll have a repetition of the golden calf in smaller situations where families will go astray, where towns will go astray, where cities will go astray, where tribes, and then finally the whole nation's going to go astray. So about this section is God warning them not to make any covenants with these people who have been adherents to other gods. The issue is going to be over and over in Israel's life

but you've got uh you've got you've got idolatry that's going to creep in it's going to it's going to worm its way through every every tiny hole that uh that it can work its way i mean it's like the the camel camel's nose going through the tent it's going to work its way in there happen with israel uh intermarrying with the canaanites it's going to happen with them adopting the idolatrous practice to the peoples around them so god is basically saying warning them against that at at this juncture yeah i think we'll have to come back to that uh uh at our next episode yeah man all right well yeah we are out of time but uh yeah some good stuff we will be back next week chad we'll see you then all right we'll see you then thanks dan

If God had a name, what would it be? And would you call it to His face? If you were faced with Him in all His glory What would you ask if you had just one question? And yeah, yeah, God is great Yeah, yeah, God is good Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah What if God was one of us?

Just a slob like one of us Just a stranger on a bus Trying to make his way home If God had a face What would it look like and would you want to see If seeing meant that you would have to believe In things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints And all the prophets

And yeah, yeah, God is great Yeah, yeah, God is good Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us Just a stranger on the bus Trying to make his way home Trying to make his way home

Back up to heaven all alone Nobody calling on the phone Except for the cold may be in the moment