_A.M. 2513. B.C. 1491._ In this chapter we have a further account of the mediation of Moses between God and Israel. (1,) _ He brings a very humbling message from God to them, Exodus 33:1; Exodus 33:2; Exodus 33:3; Exodus 33:5, which has a good effect upon them, Exodus 33:4._ (2,) He settles a corr... [ Continue Reading ]
_Go up hence, thou and the people_ God here seems to disown them, and calls them no more _his people_, because of their perfidiousness and idolatry.... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will not go up in the midst of thee_ By my own special and gracious presence, as hitherto I have done, but I will depart from thee. In pursuance hereof, God removes his tabernacle without the camp. I will only make good my promise to thy fathers, and send an angel to accomplish it, but I will sho... [ Continue Reading ]
_No man did put on his ornaments_ This was a visible sign and profession of their inward humiliation and repentance for their sin, and of their deep sense of God's displeasure.... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will come up in the midst of thee_ In anger, not in favour. This threatening hath a condition implied, except thou repent, as the next words plainly show. _That I may know what to do unto thee_ That I may either inflict my judgments or suspend them, as thou art penitent or impenitent.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And Moses took the tabernacle_ The tent wherein he gave audience, heard causes, and inquired of God; _and pitched it without, afar off from the camp_ To signify to them that they were unworthy of it. Perhaps this tabernacle was a model of the tabernacle that was afterward to be erected, a hasty dra... [ Continue Reading ]
_When Moses went out unto the tabernacle_ Namely, to intercede with God for the people, _all the people stood every man at his tent door_ Acknowledging themselves unworthy to approach nearer; _and looked after Moses_ To observe what signs of favour he should receive from God in answer to his prayers... [ Continue Reading ]
_As Moses entered the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended_ This symbol of the divine presence having before gone up, and stood aloof from the camp, which was become unclean through their idolatry, now came down again, upon the removal of the tabernacle. _And stood at the door of the tabernacle_... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord spake unto Moses face to face_ Or _, mouth to mouth_, as in Numbers 12:8. Not that God hath a face or mouth, or that Moses could behold it; which is denied, Exodus 33:20; but the sense is, he spoke with him freely, familiarly, and immediately, and not as he did to other prophets, in dreams... [ Continue Reading ]
_And Moses said unto the Lord_ It is likely that Moses, being satisfied with the penitence of the people, returned to the tabernacle, and there had this communication with God, in which he is an importunate supplicant for two favours, and prevails for both. In this he was a type of Christ, the great... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now, if I have found grace in thy sight_ What favour God had expressed to the people they had forfeited the benefit of; and therefore Moses lays the stress of his plea upon what God had said to him. By this, therefore, he takes hold on God; Lord, if thou wilt do any thing for me, do this for the pe... [ Continue Reading ]
_My presence shall go with thee_ Hebrew, _My face_, I myself, my own person, as the same phrase is translated 2 Samuel 17:11. Or, _the angel of my presence, Isaiah 63:9_. The meaning is, I will conduct you myself, as I have done hitherto, by my glorious presence in the tabernacle. So that this is a... [ Continue Reading ]
_If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence_ Let us rather live and die in the wilderness, with thy presence and favour, than go into Canaan without it; for even that promise of rest I regard not unless thou be with us, and accept us. Thus he shows how highly he valued the special presenc... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken_ See the power of prayer! See the riches of God's goodness! See, in type, the prevalency of Christ's intercession, which he ever lives to make for all those that come to God by him! and the ground of that prevalency is purely in his own merit; it is _... [ Continue Reading ]
_I beseech thee, show me thy glory_ Thy glorious majesty, the brightness of thy countenance, some such manifestation of thyself as becomes thy excellence, and such as shall be seen in the other life, or the highest I am capable of seeing on earth. Moses had lately been in the mount with God, and had... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will make my goodness pass before thee_ Moses's request was to see God's _glory_, and God answers him by promising to show him his _goodness;_ intimating that, however, in themselves, all God's attributes are glorious, yet he glories most in the manifestation of his _goodness_, and that his creat... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou canst not see my face_ The full display of my glory, that _light inaccessible_, before which the angels stand, but which would be insufferable to mortal eyes; this _no man can see and live._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold, there is a place by me_ Probably meant of some part of mount Horeb, where Moses had long enjoyed intercourse with God, and from which the tabernacle, where the cloud of glory now appeared, was at no great distance. _And thou shalt stand upon a rock_ If not that from which the water was mira... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will take away my hand_ Speaking after the manner of men: As soon as the dazzling splendours of my majesty, termed, my face, which it is impossible for man to behold and live, are passed by, I will, by degrees, withdraw the cloud that limited and concealed those splendours, and thou shalt see my... [ Continue Reading ]