covenant. I'll begin reading in verse 1. Then the Lord said to Moses depart up depart and go up from here you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt to the land which I swore to Abraham Isaac and Jacob saying to your descendants I will give it and I will send my angel before you and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite and Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people. And when the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments, for the Lord had said to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you. So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb. Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of Meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the Tabernacle of Meeting, which was outside the camp. So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door. So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle. Then Moses said to the Lord, see, you say to me, bring up this people. but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, I know you by name, and you have also found grace in my sight. Now therefore I pray, if I have found grace in your sight, show me now your way, that I may know you, and that I may find grace in your sight, and consider that this nation is your people. And he said, My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. Then he said to him, If your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that your people and I have found grace in your sight, except you go with us? So we shall be separate, your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth. So the Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing that you have spoken, for you have found grace in my sight, and I know you by name. And he said, please show me your glory. Then he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But he said, you cannot see my face for no man shall see me and live. And the Lord said, here is a place by me and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be while my glory passes by that I will put you in the cleft of the rock. and will cover you with my hand while I pass by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen. Amen." Well, as we look at this particular chapter, we should recognize that the golden calf incident in chapter 32 certainly resulted in the judgment of God. If you look back to chapter 32, specifically at verses 25 to 29, We see that Moses ordered the execution of those guilty parties involved in the calf incident. So at verse 27, he said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day. Then Moses said, Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, that he may bestow on you a blessing this day, for every man has opposed his son and his brother. So the golden calf incident obviously resulted in judgment, but it did not result in the abrogation of the covenant. In other words, the children of Israel would carry on in their mission. Notice at verse 34. He's talking about the sort of one-off ad hoc punishments that would result as a result of things like the Golden Calf incident. He's not going to cut them off from that covenant. He is not going to disenfranchise them. He is going to see them through to the promised land according to his word to the patriarchs. So tonight we'll notice first the departure from Sinai. They don't leave now, but they are told that they will be leaving. It is a command, they will eventually leave. But we have this departure from Sinai in verses 1 to 7, secondly the tent of meeting in verses 8 to 11, and then finally the promise of God's presence in verses 12 to 23. So let's look at the departure from Sinai. Notice that command given in verses 1 to 3, and then the response of the people. So in verse 1, the time frame is pretty clear from what we find in the Pentateuch or the books of Moses. So they come to Sinai according to chapter 19, verse 1. and then they leave according to Numbers chapter 10 at verse 11. So they spend about 11 months there. One of those months takes place during the book of Leviticus. So they've been not all of 10 months at this point, but the whole time frame that they're at Sinai from chapter 19 in Exodus to chapter 10 in Numbers is about 11 months. And then notice that God reminds them of the covenant promise. So in verse 1, then the Lord said to Moses, Depart, and go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying to your descendants, I will give it. So remember, that's what the mission is. They are moving to the promised land. They had been in Egypt. They had been in bondage. God miraculously and powerfully delivers them from that house of bondage, and in light of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He is going to lead the people out of that land into the land of promise. So covenant looms large here, and it is that controlling factor with reference to God's dealings with His people. Now notice, secondly, in terms of the command to depart, this reference to the messenger in verses 2 and 3. This isn't the first time we have been told that God would send forth an angel to lead the people. He does so in Exodus chapter 23, and he does so again toward the end of Exodus 34. Some see a distinction here between the angel of the Lord being the pre-incarnate Christ, or second person of the Trinity, and this particular angel being a created angel. I'm not sure about that particular distinction, but I think the emphasis here, specifically in verse 2, falls upon the fact that God himself will not join that. Now, this chapter is charged with what's called anthropomorphism. And anthropomorphism is when we say something about God using human description. So when God talks about his face, or when God talks about his back, or when God says, or when the narrative says that God spoke to Moses face to face, that's spoken in the manner of men. God doesn't have a face. John 4, Jesus says that God is spirit. So he doesn't have a face, he doesn't have a back, he doesn't have arms, he doesn't have those things that are physical in nature. So there's anthropomorphism. There's also anthropopathism. That means that the human expressions are oftentimes in scripture predicated of God. This does not mean he has human expressions, but it means that it's given to us in that way so that we can understand something about God. So I think the emphasis here, specifically in verses 2 and 3, is that God is saying He's not going to go with them. Now, again, God is omnipresent. He's immense. That means He fills all things. There's no place where God is not. The psalmist celebrates this in Psalm 139. Where can I go? How can I flee? If I go into the depths of hell, there you are. If I ascend into the heavens, there you are. We cannot escape God. But again, I think the emphasis is upon His special presence, His special nearness to His people in this particular endeavor. So notice, in verse 2, He says that the angel will be sent before them and the angel will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. So the angel will provide leadership, and the angel will destroy the enemies. Remember, they're going to take the land of Canaan. These various ites aren't going to say, welcome, Israel. We're glad that you're here. We're going to gladly give up our houses. We're going to gladly give up our vineyards. We're going to gladly give up our gardens, our food. We're going to just happily give all of this stuff to you. No, there's going to be warfare. There's going to be conquest. There's going to be military exchange. And so God promises victory through this angel that goes before them. And then notice in verse 3, "...go up to a land flowing with milk and honey." In other words, resume the journey. This was always the purpose and plan. Chapter 32, as I said, introduces an interruption when the people of Israel are dancing before the golden calf. But at the end of chapter 32, God announces to Moses to stay the course, to continue to go forward, and he repeats that here. So verse three, go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. And then notice, for I will not go up in your midst. Again, not that God, the omnipresent God, or immense God isn't present with them. He's talking about his special presence, his nearness, his communion with them. So go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, For I will not go up in your midst, and then the reason is given, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people." So the golden calf incident demonstrated the sinfulness of the people. The golden calf incident demonstrated the holiness of God. The Golden Calf incident demonstrated what God's holiness does in response to man's sinfulness. God threatened to disenfranchise them to Moses earlier in the narrative. God says, I will destroy them and I will make a great nation out of you. This is the divine response to sin. It must be punished. There must be sanction, there must be a penalty. So when God says this, it's an acknowledgment of their sinfulness, it is an acknowledgment of His holiness, but it's as well an acknowledgment of His mercy. Why does He promise that His special presence will not be with them? Lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people. In other words, God, speaking in the manner of men, says, I'm going to sit this one out. I'm going to send my angel. My angel's going to do my bidding. Because if I am present with you in a special way, I am going to be observant of your sin. I am going to see your wickedness and your evil. I am going to witness all the stuff that you do in violation of the covenant, and based on the fact that I'm a holy God and you're a sinful man, I'm going to consume you. So the Lord knows the people, the Lord knows his own righteousness and holiness, and the Lord prescribes this in a manner that is basically preventative maintenance. If I go with you based on this calf incident, you're likely not going to make it out of this geographic location. Matthew Poole says, lest thy sins should be aggravated by my presence in favor, and thereby I should be provoked utterly to destroy you. So he shows that their perverseness makes this severity necessary for them, and that God, even in his judgment, remembers mercy to them. So the fact that he says, I will not go up in your midst, again, we would interpret that and say, well, that's not good, and Moses goes as far later on in the narrative, saying essentially, if you don't go, we don't want to go. It's not the gift that we're looking for, it's the giver that we truly want. So God says that He will not do this so that they will not be consumed. For you are a stiff-necked people. That's the same language that was expressed in the calf incident in chapter 32. They were a stiff-necked incorrigible people. They were not going to comply with the terms of the covenant. And then in verses 4-6 we see the people mourn. This is bad news according to verse 4. When the people heard this bad news, they mourned and no one put on his ornaments. And then in verse 5, the Lord had said to Moses, say to the children of Israel. So verses 1-3, that's for Moses alone. Now in verses 4 to 6, this is Moses mediating the Word of God or communicating the Word of God to the people. So when the people hear this, obviously they're sad. They take off their ornaments. Now brethren, they had already donated a lot of ornaments with reference to the building of the Golden Calf. They were loaded up with a lot of ornaments by the Egyptians when they left Egypt. Remember God said, God anticipated that the Egyptians are going to give you lots of things. Why would the Egyptians give them lots of things? Because the Egyptians wanted them to be gone. Because as long as they were present in the land of Egypt, bad, very bad things happened to them by the God of Israel. So when it came time to bury the firstborn that the Lord God had killed among them, they were all too willing to see the backside of these Israelites as they were leaving their land. So they basically throw gold and silver at them. So they're wearing this ornamentation. Verse 4, an expression of mourning, is to take off this ornamentation. God then communicates to them via Moses in verse 5, say to the children of Israel, you are stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore take off your ornaments. Now they've already taken them off. Again, some say, or I suggest that we ought to understand it this way. God is communicating to them, no ornamentation for the duration of your journey to the promised land. So take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you, so the children of Israel strip themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb." So obviously they were sad, they were mourning, they take off their ornamentation, but God has communicated to them those two truths, that He's a holy God, and that they as sinful persons demand the punishment of God. Now notice secondly this tent of meeting. This is not the tabernacle. They have been commanded in great detail on how to build the tabernacle in chapters 25 to 31. Now this interruption comes and then they did not build the tabernacle. They will start to do that in chapter 35-36. But here, specifically, we have this tent pitched by Moses to function as a tent of meeting. So the tabernacle, as I said, was not built yet, 36-8, but nevertheless the people had access to God. Now again, this whole idea of God's presence with them. This was something they desired, this was something that was good, this was something that they wanted. The previous mention in terms of his presence among them as they make that long journey, he doesn't give that to them, but in this particular instance he does meet with Moses. So I think the idea is simple. Moses has this tent, he pitches it, and it's a place for Moses to go and seek and inquire of the Lord. So if persons have a particular issue, or a particular situation, or a particular problem, they can communicate that to Moses, and then Moses goes on their behalf before the divine presence and finds out God's verdict or judgment on that particular thing. So the people could seek the Lord, and the people likely did so through the mediation of Moses. When we move again through this passage, you'll notice that persons can't look upon God, or they will die. So Moses, as mediator, functions as the go-between from the people to God Most High. And then, with reference to this tent of meeting, it's built, it's constructed, and then notice what we have in verse 8. Whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle that all the people arose and each man stood at his tent and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. Which this is a good sign. not just because they were meeting with God, which in fact is a good sign, but it's a good sign that the confidence and trust has been restored in Moses. Remember, that was sort of the overarching theme as to why they built the golden calf. If you go back to chapter 32 and verse 1, now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, come, make us gods that shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." So when we get back to chapter 33 verse 8, we see that they're watching Moses, that they're interacting with Moses. That's a good thing. They've got a long journey ahead of them. They've got a long way to go. And they're going to face a lot of difficulties and a lot of hardships along the way. If they're not confident in the leadership of Moses, and if Moses suspects or believes that they want to kill him or destroy him or turn against him, this does not bode well for this massive troop movement from one place to another. So the fact that we're seeing that confidence expressed in Moses, that mediation enacted by Moses, is a good sign for this people at this particular time. So the tent is constructed, Moses goes in, and then notice the blessing of God according to verses 9 to 11. And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses." The pillar of cloud represented the presence of God. It wasn't the presence of God, but it represented the presence of God. If you look at verse 9, the new King James supplies the Lord properly. Notice if that wasn't supplied. It says, verse 9b, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle and talked with Moses. It wasn't the pillar of cloud that talked with Moses. It likely appeared that it was the pillar of cloud that talked with Moses. pillar of fire, or a pillar of cloud, they're worshipping the God of heaven and earth. So verse 10, all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshipped each man in his tent door. So again, when the presence of God is there, you worship. That's the response. Remember our text in Matthew, I'm sorry, John chapter 9, in verse 37 from Sunday. He confessed that he believed in the Lord, and then what did he do? He worshiped the Lord. This is what you do in the presence of God Almighty. You worship Him. That's why when we come to church, God's house, we worship Him. That doesn't mean it's only in the church. You can worship Him in private, you can worship Him in family, but wherever God is, the natural response is to worship, and that is precisely what we find here. And then finally in this section, notice the Lord spoke to Moses face to face. Again, God doesn't have a face. It's not like, you know, he's got a nose and eyes and a mouth and all those sorts of appendages. He doesn't have a face. This is spoken anthropomorphically. It's the predication. human features to God to instruct us concerning something. I think the something is that there was intimacy, there was a familiarity. God had that relationship with Moses. In fact, it's not just stated here, but you can turn to the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter 12. We see that Moses was in fact a man blessed of God with that familiarity with God. Excuse me, Numbers chapter 12, specifically at verse 4. and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both went forward." So they were basically saying, you know, is it just, has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also? So a bit of uprising there. Then he said, verse six, here now my words, if there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision. I speak to him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings. And he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" And a similar statement is at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 34. You can turn there, excuse me, Deuteronomy chapter 34, specifically at verse 10. This is after the death of Moses, Joshua the son of Nun is his successor. Verse 10, but since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses whom the Lord knew face to face. So it's the language of intimacy, it's the language of familiarity, it's the language of camaraderie. So that's what Moses had with God. Now, a curious note in verse 11. It says, he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle. He was likely not a young man at that point. Some speculate he was probably in his fifties, based on what we have in the book of Exodus. what we have in the book of Joshua. So why does it describe him as a young man? Jewish commentators suggest we should see it as an attendant. An attendant to Moses. Whatever the particular reference is, Joshua stood guard, or did not depart, from that tent of meeting. It was a special place. special places, sanctuary-type places, temple-type places get special protection. In the Garden of Eden, Adam was called and commanded to guard that temple sanctuary. When you get to the tabernacle, when you get to the temple, you'll see that there is guard, there is attendance, there is protection of that special sanctuary. So that's the function of Joshua. And then that brings us finally to this promise of God's presence. So God's not changing his mind in Exodus chapter 33. Again, it's anthropopathic. It expresses something to us in a way that we can understand. So God says, I'm not going to go chapter 33 verse 3, because if I go, I will see your sins and I'll have to cut you off. Well now Moses intervenes and Moses goes specifically to the Lord and makes this request. Notice in verse 12, he wants the identity of the angel. So then Moses said to the Lord, See, you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, I know you by name, and you have also found grace in my sight. Now, something I think we should look at as we move through this section is that familiarity with God does not breed presumption or arrogance, but it certainly breeds boldness, right? We're told in the New Testament to come with boldness to the throne of grace. God's not against boldness. He's against presumption. He's against arrogance. He's against the sorts of demands that if you don't do this, I'm gonna do that. That's not what's happening here. You see gradation in Moses' arguments. You see escalation. You see an increasing boldness all the way to the point where Moses says, show me your glory. And as we move through this, don't just notice that there's this boldness on the part of Moses, but there's continual accommodation on the part of God. God doesn't say, oh, how dare you ask me? How dare you question me? How dare you want that identity? How dare you invoke the grace that I've shown you before and try to use that as an argument? God doesn't do that. I think I've illustrated this point with Samson in Judges 15. You can turn to Judges 15. It's his victory at Jawbone Height. And after killing a thousand Philistines and being obviously Tired from that endeavor, Samson prays for water. But if you look at 1514, it says, When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came, shouting against him. Then the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire. and his bonds broke loose from his hands. He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it. Then Samson said, with the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men. I mean, he's the sort of fellow that, you know, kills a thousand people and then engages in a rhyme. And then verse 17, and so it was when he had finished speaking that he threw the jawbone from his hand and called that place Ramath-Lehi. Then he became very thirsty. So he cried out to the Lord and said, You have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant. And now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised? Almost sounds a bit presumptuous. Almost sounds a bit arrogant. You've given me this great victory. You're going to let me die of thirst now? But it wasn't that way. Notice what happened. So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out. And he drank, and his spirit returned, and he revived. So this kind of praying that is bold, going through the front door of heaven, and making our supplications, our prayers, and intercessions, and giving of thanks made known to God, that's not condemned by God. presumption, arrogance, pride, bad. That sort of posture of prayer that we find in Luke 18 with that Pharisee, I thank you God that I'm not like other men. I thank you God that I'm so religiously accomplished. I thank you God that I'm so awesome. That kind of prayer is offensive, but not this kind. So Moses gradually increases the particular petitions that he presents before God, and God gradually increases his particular responses in terms of answers to those petitions. So he asks for the identity of the angel, and again, the rationale for his request. I know you by name, and you have also found grace in my sight. Now notice what he says, or what we find in verse 13. The Lord God, or He wants to know the revelation of God's way. So not only the angel, but notice in verse 13, Now therefore I pray, if I have found grace in your sight, show me now your way, that I may know you, and that I may find grace in your sight. And consider that this nation is your people. If you go back to chapter 32, I didn't make a big deal out of it, but suggested it could be something. Notice in Exodus 32 at verse 7, after the people corrupt themselves with the golden calf, and the Lord said to Moses, go get down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They're your people, the ones you brought out of the land of Egypt. Well now Moses reminds God at the end of verse 13, and consider that this nation is your people. So you've shown us grace, we are your elect, we are your chosen, we are in covenant with you, we want you to go with us, we want your presence. And God promises that here in verse 14. He said, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest. Where have you heard that language? I will give you rest. Matthew 11, 28. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. God is in the business of giving rest to his people. There is that rest in his presence. When God is with us, we can truly be content. There is the rest afforded by his protection. when he's killing Hittites and Hivites and Jebusites and parasites on behalf of his people. And then the rest accomplished by his promise, life in the promised land. So my presence will go with you and I will give you rest. Now notice that Moses argues with God. And by argue, you know, when I say, you know, he had an argument. We often think of loud voices and anger and that sort of thing. Argument also has a basic meaning of providing reasons and justification and rationale for a particular course of action. Argument is not necessarily an upset, high-octane, shouting match between persons. So Moses argues now with God. And he does so in three ways with reference to verses 15 to 17. He first speaks of the need for God's presence. Look at verse 15. This is beautiful. If your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. The principle. It isn't the gift, but the giver that is most important. We don't want the promised land without the God who promised it to us. I think that's beautiful. I think Moses knows the implications of 33.3. Moses agrees with the sinfulness of the... that the people are sinful. He knows and understands that God is in fact holy, but he also understands there's atonement to be had with God. He himself has offered that in chapter 32. So he knows that God is gracious, God is merciful. So he says, if your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. And then the second argument is the graciousness of the presence of God. Notice in verse 16, for how then Will it be known that your people and I have found grace in your sight, except you go with us? What's the proof positive of God's grace in your life? Well, that God's presence is in your life. When we come to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we now have a relationship with God Almighty. That relationship is exhibit A of God's grace to us, because apart from God's grace, we don't have a relationship. Apart from God's grace, we don't have His nearness. We don't have His presence in our life. And that grace of God would be seen in Israel's distinction from the heathen. I think that the end of verse 16 is very important and very key to what you'll find later in the book of Leviticus. So when it says, so we shall be separate, your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth. That's what drives a lot of the laws in Leviticus that we think are a bit odd. You know, you can't eat bacon, you can't eat shrimp, no lobster, you can't mix fibers. There's all these things. Why? Because it's sin and wicked and evil to eat shrimp and lobster? No, it's because they needed to be distinct from and separate from the nations around them. That would always be the emphasis in terms of Israel in the promised land. They would be a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a kingdom of priests. That was the intention. And then notice finally the promise of the presence of God in verse 17. So the Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing that you have spoken for you have found grace in my sight and I know you by name. So you see, these arguments don't cause God to say, oh, I can't believe you're coming to me with that sort of a thing. No, you have found grace. I'm gonna make good. I'm gonna answer your prayers, and I'm gonna do it positively, and you're gonna know my presence as you move into the promised land. And then that brings us finally to the revelation of God's glory in verses 18 to 23. So, you know, you might think at verse 17 Moses got everything he wanted. God's promised that he's going to go with them. God's promised his special presence. And then Moses throws out in verse 18, and he said, please show me your glory. One more, one more, I'm gonna keep going here. And it's not brazen, it's not bad, it's not anything wicked. God answers the particular petition. It's as if the nearness of God just seems to draw the worshipper even nearer. The closer you get to God, the closer you want to be to God. The more you have of God, the more you want of God. And God does not, you know, say no to that. God's not saying, you know, go away Moses, we've had enough for today. I've answered your prayer. You just go back to your tent and, you know, have a nice night of rest. Because we got a tabernacle to build. Actually, you've got tablets to make. So you just go home and go to sleep. No, show me your glory. Now notice, that's the request. We have then the proclamation in verse 19. Verse 19, then he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you. Now, God's glory is seen in His justice. God's glory is seen in His righteousness. God's glory is seen in the damnation of sinners. God's glory is awesome in each of those expressions. But what is it here that God is going to sort of encapsulate His glory by? I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. So if God's glory is a demonstration of his goodness, in this particular case, it's even further narrowed down to his sovereign grace. Now, for those of us who are Calvinists or Reformed or people that believe in the absolute sovereignty of God, we have met people that don't like these teachings, they don't like these doctrines, they mock them, they say things like, well, that doesn't seem fair, that doesn't seem right. Look at what God says is the, you know, exemplifies His goodness according to verse 19. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So Moses says, I want to see your glory. God says, I'm going to cause my goodness to pass before you. And that goodness specifically is in the reality of God's sovereign grace. Notice over at the top of page, well, I was going to say the top of page 34. It's actually page 77. It's actually chapter 34 happens to be on my top of the page. Look at 34.7. I'm sorry, 34.6, and the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God. Again, remember, this is an Old Testament context. Some people think the Old Testament is filled with a God of wrath and fury and vengeance, and certainly he sends his angel to destroy the Hivites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Jebusites, but look at the accent here. The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. So as God causes His goodness to pass before Moses, what is it, what perfections are being communicated by God to Moses? His grace, His compassion, His mercy, His kindness, His love. We see that in the very answer to the prayer that Moses just offered up. We don't want to go to the promised land if you're not going to go with us. What does God say? My presence will go with you. I will give you rest. I will be there amongst you. I will be your God. John Gill says, which goodness is His glory? The glory of the Lord lies in His goodness, and that appears in the works of His hands, in the methods of His providence, especially in the distribution of His sovereign grace and mercy. and particularly in his pardoning grace and mercy through the blood of Christ. So Moses wants to see the glory of God. God says you're gonna see the glory of God. It's going to be my goodness that passes before you. So that's the proclamation. That's the content. That's the perfection that will be communicated to Moses. But because he is God, there's a qualification attached. And that's in verses 20 to 23. Notice there's this restriction concerning God's face. Verse 20, but he said, You cannot see my face, for no man shall see me and live. Now, again, this is anthropomorphic. God doesn't have a face. This is the predication of human features to our glorious God. I think by face, what is probably signified here is the essence of the divine being. the substance of the divine being. Our confession says in this infinite and divine being, there are three subsistences or three persons. So with reference to the oneness of God or the simplicity of God, there is this essence or this being or this substance. So God says you cannot see me, or you cannot see that. That highlights the invisibility of God. 1 Timothy 1.17 tells us God is invisible. 1 Timothy 6.16, and then of course John 1.18, no one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. Notice, intriguingly, the whole concept of that bosom and that intimacy there in 118 is somewhat reminiscent of what we have here in terms of God's revelation to Moses in this particular instance. So, I suggest that the invisibility of God and also the incomprehensibility of God. He said, you cannot see my face, for no man shall see me and live. Now, theologians talk about the incomprehensibility of God. And if we just take that word, we'll say, well, that means we can't know anything about God. That's not what they mean by incomprehensibility. We can comprehend the 31,000 plus propositions that we find in our Bible. So we've got about 31,000 verses from Genesis to Revelation. That's truth. That contains truth. That expresses truth about God. When theologians talk about incomprehensibility, they talk about the level of God's essence or being, whose essence is comprehended by none but himself. He's incomprehensible at the level that God is creator. He is infinite and eternal. We are creature, we are finite, and we are temporal. So we cannot exhaust who God is. We cannot comprehend God in terms of essence. We comprehend God through propositional revelation, through his accommodation, most chiefly through the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. So this qualification is absolutely crucial and the reason is given. So verse 20, he said, you cannot see my face for no man shall see me and live. God's holiness and man's sinfulness underscores the reality that getting too close to this God can result in death. This isn't the only place in scripture that underscores this. It also shows us the necessity of a mediator. Moses is functioning in that capacity as mediator. Of course, he's typological of Jesus, who functions as the mediator, such that we can enter into the presence of God through the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Gil says, for there shall no man see me and live. If there was to be such a revelation made of the grace and goodness and glory of God in Christ, as it really is in itself, it would be too much for mortals in the present state to bear. It would break their earthen vessels in pieces. The full discovery thereof is reserved to a future state. when these things will be seen as they are, and men will be in a condition to receive them. He says we can't do it now. It would break the earthen vessel. We don't have the capacity. And I would suggest that when we enter into Emmanuel's land, there's still a bit of chasm between the infinite and the finite. We'll never exhaust the fullness of God. We'll learn more, we'll be blessed, we'll grow in our knowledge and our understanding, but we will never, you know, fully explore the depths of the being of God Most High. And then he makes this accommodation concerning Moses' request in verses 21 to 23. The Lord said, here is a place by me. Again, you've got to see and appreciate the anthropomorphic nature. There's nothing that's near God, by God, kind of close to God. God is immense, He fills all things. God is omnipresent, He is everywhere. So it says in verse 21, here is a place by me and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be while my... I just leave it, it's gonna go to voicemail. So it shall be while my glory passes by that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and will cover you with my hand while I pass by. Same thing with reference to the face, there's no physical hand. He is using this language to communicate to us that he is covering, he is hiding, he is providing shelter, he is providing protection from Moses against himself. because His glory is such that we cannot look upon it and live. And then in verse 23, "...then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen." Poole says, "...my back parts." In other words, imperfectly and in part. As when we see only a man's back parts and not his face, thou shalt see a shadow or obscure delineation of my glory as much as you can bear, though not as much as you do desire. We might want more, but we're not capable of more. Kyle and Dalich, couple of Lutheran commentators of a former generation. They say, as our bodily eye is dazzled and its power of vision destroyed by looking directly at the brightness of the sun, so would our whole nature be destroyed by an unveiled sight of the brilliancy of the glory of God. You know that. You don't walk out in the sun on a sunny day and gaze at the sun. You can't do it. There's limitations. And that's a creaturely limitation. When it comes to the infinite God, we cannot look upon Him and live. We need the mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. We need access secured by His precious blood. So Moses prevails with God in prayer, and God reveals himself in terms of his glory as expressing goodness, and specifically, sovereign grace. He will have compassion on whom he has compassion. He will be gracious to whom he is gracious. Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this, your word. We thank you for the wonderful lessons communicated to us here. We thank you that in your holiness and in your righteousness and justice, you have provided a way by which we can be saved, by which we can enter into the presence of God. We thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for his life and death and resurrection. And we thank you that we have access to the Father through him. We ask now that you would go with us. I pray that you'd watch over all the brothers and sisters in our local church, be with all those who are traveling, and just bless your people with peace and with strength. And we pray through Christ the Lord. Amen. Well, any questions or comments? Just a comment. When we were reading the book of Job, I was just interested to see if his friends had a partial good understanding of who God is, that he's mighty and greater, and we're about worse. Yeah. But then they forget that he's also merciful and compassionate. That's right. Yeah. What chapter are you in? It's like 25, 26. Yeah, I just read through that too. It's good, good stuff. Yeah, sometimes they bang on. You're like, yeah, that's, that's great. And then other times. There's no love for the friend, right? No. There's no love. Yeah, they certainly don't express love. And then Elijah at the end, when he rises up, the young man. It's interesting stuff. Yeah. Jim, last week you commented that the nation of Israel under law, so the keeping of the law was the covenant to stay in the land. Is that correct? Did I do that right? Yeah, for the most part it operated at the physical level. So it was a covenant of words, do this and you will live. And so basically their relationship to God, to each other, was much involved with law keeping. And then the tabernacle apparatus. So the tabernacle, one of the things you'll see in the book of Leviticus, it's not only on the removal of sin, but there's cleanliness and there's other sort of demands placed upon them in terms of their approach to God. to make two distinctions. One is selfish, and one is occupation of the land. So my understanding today is that yes, they did this temporal, and it was conditioned upon their performance. But in saying that, I'm not saying no one was saved. But the people that were saved, were saved by virtue of the new covenant. They were not saved, I mean, the apostle tells us in Hebrews 10, the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. They were typological pointing forward to the Lord Jesus. So anybody from Genesis to Malachi who is saved, they're not saved because of the Old Covenant. They're saved in spite of the Old Covenant based on the promise of the Savior to come. So they're looking forward to Jesus coming, and based on the work that he would accomplish in terms of the new covenant. Okay, so, sorry, I was trying to get you up. Oh, that's okay. We go to Romans, and we look at Paul, and he's talking about salvation, okay, and he's going through the process, and then he goes back and examples, and he says, you know, we look back, we talk about salvation. He goes, well, how was Abraham saved? He goes, salvation has always been by faith. Right. Okay. And so then when I look, okay, well, how did Abraham know about that was in the future? So my assumption is, is that the reason why Abraham was saved is because he believed everything God had told him up to that point, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Am I correct in that? I would say everything that God told him about the Messiah, the principal acts of saving faith, have respect to Christ, accepting, receiving, and resting upon him alone for salvation. So not suggesting that he didn't need to believe God in land promise and seed promise and all that, but Abraham's faith in the seed of Abraham is what is salvific. So it's not the old covenant per se, it's not the law, it's not the offerings. Genesis 3.15 is crucial. Genesis 3.15 is the first giving of the promise concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation by him. And then for Abraham specifically, Genesis 1 and 2 is huge when he's told to go take Isaac and go up to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him. So already we see in that stage of the game for Abraham, he knew that God was going to provide a substitutionary atonement. However much we may think he had, he had a lot of debt. Such that Jesus could say, Abraham, rejoice to see my day. And he saw it was glad. So the old covenant as a covenant was primarily to put the people of God under, or covenant people, under a covenant of works to show them their need for the Messiah. And to protect them so that they would bring forth the Messiah. So we talked about this recently in the Saturday morning class. If you can't attend that class, get that book. It's a very helpful book, The Mystery of Christ and His Covenant and Kingdom by Sam Ryan. He gets into this, I think, very clearly, very wonderfully as well. But with reference to that people group, after the Babylonian captivity, they're marrying pagans. And Ezra and Nehemiah don't say, well, that's woke, that's great, that's awesome, we're going to do you. No, they command them to put these pagan wives away. Well, it's not based on ethnicity. It's based on covenant. It's based on the compromise of the seed. If you go out, you know, humanly speak, God's going to provide. But that's how you provide. That's how you protect it. So with reference to the Old Covenant people of God, I think Paul describes it well in Galatians 3. Paul stated the law. And in that context, he's using law to refer to the Old Covenant. It was a tutor to bring us to Christ. So how do you get a million people from point A to point B? You impose a covenant on them. You forbid what they can eat. You forbid what they can do. you know, scattering around the nations, you provide a land for them, you provide all form of protection for them, and you just keep them in place. And even then, they're gonna try to jeopardize it every step of the way. So the fact that they don't compromise it ultimately is owing to the grace and power of God. So the Old Covenant, as a covenant of words, does that job of keeping them under wraps, under protection, as a tutor, to bring them to Jesus. So Galatians 3, 24 to 26, that's where he talks about that. Usually we understand that as being a reference to the law, the 10 Commandments. The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ. So what does the Bible want to say? Once we've come to Christ, there's no longer a need for the tutor. So what do you think? Some people, wow, we don't need the 10 Commandments. That's not the point. We don't need the prohibitions against shellfish. We don't need the prohibitions against intermarrying. We don't need that. The Ten Commandments doesn't matter what covenant you're in. That's always the revelation of God's holy law. access to all that special revelation guaranteed justification by faith. But there's an advantage, better to hear God's word than to not hear God's word. So there's benefit to having that special revelation, but yet all are in sin. So hence why in that summary at the end of the ceremony class, I think last time, that's why I was trying to put forward that whole idea of the two tracks, where there's two separate things going on at the same time. And then in Romans 10, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. If I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. And then when he says, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes, again, I don't think he means you don't have to keep the commandments. He's Christ of the purpose, he's the telos, he's the focus, he's the reason or rationale for the law. And again, lightly, he's speaking about the old covenant. These Israelites, they're still steeped in this old covenant mindset, so that when Jesus comes, the very Messiah that's offered in that, or prophesied in that old covenant, they miss him by a long shot. They got to the point where No, we can just do these things. We can just fulfill this law and be obedient and find our favor with God. So that's how I understand the Old Testament, that it wasn't redemptive, but it wasn't contrary to the promise. That's another thing Paul says in Galatians, just before that bit in 3.26-29, a little before that, he says, is the law contrary, it's against the promises. No, it functioned. in the manner that God purposed for it to function. It's there as a hedge of protection to keep people together for the coming of the Savior. But yeah, I would definitely recommend that. Sam Ryan, if you just text me or email me, I'll give you the link for Amazon. It's really helpful.