Praying to God (Exodus 33:12-23)

The background

The background to this incident is well-known. A few weeks before this interaction with God, Moses had led the Israelites out of Egypt in an incredible display of divine power. All this was done in fulfilment of the Lord’s promise to do so. However, it was not long before the Israelites began to complain about various matters, which indicated their ingratitude. Still, the Lord forgave them and eventually they reached Mount Sinai, which again was a fulfilment of a divine promise. The gathering at Mount Sinai was meant to be an occasion of worship, as the Lord had said to Moses when he called him to be the Leader of his people. While he was up the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments from God, the people did engage in worship, but it was false worship. They were judged for this by a plague and by the Lord indicating that there would be a reduced sense of his presence with them.

We may be surprised by how a people who had experienced the Lord’s power in such great ways would behave in such a manner. But we should be surprised that we are surprised. After all, is it not the case that after conversion we discover things about our hearts that we did not realise were in them? We start of our Christian journey with great enthusiasm and praise in our hearts. Then when we meet with various types of adversity different sins appear and are expressed by us. 

As we think of the response of Moses here, we see the response of a leader of God’s people as he responds to the situation, and leaders among us can see how they should react to church life when similar things happen in churches. At the same time, it is the response of a believer and how each of them should respond when spiritual difficulties come along. 

Detailed Arguments
The first detail to note about the response of Moses as he prayed is that he used arguments as he interacted with the Lord. His words point to three features of suitable arguments in prayer. The initial one is connected to obedience to a personal command that the Lord had given to him, the second is to a relationship he had with the Lord, and the third has to do with the people of God.

What ideas come to mind as we think about those features? There is a desire to obey the Lord, there is a delight in knowing the Lord, and there is evidence of brotherly love. We can see how there cannot be meaningful prayer without those features. They are basic to Christian living. 

Moses is concerned with progress. Although he must have had strong disappointment with how things had worked out so far with regard to the Israelites and their journey to the promised land, he did not regard the sad failures as reasons not to pray for divine blessing. He knew that they could continue on their God-given journey.

The request of Moses is also connected to his desire to get to know God better. This is not surprising, given what he has experienced so far of God. We can think of his experience of God at the burning bush, in the plagues on Egypt, in the parting of the Red Sea, in the provision of water at the Red Sae, in the defeat of Amalek, in the provision of manna and quail, in the response to the people’s behaviour at Sinai and in other ways in which he helped his people. What kind of God has he come into a relationship with? Moses wants to know this God better.

Moses is concerned with the nature of the divine presence when he mentions  his inadequacy in power. He has realised that he is not able to deliver God’s people, therefore he reminds the Lord that he has not shown to Moses who will go with him on the journey. This request may be connected to the possibility that the Lord would only send an angel to help them rather than be present himself. While it is good to have angelic support, it looks as if Moses wanted more than that. He wanted the Lord to confirm that he would continue with his people. And he used the argument that the Lord himself had made them a distinct people.

We too should be concerned about those areas in spiritual life. Am I making progress despite my failures and the failures of others, do I desire to know better the God who has done great things, and do I want his presence in my life?

Divine assurance

Twice the Lord gives assurance to Moses about the divine presence (vv. 14, 17). The first divine response contains the detail of the assurance and the second divine response states the reason for the assurance. In verse 14, the ‘you’ is singular and refers to the divine blessing of personal rest that would be given to Moses even although he had all the burdens connected to leadership. The rest is not the rest of Canaan because Moses was not allowed by God to enter the Promised Land. Rather, it was rest from God as he served the Lord diligently. 

Moses was not content with personal assurance of divine help for him. He wanted the Lord to be with all the people, and the Lord assures him that will be the case, although he links his communal presence with personal favour to Moses (the ‘you’ in verse 17 is also singular). The reason for the Lord giving this wider assurance is that he knows Moses by name, which is probably a way of affirming a personal relationship with him.

How does this speak to us when we ask the Lord for his help? I would suggest that these two responses from the Lord point to his promises and to the relationship we have with him as his children. Moses was assured of both these matters here and often the Lord gives to praying people a sense of the reality of both these matters. He will keep the promises that he has made and he never forgets what our name is, the name that he has given to us as his people.

Desire announced

In response to what the Lord said to him, Moses said, ‘Please show me your glory.’ I suppose this could be seen as asking God to give an increased sense of who he is to Moses or it could be that Moses was asking for God to reveal to him a particular aspect of his divine character in which his glory is displayed in special ways.

Moses had already seen God’s glory in various ways. He had seen God in the burning bush, he had seen God in the plagues sent by him on the Egyptians, he had seen God when he met with the Lord on Mount Sinai, and he met with God at the Tent of Meeting. What is obvious is that previous encounters with God caused Moses to want more encounters. And his request indicates that he realised that what he had seen so far was not the fullness of God. However much had been revealed, and a great deal had, Moses knew that there was much more. Who has seen all of God’s power, for example?

Divine answer

The Lord was pleased with the request of Moses and said that he would reveal more of his character to his servant. We can see in the Lord’s answer that he equates his goodness with his glory or at least with the aspect of his glory that was good for Moses to see. Probably, the Lord means by goodness his perfection, his inherent goodness. He chooses to mention two ways in which is goodness is revealed – his sovereignty and his grace or mercy. We can speculate on why it was those two areas that God mentioned and can conclude that they explain why he would continue to be the God of Israel. They did not deserve him to do so, but he would do so because it was his sovereign purpose and because he would show his mercy to them.

The way that God appears to Moses is called a theophany, a temporary taking of a visible form. In his essence, God is invisible. Even when he appears in this way, there are aspects to his form that humans cannot look at, here said to be his face. It is likely that the shape that the Lord took was marked by intense brightness or radiance, a sign of his splendour and glory.

What is the significance of the distinction between looking at God’s face and looking at God’s back? Why could Moses look at God’s back and not at his face? One obvious suggestion would be that there are some features of God that we can look at and other features that we cannot. 

Another suggestion is that the people of God have to wait for the incarnation before they can see some aspects of God – does not Job speak about this when he says that after his death he will see God in the face of his Redeemer? And John in the first chapter of his Gospel says that they saw the glory of the Word made flesh. Connected to this could be the fact that at the moment there are aspects of God that sinners cannot look at because the psalmist at the close of Psalm 17 says that after his death he will see God’s face.

The incident also reveals the gracious love of God in that he protected Moses from danger, except that the danger here was looking at the Lord in a wrong way. He gave to Moses a twofold protection – the cleft in the rock and his hand. 

Some lessons

Consider the unselfishness of Moses. He could have God with him in a special way, but he did not want that privilege all by himself. His words reveal that he wanted for others what he wanted for himself – the presence of the living God.

We should be very thankful that we see God in Jesus our Saviour. Moses had a great encounter with God in which he was told much. Yet in Jesus we see God more clearly.