Moses Asks: Show Me Your Glory—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 21A/Proper 25A (Exodus 33)

Exodus 33:12-23 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹² Moses said to the Lord, “See, you have said 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 favor in my sight.’ ¹³ Now if I have found favor in your sight, please show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favor in your sight. Consider, too, that this nation is your people.” ¹⁴ He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” ¹⁵ And he said to him, “If your presence will not go, do not bring us up from here. ¹⁶ For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people, unless you go with us? In this way, we shall be distinct, I and your people, from every people on the face of the earth.”

¹⁷ The Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have asked, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” ¹⁸ Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” ¹⁹ And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you the name, ‘The Lord,’ and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. ²⁰ But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one shall see me and live.” ²¹ And the Lord continued, “See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, ²² and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; ²³ then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

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                As Israel traversed the wilderness of Sinai, Moses went up to meet God on Mount Sinai. While Moses was up on the mountain with God, receiving all the rules and regulations that would define the covenant relationship (Exodus 19-31). While Moses was meeting with God, the people got a bit anxious because Moses was up on the mountain for a rather long time. They worried that something might have happened to him. If that was true, then who was going to lead them to the Promised Land? When their fear got the better of them, the people went to Aaron and asked him to give them a god, or at least a representation of the God who had delivered them from Egypt. Aaron was amenable to their request and gathered all the gold from among the people and fashioned a golden calf. The people received the calf as their god and threw a wild party. Now, while Aaron was down below providing the people with a new god, Yahweh was none too happy. Yahweh was ready to wipe this people out and start fresh with Moses. Fortunately, Moses talked Yahweh out of doing this. While Moses was willing to intercede on behalf of the people, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t horrified by what he found down in the valley when he returned from the mountain. While God didn’t wipe Israel off the face of the earth, God did send a plague to punish the people (Exodus 32).   

                This week we turn the page on the story of Israel’s sojourn. Our reading begins in verse 12, but we need to pay attention to the opening verses of the chapter. Now that there was a tent (tabernacle) for God to dwell in, Moses was of the habit of going in and talking with God. When Moses went into the tent the pillar of cloud would appear and stand before the entrance to the tent, while God spoke to Moses. God made it clear to Moses that it was time for Israel to leave the area where they had been camping. God told Moses to get a move on it by getting on the road leading to the Promised Land. God also told Moses that the people living in the Promised Land would be driven out (this is another of those difficult passages that suggest that God was ordering genocide). Another important word is revealed here—Moses got to talk with Yahweh “face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (Exod 33:1-11).

                We pick up the story in verse 12 of Exodus 33. Moses is having a conversation with God. Moses is concerned that God hasn’t provided him with someone to help lead the people. Moses tells Yahweh that Yahweh had told him that he was favored, so how was he to know this to be true? What are the signs? Yes, Moses wants some kind of sign besides all the signs that had been shared previously. In other words, Moses seems to be experiencing what you might call ministry burnout. The people that God had stuck Moses with were stubborn (stiff-necked). The journey through the desert was no picnic (remember that they needed God to provide them with both food and water. Moses was getting a bit weary and wanted reassurance that God truly was with these people. After all, Moses tells Yahweh, “This nation is your people” (Exod. 33:13). Yahweh reassures Moses that God’s presence will go with the people. Not only that, but God will provide the people with rest. Moses responds by telling God not to fall short. Help us know that we’re different from other nations.

                It appears that Moses is worried that Yahweh will abandon the people in the wilderness. Since these are God’s people, Moses isn’t interested in going forward if God is not going with them. Yes, Moses is tired of being caught in the middle. Moses needs some reassurance from God that he’s not alone in this. God is willing to give it because God knows Moses’ name.

                What does Moses want from God? Well, according to the author of Exodus 33, Moses wants to see God’s glory.  God says, “My presence will go with you.” But that doesn’t seem good enough for Moses, who acts as if he hadn’t heard God speak at all. He tells God: “If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here.” If I read the conversation correctly, God had already agreed to this request, so why make it again?  

What Moses wants is a truly face-to-face encounter. We’ve already been told that God had been meeting with Moses in the tent face-to-face, though the nature of that encounter isn’t fully described. What we know is that when Moses talks to God, as if their friends, the cloud pillar stands outside the entrance to the tent. God has also provided Moses with inscribed stone tablets that carry the commandments. Moses seems to want more. What he asks for is this: “Show me your glory.” In making this request, it sounds like Moses wants to see God’s face, and in asking for this it seems as if Moses wants to control the relationship.

Although Moses’ request seems a bit presumptuous, it also appears that God wants this relationship to work. So, God agrees to show Moses a bit more of God’s self. Yahweh tells Moses that God’s goodness will pass before him, and God’s name will be proclaimed. That is, the sacred name of Yahweh will be again revealed. Not only that but Yahweh will be gracious to those whom God wishes to be gracious, and God will show mercy to those whom God wants to show mercy. It does seem here that God is trying to reclaim some authority because what Moses cannot see is God’s face (I know, they talk face-to-face in the tent!). The reason Moses can’t see God’s face is that if Moses saw God’s face he would be totally consumed. God is willing to go a long way with Moses, but some things just are not possible. While Moses has a special relationship with God, this is not a partnership of equals. 

So when Moses asks God to see God’s Glory, what Moses has in mind, as Walter Brueggemann points out, is “God’s awesome, shrouded, magisterial presence, something like an overpowering light. It is in this passage as though the request for glory is to draw even closer, more dangerously, more intimately, to the very core of God’s own presence” [Walter Brueggemann, “Exodus,” New Interpreter’s Bible, 1:940]. Moses wants to see God face to face, but as Yahweh reminds Moses, that this is not possible. But, Moses has found favor in the eyes of God because Moses wants to know God intimately. Therefore, God will reveal a bit of God’s self to Moses. God tells him “I will make my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, the LORD.” As for seeing God’s face, which is what Moses asked for, this is impossible. One cannot see God’s face and live. But God is willing to let Moses see God’s backside as God passes by. Moses is told that God will place him in the cleft of the rock, and God will cover Moses until God has passed by revealing only God’s back. This will be sufficient for Moses.

So, what is it like to know God intimately? To experience God’s glory? In Moses’ encounter with Yahweh, he is transformed through his engagement with God’s glory. He is now ready to lead Israel from Mt. Sinai to the Promised Land. As for God the LORD, the past is past. The idol has been destroyed and soon a new set of tablets will be delivered to guide the people of God. He will go in the power of God’s Spirit, for God has promised to go with them. This is a promise that continues to be in force, as the Spirit of God is present with us. Like Moses, we may only see God in part, but the promise of full revelation remains there before us.

Image Attribution: Wesley, Frank, 1923-2002. Churinga (pure light, glory of God), from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59222 [retrieved October 13, 2023]. Original source: Estate of Frank Wesley, http://www.frankwesleyart.com/main_page.htm.