Exodus 33:12 - Meaning and Application

Moses went back to the door of the tabernacle and stood there as a humble, urgent seeker. He asked for two great gifts, and as a prince with God, he prevailed in both. In this, he pointed forward to Christ, the great intercessor, whom the Father always hears.

First, Moses earnestly asked God to keep his presence with Israel as they continued toward Canaan, even after their sins. The people had deserved God’s anger, and Moses had already obtained mercy to turn that anger away (Exodus 32:14). But they had also lost the joy and blessing of God’s favorable presence, and Moses now asks for that to return. In the same way, through Christ’s intercession, we receive not only rescue from judgment, but also the gift of blessing and eternal happiness.

Notice how Moses brings his case before God and fills it with strong reasons. He values God’s favor deeply, cares about God’s glory, and longs for Israel’s good. He both pleads well and succeeds well.

He begins with the commission God had already given him to lead this people (Exodus 33:12). In effect, he says, “Lord, you are the one who sent me. Will you not help me in the work you assigned? I am doing my duty, so will you not go with me?” God never sends anyone to his service without also giving the help needed for it. Those who sincerely mean to do their duty may ask God in faith for direction and strength.

Moses also appeals to the favor God had already shown him: “You have said, I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.” Now he says, if that is true, show me your way (Exodus 33:13). The people had lost the benefit of what God had said to them, so Moses does not rest his plea there. He leans on what God had said to him, even while admitting he does not deserve it. In this way, he takes hold of God for the people: “Lord, if you will do anything for me, do this for them.” In a similar way, Jesus presents himself to the Father as the one in whom he is always pleased, and so obtains mercy for us, though we rightly deserve his displeasure. We are accepted in the Beloved.

Moses also speaks like one who cares for the public good, using his own standing to help others. What he most wants is this: “Show me your way, so I may know that I have found favor in your sight.” Divine guidance is one of the clearest signs of divine favor. We know God’s grace is at work when he gives us grace in our hearts to lead us and stir us toward duty. God’s work in us is the surest sign of his good will toward us.

He also reminds God that the people still belong to him, even though they are unworthy (Exodus 33:13). “Consider that this nation is your people,” he says, a people God had greatly blessed, redeemed for himself, and brought into covenant with himself. In effect he says, “Lord, they are yours, so do not leave them.” A hurt father may say, “My child is foolish and stubborn, but he is still my child, and I cannot abandon him.”

Moses then shows how much he values God’s presence. When God said, “My presence will go with you,” Moses seized on that promise, because he knew he could not go forward without it (Exodus 33:15). He says, “If your presence does not go with me, do not send us up from here.” He speaks as one who fears the very thought of moving ahead without God. Their journeys would not be safe, and their resting places would not be peaceful, if God were not with them. It would be better to stay and die in the wilderness than to go to Canaan without God’s presence.

Those who know how precious God’s favor is are best prepared to receive it. Moses is so earnest that he will not take a refusal. He says, in effect, “We will stay here until you grant us your favor.” Like Jacob, he will not let God go unless he blesses him. And when God gives encouraging words, Moses becomes even more urgent. God’s kind promises should not only strengthen our faith, they should also stir us to pray more earnestly.

Moses closes with a plea for God’s glory (Exodus 33:16). “How will anyone know that I and your people have found favor in your sight, and that you have set us apart from all the peoples on earth? How will it be seen that we are truly honored, unless you go with us?” He says that nothing less than God’s presence can prove those claims. Even an angel alone would not be enough. He also emphasizes where they are, in this wilderness, where God had led them and where they would certainly be lost if he left them.

God’s special presence with us in this wilderness, by his Spirit and grace to guide, defend, and comfort us, is the surest sign of his special love. It also brings glory to God as well as benefit to us.

Moses then receives an answer of favor. For himself, God says, “I will give you rest” (Exodus 33:14). God would settle the matter and give him peace of heart. Moses never entered Canaan, yet God kept his word and gave him rest (Daniel 12:13).

Moses was not satisfied with a promise for himself alone. He wanted an open promise for the people too, or he would not be at peace. Loving, generous souls are not content to be saved themselves, but want their friends saved as well. Moses prevailed here too: “I will do this thing also that you have spoken” (Exodus 33:17). God does not treat Moses as an unreasonable beggar. He encourages him. God gives as long as Moses asks, gives freely, and does not scold him.

See the power of prayer, and let it stir you to ask, seek, and knock, to keep praying always, and not lose heart. See also the riches of God’s goodness. Even after doing much, he is willing to do more, saying, “I will do this also,” beyond what we can ask or think. And in this, we see a picture of Christ’s intercession, which he always lives to make for all who come to God through him. The reason it succeeds is not anything in those he represents, but his own merit. It is because he has found favor in God’s sight.

Now the matter is settled. God is fully reconciled to them, his presence in the pillar of cloud returns, and it will stay with them. Everything is well again, and from this point on we hear no more about the golden calf. “Lord, who is a God like you, forgiving sin?”

Having gained this point, Moses next asks to see God’s glory, and God hears him in this as well. Notice, first, the humble request Moses makes: “I beg you, show me your glory” (Exodus 33:18). Moses had recently been on the mountain with God and had stayed there a long time. He had enjoyed as close a fellowship with God as anyone ever had on this side of heaven, yet he still wanted more. All who are truly called to know God and enjoy fellowship with him, though they want nothing more than God himself, still keep wanting more of him until they see him as he is seen.

Moses had already gained one blessing after another from God, and the success of his prayers made him bold to keep seeking God. The more he had, the more he asked for. When we are in a good frame of heart at the throne of grace, we should try to keep it and make use of it. We should act while the opportunity is fresh. “Show me your glory,” he says, or, more exactly, “Make me see it.” He is asking God to make it visible in some way and to strengthen him to bear the sight. He was not so ignorant as to think God’s essence could be seen with physical eyes. But, since he had so far only heard a voice from the cloud or fire, he wanted some kind of representation of divine glory, if God saw fit to grant it.

It was not right for the people to see any likeness when the Lord spoke to them, lest they become corrupt. But Moses hoped there would be no such danger in his seeing some likeness. He wanted something more than he had seen before. If his request was only to help his faith and devotion, it was a good request. But there may also have been some weakness mixed in. God wants us to walk by faith, not by sight, in this world, and faith comes by hearing. Some think Moses asked for a sight of God’s glory as proof of reconciliation and as a pledge of the promised presence, but he did not fully understand what he was asking.

Second, note God’s gracious answer to this request. First, he refused what was not right to give and what Moses could not endure: “You cannot see my face” (Exodus 33:20). A full display of God’s glory would overwhelm any mortal in this life, even Moses. Man is too small and unworthy for it, too weak to bear it, and too guilty to face it without fear. In mercy toward our weakness, God covers the face of his throne and spreads a cloud over it (Job 26:9). God has said that here, in this world, his face will not be seen (Exodus 33:23). That honor is kept for the future life and will be the lasting joy of holy souls. If people now knew what that glory is like, they would not be content to live without it. There is a knowledge and enjoyment of God that must be waited for in the world to come, when we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). In the meantime, let us admire both the greatness of what we do know about God and the depth of what we do not know.

Long before this, Jacob spoke in wonder about having seen God face to face and still living (Genesis 32:30). Sinful people fear seeing God as Judge, but holy souls, changed by the Spirit into the same image, behold the Lord’s glory with open face (2 Corinthians 3:18). Second, God granted what would fully satisfy Moses. He would hear what would delight him: “I will make all my goodness pass before you” (Exodus 33:19). God had already shown amazing goodness in being reconciled to Israel, but that was only the goodness flowing out to them. Now he would show Moses goodness at its source, all his goodness. That was a full answer to Moses’ request. Moses said, “Show me your glory.” God answered, “I will show you my goodness.”

God’s goodness is his glory, and he wants us to know him more by the glory of his mercy than by the glory of his majesty. We must even fear the Lord and his goodness (Hosea 3:5). What especially displays the glory of God’s goodness is that he is sovereign, meaning he is free to show mercy as he chooses. He will be gracious to whom he will be gracious, as the one who owns all things and owes nothing to anyone. He gives his gifts as he pleases and is answerable to no one. His reasons for mercy come from within himself, not from any merit in his creatures. As he has mercy on whom he will, so he does it because he wills it. “Even so, Father, because that was your good pleasure.”

Scripture never says, “I will be angry with whom I will be angry,” because his wrath is always just and holy. But it does say, “I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy,” because his grace is always free. He never condemns by mere power, but by power he saves. The apostle uses this passage in Romans 9:15 to answer those who accused God of injustice for giving grace freely to some and withholding it justly from others.

God also promised that Moses would see what he could bear, and what would be enough for him. Everything was arranged so Moses would be safe and still satisfied. First, he was to be placed in a cleft of the rock (Exodus 33:21, 22). There he would be sheltered from the blinding light and consuming fire of God’s glory. This was the rock in Horeb from which water came, and Scripture says, “That rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). It is in the clefts of this rock that we are kept safe from God’s wrath, which would otherwise destroy us. God himself protects those who are hidden there. It is also only through Christ that we come to know the glory of God. No one sees that glory to their comfort unless they stand on this rock and take shelter in it.

Second, Moses was content with a view of God’s back parts (Exodus 33:23). He would see more of God than anyone had ever seen on earth, but not as much as those see in heaven. In a human face, the face is where majesty is seen, and people are known by their faces. In that way, we take in a full view of a person. Moses was not allowed that sight of God. Instead, he would see something like the back of someone who has passed by, only a glimpse, as we say, of him. We cannot really be said to look at God, but rather to look after him (Genesis 16:13), because we see through a glass darkly. When we see what God has done in his works and observe the movements of our God and King, we are seeing, as it were, his back parts.

Even the best believers know only in part, and because of the darkness, we cannot speak of God with complete clarity any more than we could describe a person whose face we never saw. Moses was allowed to see only God’s back parts. Yet later, when he witnessed Christ’s transfiguration, he saw his face shine like the sun. If we faithfully use the light God gives us about himself now, a brighter and more glorious scene will soon be opened to us, for whoever has will be given more.