Exodus 32:34-33:1334Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them. 35And the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made. 1And the Lord said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it: 2And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: 3Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way. 4And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments. 5For the Lord had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. 6And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb. 7And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp. 8And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle. 9And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. 10And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door. 11And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. 12And Moses said unto the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. 13Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people. (Exodus 32:34‑33:13)
God told Moses of the judgment that must come upon the people because of their sin in worshiping the golden calf, but blessed be His name, the judgment which we deserved has fallen upon Christ. He bore it for us, but, let us remind any unsaved reader of these lines that if you continue to reject the grace of God as revealed in Christ you will surely come under His judgment, and when He “visits” your sins upon you it will be a solemn day or rather a solemn and eternal night.
God had not forgotten His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but any hope of the children of Israel getting into the land upon the ground of their own faithfulness was gone. God then told Moses to lead them into the land himself for if God came among them in His glory there would he judgment. Moses became the mediator for the people, a figure as we shall see later, of the true Mediator—Christ Jesus.
The people then, at the command of Moses, stripped themselves of their ornaments, and so it is most necessary that the sinner take his true place as guilty if he is to get any blessing from God. Anything that might adorn him must he laid aside, for man is guilty, ruined, and undone. And even we who are saved need to remember the great distance which we were from God when He saved us. We ought to set aside anything and everything which exalts the flesh or would attempt to make it fair and beautiful. Even God-given gifts should never he used for the exaltation of self.
Moses then took the tabernacle and pitched it “afar off from the camp.” If God could not be among them in the camp because of their sin, faith on Moses’ part led him to pitch the tabernacle outside of it, and the glory of God appeared to him there. All those who sought the Lord went out to the “Tabernacle of the congregation” outside the camp. Moses went back into the camp, for he was the mediator who typified Christ who is ready to meet the sinner where he is, or even the saint in a wrong position. Joshua, however, beautiful type of Christ in the midst of His people, remained in the tabernacle of the congregation, and how sweet it is to faith to know that there is an outside place—a place of reproach—where the Lord is in the midst of His own. (Hebrews 13:1313Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. (Hebrews 13:13).) Most of the people, sad to say, rained in the camp, choosing to worship at their tent door, in the place where the golden calf had been chosen instead of Jehovah. How often we see the same thing today, and how many there are who, though they have found the Lord as their Saviour, fail to seek out the place where He is in the midst. They prefer to remain in the camp than to bear His reproach in the outside place.
Moses then asked the Lord to reveal to him the way by which he was to lead the people through the wilderness. Nor does he think of himself alone, hut identifies himself with the people, calling them Thy people—God’s people. Moses knew that he himself had found grace in the sight of the Lord, but now he says, “I and Thy people.” May we too have more of the heart of Christ in this, which shows itself in love to His people no matter how badly they have failed. They are God’s people and He will never give them up. Let us then be willing to love and serve them for His sake until He calls us to our home above!
ML 06/04/1950