Exodus 33:12-23
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, 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 carry 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 do the very thing that you have asked; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name." 18 Moses said, "Show me your glory, I pray." 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."
In Exodus 33:12-23, we have the story of the request by Moses to see God face to face. This reflection on the face or presence of the Lord is the final mediating institution that will deal with the apostasy of Israel in the wilderness. The passage unmistakably demonstrates the singular relationship between Moses and the Lord. As with other encounters between Moses and the Lord (e.g., Exodus 3:1–4:17; Numbers 12:1-16; 14:13-25), this passage signifies their unique bond as they negotiate how they will lead the people of Israel to Canaan. The request is bold. 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, 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 [face] will go with you, and I will give you rest." 15 And he said to him, "If your presence [face] will not go, do not carry us up from here. Such a promise carries with it the image of an almost independent hypostatic entity that suggests immanence while at the same attempting to protect the divine transcendence.[1] This text is one of the many places in the Old Testament in which we see the tension between divine transcendence and divine immanence. Christianity would resolve this tension in its notion of the Trinity. Moses affirms the importance of the Presence or Face of the Lord going with them. 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 do the very thing that you have asked; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name." They will not leave their present position until the Lord goes ahead of them. He wants himself and the people to find favor with the Lord. He wants the people to be distinct from other people.
18 Moses said, "Show me your glory, I pray." The Bible makes it clear that God has a “glory” before which we cannot stand. In theology, we call this transcendence. This does mean hierarchy and authority. Someone stands above us and over us, to whom we are accountable. Many of us have found in the casual our level of comfort. Yet, God is more than our pal is. Relating to God is not a matter of minimalism. We do not serve anyone well, if we boil down the divine and human relation into a single phrase, a simple emotive transaction, or a silly slogan. A relationship with God is painful. It ought not to surprise us, then, that the Lord does not agree to this request.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. Grace is an inner mode of being within God.[2] 20 But," he said, "you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live," reminding us that to participate in the eternity of the divine, we will require a radical change.[3]
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." Such a place is a reminder that creation itself involves letting the works of God take their place alongside God. God gives creatures such a space where they can stand in their finitude and temporality, even as the presence of God still embraces them.[4] We can stand with this God only because God has created a place for us to stand in the divine presence. This place, theology calls “immanence.” God is available to us. Moses spoke with God as with a friend. The Lord called him to a vocation, that of leading the Hebrew people out of slavery and to the Promised Land. To fulfill that vocation, Moses would need to listen to God and God will listen to Moses. That is what friends do. The Lord will then place a hand over Moses so that he will not see the Face, but he will see the back of the Lord. Thus, not even Moses can comprehend fully the reality of the glory and presence of God. Our knowledge of God is in that sense never complete and always indirect.[5]
Do we dare believe that at the Lord’s side is a place for each of us? We live in an informal time, when authority and hierarchy do not have the force they once did. We have flattened everything out with networks of relationships. The Bible makes it clear that God has a “glory” before which we cannot stand. In theology, we call this transcendence. This does mean hierarchy and authority. Someone stands above us and over us, to whom we are accountable. We can stand with this God only because God has created a place for us to stand in the divine presence. This place, theology calls “immanence.” God is also available to us.
Chapter 33 of Exodus contains stories that center around the theme of the presence of God. In v. 11, we find these words, "Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend." I like to think the conversation recorded here is between Moses and God in prayer. When Moses lets God know the desire of his heart, the response is like this: "The LORD said to Moses, 'I will do the very thing that you have asked; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.'" However, Moses does not stop there. He wants it all. Moses said, "Show me your glory, I pray." That may seem like a bold prayer. Moses wants it all. He wants to see God!
In my better moments, I am with Moses. I want to see God, a childish wish, no doubt. What do you really want? We want many things, of course. Yet is your deepest desire to see God? If you want genuine change and transformation, your answer will be ‘Yes,” even if it feels like a dangerous thing. How real is God in your life? Three things come to my mind.
First, God deserves our highest respect and honor. God is transcendent, beyond us all. I like informality. Yet, it can go too far. We have a cultural suspicion and distrust of authority and hierarchy. Post-modernity, the term often given to this age, flattens all hierarchies: No high king, no high God. There are deep theological moorings behind all this informality that should disturb us. The market driven attempts in changing styles of worship, the “God is, like, my pal” emphasis, and bumper sticker Christianity (“Free coffee, everlasting life – yes, membership has its privileges!” or “Walmart is not the only saving place.”). Our primary question is something like, “What is the least one has to do to become a Christian?
A place where I think evangelical Christianity deserves some criticism is that it has become a master at theological and soteriological minimalism. It can boil down the entire gospel down to a single phrase, a simple emotive transaction, or some silly slogan. Søren Kierkegaard, in his Attack Upon Christendom, declared, “Christianity is the profoundest wound that can be inflicted upon us, calculated on the most dreadful scale to collide with everything.” Too much of the evangelical branch of the church has made entrance into the Christian faith painless and almost seamless. If we mean it when we say, “Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary,” we need to have a sense of this otherness of God.
Second, to know someone truly is to know them face to face. "Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend." (Exodus 33:11) Here is where the immanence of God must be just as real to us. Moses spoke with God as a friend. The challenging task given to him in his calling of leading the people out of Egypt and into a new land has its reward here. He will listen to God, and God will listen to him, for that is what friends do. Can we demand more? Granted, the story is in the Bible to express the special relationship Moses hade with the Lord. Do you dare to believe that you can relate to God in that way? The Lord has given each of us difficult tasks to perform in life. United with the people of God, you have a mission beyond your ability. Even as a human being, the mission is difficult. It may not be of world-historical significance, but it will be significant to you and the lives of those you touch.
Just because we pass someone on a crowded street does not mean we know him or her. Just because people have told us about someone does not mean we know them. We can say that a relationship has begun when we single out a person from the crowd, meet them face to face, know their name, talk with them, and experience life with them. Then we can say there is a genuine friendship.
Who is this God? Does God have a kind face? Or is it a disinterested face? Is God’s face stony? Has a tear flowed down those divine cheeks?
If we mean it when we sing “Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary,” we need this sense of God being closer to us, knowing us, better than we know ourselves. Is God that real to you?
With God, the relationship will work itself out differently but analogously to that of human relationships. If God is real to us, then God deserves our highest respect and honor. God is transcendent, beyond us all.
With God, whom we can never know fully, we have the privilege of God granting us space alongside God. God is immanent and intimate with us because of a gracious decision and act of God.
Third, what is the deepest desire of our hearts? What do you really want? Asked in one way, we legitimately want many things. We want things for family, community, work, nation, and church. Asked in another way, do we want to see God? If we see God truly, we will discover proper honor and authority that belongs to God. We will also discover that God has granted us a place alongside of God. We will acknowledge the transcendence and immanence of God.
What do you really want? That can be a dangerous question. I have heard people say they want a new car or a nicer home. As we grow in our relationship with God, we realize how insignificant such matters are. When it comes to eternity, such material things become less and less important to us. What do you really want in your family? What do you really want in your church? What do you really want in this community, in this country? Often, we breathe little prayers to God during the day. That is wonderful. Yet, there is also something to be said for knowing ourselves and the will of God well enough to bring the desires of our hearts before God. And so, when it comes to making our requests known to God, what do you really want? Is there anything which you desire so much that you are willing to bring that desire to God in prayer, and ask God to make it happen? That is what concerns me about prayer ‑ my prayer. There are times when my petitions are half‑hearted. I do not really mean it. Not deep down in my heart.
The relationship with God of which I write is the reason religious institutions exist. The danger of all religious institutions is that they will get quite good at organizing religious activities and not guiding people to the experience of God. Participants learn what religious people do within that tradition without discovering the joy and pain of a true relationship with God. Oscar Wilde once said that religion is the fashionable substitute for belief. The point of true religion is not to bring more people into the institution, but to bring them to a transforming relationship with God. In fact, institutions and activities can feel like our human attempt to avoid what truly matters, namely, our relationship with God. We can hear about God and we can teach about God without every relating to God. If religion has become shallow, thin, and the same as culture, maybe the time has come to become deep, think, and become different (Jack Davis). In Hebrew the word for honor and glory is kbd (kabod), meaning “heavy.” We need a better grasp and experience of the holiness and weightiness of God. God is not the lightweight of much of contemporary theology.[6]
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[6] Timothy Tennant said something similar and inspires this, though I have broadened the comments.
liked the way you drew the tension between transcendence and immanence.
ReplyDeleteThank you
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