In Exodus 33 we have the account of the aftermath of the golden calf event of Exodus 32, in which Israel, after being miraculously rescued from slavery in Egypt by the LORD God, and graciously brought into covenant relationship with Him (Exodus 6:7), almost immediately and blatantly violate the covenant conditions, namely the first three of ten laws God had given them in regards to how they are to live in relationship with Him and one another in a manner that glorifies God and brings about the flourishing and prosperity of the nation and their individual happiness in Him (Exodus 20:1-17) (Deuteronomy 28:1-14).
God’s intention in creation from the beginning was to dwell with mankind in a mutual love relationship, just as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have dwelt in with one another throughout eternity (Genesis 1:26-28) (Jeremiah 32:38) (1 John 4:19). Created in His image and likeness for that purpose, we, under God’s just and gracious authority, would know only fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore, delighting in and being delighted in by God (Psalm 16:11) (Psalm 37:4) (Zephaniah 3:17).
We know however, how that relationship ended, at least temporarily, in Adam’s rejection of God’s authority and our continued rejection of it, which has brought us under His just judgement, exiled from His gracious presence, and subjected to His divine justice with its final sentence of an eternity in Hell (Psalm 2:1-3) (Isaiah 59:2) (Psalm 9:17).
However, the LORD God planned from the foundation of the world to graciously redeem a people out of sinful humanity, restoring them to the glorious relationship for which we were created and bringing them into His presence forever (Ephesians 1:3-6) (Revelation 21:1-3).
The LORD thus begins the fulfillment of this plan with the nation of Israel, whom He has chosen to be a people He would again graciously dwell with, a people to whom He would reveal Himself to so that they would come to know Him intimately and be the blessed recipients of His unfailing love (Deuteronomy 14:2) (Jeremiah 31:3). They were established to be a witness to all of the other sinful nations of the earth of God’s greatness, goodness and the glory of His grace (Isaiah 43:10) (Exodus 19:3-6).
The LORD had previously promised the patriarch Abraham that from him, from his “seed”, would come a great nation and through it all of the nations of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:2-3), pointing to the fulfillment of the promised “seed” of Genesis 3:15, in which people from all nations would be reconciled back to God (Galatians 3:16) (Revelation 7:9).
In Exodus 33:1-6, the LORD reveals to Moses that because of Israel’s great sin, their gross idolatry in direct violation of their covenant commitment (Exodus 24:3), He would not remain in their midst. Moses intercedes with God to not abandon the people to their just desserts, leaving them to their own devises to get to the land promised to Abraham and his offspring (Exodus 3:8). God responds affirmatively to Mose’s intercession and does so out of acknowledgment of the relationship He has established with Moses in response to Moses’ ongoing trust in and obedience to God (Exodus 33:17).
Moses then prays to the LORD, “Please show me your glory”, requesting that God reveal to him the full manifestation of the infinite perfections of His being that are inherent in His name “The LORD” (Exodus 33:18). Now Moses had already experienced firsthand many aspects of God’s glory. He saw His effulgence in the burning bush where God commissioned him to deliver Israel from Egypt (Exodus 3:1-10). He subsequently saw the LORD’s infinite wisdom, power and justice in His miraculous judgement of Egypt and their idols. He saw His mercy and faithfulness revealed in the Passover deliverance of his people from 400 years of slavery, resulting in fulfillment of the LORD’s promise to Abraham made 500 years earlier (Exodus 12:35-36) (Exodus 12:43-51) (Genesis 15:12-14).
The LORD responds to Moses’ request proclaiming, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion (Exodus 33:19).” Here the LORD is making clear that His goodness, all of His kind and beneficial acts toward mankind, are displayed according to His will and prerogative, and not in response to man earning, deserving or meriting anything good from God (James 1:17) (Romans 11:34-36).
The LORD follows this up with a summary revelation of His goodness being inherent to His eternal and unchanging nature. He implies that this is the sole reason He has not consumed the nation in judgement and instead will renew the covenant He had made with them despite their sin (Exodus 34:10).
Thus, we read in Exodus 34:5-8, “Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” So, Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.”
What we have gloriously revealed to us here directly from the LORD, the LORD God Himself, is that the one who is the creator and the sovereign ruler of His universe and all that is in it (Jeremiah 32:17) (Psalm 103:19), the one in whom “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28), the one who is infinite in wisdom and power (Jude 1:25) who made us in His image and likeness to know, love and be loved by Him (Jeremiah 31:3), and the one whom we, like Israel, have all grossly sinned against (Romans 3:23), is GOOD and does GOOD (Psalm 119:68) (Mark 10:18) (Psalm 34:8).
I will begin a closer look at this glorious truth and its implications in my next post.
Grace and Peace ×