Goals of Spiritual Life (Exodus 33:12-40:38)

As soon as children are born, we see hints of what they will be like as mature adults. They will grow and change, but many of their facial features and other physical characteristics will be similar. A distinct genetic pattern is encoded in their DNA, but it is more than that. We see glimmers of personality that are unique to the individual and will define them throughout their life, perhaps even in eternity. It is who God created them to be.

In our study of Exodus, I have argued that the Tabernacle reveals a pattern. It shows God’s intent to dwell among his people as he did in the Garden of Eden. Truth, love, and light flow from his presence. The Tabernacle is not the mature expression of his plan but the infancy. It is just a beginning, a shadow of what is to come. It demonstrates that sin separates us from God but that a sacrifice offered by a priestly mediator can atone for our sins.

However, the Tabernacle itself does not allow everyone to draw near to God, only priests in a limited way. Its priests are flawed, and its sacrifices are never ending. In fact, God almost gives up on the Tabernacle when Aaron and the people make a golden calf and worship before it. He threatens to destroy the nation and start over with Moses. He only relents when Moses intercedes for them, but the building of the Tabernacle is still put on hold.

Nevertheless, Moses continues to meet with the Lord personally outside of the camp, and as he does, we see the true intent of the Tabernacle’s pattern. Moses’ interaction with God in Exodus 33:12-34:35 demonstrates three goals of spiritual life. These are the same goals that we as New Testament believers should pursue in and through Jesus Christ. They are goals that will ultimately be fulfilled in the new heaven and earth. This is what spiritual life is all about.

What are these goals? What makes them worth pursuing? How can they be achieved? We will find answers to these questions as we examine this passage of Scripture.

Knowing God’s Name

Today we treat names like labels, the barest form of identification. It is certainly more polite than saying, “Hey, you!” Your parents may have chosen your name for no other reason than that they liked the sound of it, but in the Bible, names often have significant meaning. They may express an individual’s life mission or sum up their character. Sometimes God even changes a person’s name to reflect his purpose for them.

So, when the Bible speaks of knowing the name of God, it is more than having an accurate label for him. It means understanding who he is, what he desires, and how he works. The knowledge of God is the source of wisdom and the blessing of eternal life (Pr 2:5-6; Jn 17:3). It is what he created us for and the only thing that will truly satisfy our souls.

When God first appeared to Moses in the burning bush to send him back to Egypt, Moses asked about his name (Ex 3). He wanted to be able to identify who was sending him, but in Exodus 33:12-13, Moses shows a deeper desire. It tells us,

Moses said to the LORD, “See, you say 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.’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.”

Earlier in the chapter, the Lord had said that he would not be present among Israel as he had been. Instead, he would send an angel before them, but Moses is not content with that. He needs wisdom and strength to lead the people. So, he pleads on the basis of God’s favor or grace. Because God knows Moses’ name and has shown him favor, Moses wants to know God’s ways, his paths, his wisdom, so that he may continue to find favor with the Lord. That is the cycle of spiritual growth knowledge, grace, knowledge, grace.

Moses’ concern is not just for himself. He mentions the nation, and he says more as his dialogue with the Lord continues. Verses 14-17 begins with the Lord’s response.

And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” And the LORD said to Moses, "This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name."

The Lord initially promises that his presence will go with Moses, but he does not mention the nation. So, as he did in his previous intercession on the mountain, Moses pleads with God on the basis of what will bring him glory. Moses wants other nations to know that Israel has found favor with God. The Lord’s visible presence will put his grace on display.

The Lord consents to Moses’ request, but Moses is not done. He asks for more. Verses 18-23 tell us,

Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 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. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

The Lord already speaks with Moses in some sense face to face, but Moses wants a deeper understanding of his glory. He agrees to proclaim his name before Moses. He will let him see his goodness and understand his grace and mercy, but even that will only be like seeing his back. It will not be the full intensity of seeing his face per se. The only way a human being can survive that encounter is to be completely sinless. But that is where the pattern is heading. Revelation 22:4 tells us that those who enter the new heaven and earth will see his face.

This encounter on Sinai is not exclusively for Moses. Exodus 34:1-4 tell us,

The LORD said to Moses, "Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. No one shall come up with you, and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain." So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone.

The Lord is preparing to renew his covenant with Israel. We will see more about that in a moment. First, verses 5-8 recount Moses’ experience on the mountain. It says,

The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.

We are told not what Moses sees but what he hears, and what he hears is not new information about the Lord. God gave a similar description of his steadfast love and his commitment to punish sin in the Second Commandment (Ex 20:4-6). But in the incident with the golden calf, Moses saw these characteristics in action. He witnessed the death of many for the sin that they committed, yet the Lord mercifully spared the nation from destruction. So, as the Lord reviews his character, Moses understands in a much deeper way, and he responds in worship.

Growing in the knowledge of God is not necessarily a matter of learning more facts. We certainly need to keep hearing God’s Word, but our understanding of it deepens as we use it and rely upon it. So, in Philippians 3:10, Paul speaks of knowing Jesus and the power of his resurrection by sharing in his sufferings and becoming more like him.

Are you growing in the knowledge of God? Are you learning his ways? If so, then one day you will look upon his face.

Keeping God’s Covenant

We live in a society that resists and even fears commitment. As I was about to enter the church on my wedding day, my aunt stopped me and said, “You don’t have to go through with this.” In her mind, I was giving up my freedom, tying myself down. Many people think that way. They want to experience the blessings of marriage without making any vows, but that never works. Marriage is a covenant relationship. Its blessings flow from mutual commitment.

God established marriage to teach us how we should relate to him. You cannot ignore him and then expect to gain a few blessings by offering up a few prayers or participating in a few rituals. He calls people into a covenant relationship. He gives commandments, not as arbitrary burdensome restrictions, but as covenantal vows.

In Exodus 24, the people of Israel pledged themselves to obey, but when they worshiped before the golden calf, they broke their vows. So, as Moses hears of God’s mercy and steadfast love again on the mountain, he asks the Lord to fully restore his relationship with Israel. Exodus 34:9 tells us,

And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”

He seeks God’s presence with the people, his pardon of their sin, and his possession of them. These are all integral components of this covenant relationship. The Lord highlights this as he responds in verse 10.

And he said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.

Israel will be blessed because of their unique relationship with God, but they must renew their commitment to him. The Lord highlights three concerns. First, in verses 11-17, the Lord says,

Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods. You shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal.

The Lord promised to give land to Abraham’s descendants. But to enjoy that blessing, the people of Israel need to honor their exclusive relationship with the Lord. Under his covenant, idolatry is akin to adultery in marriage. He deserves complete devotion. Anything less will provoke him to jealousy. So, he commands them to eliminate all idolatrous influences.

Second, the Lord wants them to remember how he saved them from Egypt. The final plague was going to strike down every firstborn of man or animal. But the Lord allowed the people of Israel to offer up lambs so that their homes would be passed over. As they fled, they were to eat unleavened bread. So, he calls them to reenact these events every year on their anniversary and to honor them in how they treat every firstborn. In verses 18-20, he says,

You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt. All that open the womb are mine, all your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep. The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And none shall appear before me empty-handed.

The Lord’s third concern is that they would acknowledge him as their provider through the weekly Sabbath and their annual feasts. In verses 21-26, he says,

Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end. Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the LORD God, the God of Israel. For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the LORD your God three times in the year. You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover remain until the morning. The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.”

Most of these stipulations were already revealed in the Book of the Covenant recorded in Exodus 21-23. The problem is not that Israel forgot. They chose to ignore them. They needed a radical change of heart, but at this point in his plan the Lord only gives them the Law in writing. Verse 27-28 tell us,

And the LORD said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

Though the Lord graciously renews his covenant with them, the people of Israel repeatedly violate it over the centuries that follow. So, the Prophet Jeremiah announces that there will be a new covenant in which the Law will not just be written upon stone but upon people’s hearts (31:31-34). Ezekiel says that God will put his Spirit in them to cause them to obey (36:24-28).

This new covenant is the one that Jesus initiates (1 Cor 11:25-26). Through his perfect obedience, he fulfills the obligations of the old covenant. So, we are not under the specific stipulations of the Old Testament Law, but the same principles are reiterated in Christ’s commands. Through his death on the cross he purchases true forgiveness for everyone who believes in him. He rises from the dead and ascends into heaven to intercede for us. He also sends the Holy Spirit to indwell us and transform us.

Yet with all these amazing resources, we still struggle to obey. We grow with the Spirit’s help, but we still find ourselves transgressing the boundaries of a faithful relationship with God. Thankfully, in Romans 8:1, Paul assures us that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, and 1 John 3:2 tells us that when Jesus appears we will be like him. Our battle against sin will then be over, and we will finally experience the blessing of living in perfect harmony with God through perfect obedience. As we wait for that time, we must strive to keep God’s word.

Displaying God’s Glory

On a clear night, a full moon shines with a brilliant silver light. But the moon is nothing more than a dusty barren rock. It does not emit any light of its own. The light all comes from the sun. Just as God created the moon to reflect the sun’s light, he formed us from the dust to display his glory.

In the Tabernacle, the glory of God’s presence would be concealed in the innermost chamber, the most holy place. But Moses has a very different experience of God’s glory through his unique relationship with him. Exodus 34:29-35 tells us,

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the LORD had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

The glory of God is reflected on the face of Moses. It is like a spiritual sunburn, and the glow causes people to treat Moses with more reverence. But when he is not speaking, Moses decides to wear a veil. In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul says that the veil keeps people from seeing that his glory was fading. It was temporary.

But the New Covenant ministry of the Holy Spirit accomplishes something more enduring. In 2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul writes,

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

New Testament believers do not shine with a physical glow, but through the Spirit’s work we become more like Christ. Hebrews 1:3 says that he is the radiance of the glory of God, and as we grow, we can increasingly reflect his character in our behavior. His holiness and love can shine through in everything we say or do. We should strive to live for his glory.

Ultimately, all who believe in Christ will receive glorious immortal bodies that will enable us to live forever in the presence of God in fulfillment of the pattern. But the Tabernacle was a necessary first step in God’s revelation of his plan. Exodus 35-40 records how the people contributed toward the project and the craftsmen completed it exactly as the Lord commanded Moses. In fact, that section repeats the Lord’s instructions almost verbatim, so for our study, we will skip ahead to the end of the book. Exodus 40:34-38 says,

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.

The glory of God dwelt among his people. But the pattern has progressed, and believers today have something greater. Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we have his glory within us. Do people see it in you? Does it shine in all that you do? Let’s display his glory!

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The book of Exodus tells us how God raised up Moses to be a humble leader. It shows us God’s saving power and the boundaries that define a relationship with him. Finally, it reveals the pattern of the Tabernacle that points forward to the hope of life forever in the presence of God. So, as we wait for Christ to return and bring about that new heaven and earth, we must live for these goals: to know his name, to keep his covenant, and to display his glory.

Do you have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ? If not, I encourage you to seek to know him. Learn from his word and trust him to save you from your sin. Embrace his purpose for your life. If you want to learn more about knowing God, the second chapter of 1 John in the New Testament would be a good place to read.

If you already have a relationship with the Lord, are these goals reflected in your life? I encourage you to select one to focus on. Seek to grow in knowing him, obeying him, and glorifying him. Part of living for his glory is sharing his truth. We should invite people to know the Lord. Share your story. Share his Word. Encourage them to believe.

May we all be transformed from one degree of glory to another!