1) And Yahweh proceeded to speak to Moses, “Go, ascend from this place, you and the people you caused to ascend from the land of Egypt toward the land which I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your seed, I will give it
2) And I shall send a messenger (angel) before your presence (lit. “faces”) and I shall drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites,
3) TO a land flowing with milk and honey BECAUSE I will not go up in your midst BECAUSE a PEOPLE OF A STIFF NECK you are, lest I destroy you along the way.”
The personal name of God reflects a personal relationship, the reference to the past promise reflects a history of relationship, the promise itself suggests that God’s plans are considerably bigger than ours, and the last part suggests that even when God means the very best for us, His Holiness is so incompatible with our apathy and rebellion that we run the risk of being destroyed by His presence—a presence we take far too lightly.
4) And the people proceeded to hear this bad word and they themselves proceeded to mourn and, as a result, each man did not place his ornaments (jewelry) upon himself.
Although this verse was typically used in the traditional Pentecostal movement to forbid all use of make-up and jewelry, I think that approach has overlooked some important facets here. First of all, it wasn’t just the women. The Hebrew says that the men did not place their ornaments on themselves. Now, of course, that surely means the women, as well. It was a male-dominated world and what applied to the men (at least in restrictions, not necessarily in freedom) applied to the women. I believe we should read this as most English translations do that the people didn’t put on their jewelry.
Why is this significant? I think it is significant because there were several reasons to wear ornamentation in the ancient world. The most harmless reason was as a sign of authority—signet rings, torques (those big necklaces that predate modern street culture’s bling by millennia), and the like could signal who you are and how important you are. That’s not necessarily bad, but if we want to experience the presence of God, we have to be willing to let God transform us from who we ARE to whom He wants us to BECOME. A relatively harmless reason was to accessorize. Then, as now, jewelry was meant to set off the best features of a person’s appearance and distract from the rest. Yet, God knows exactly how we are. When we enter into communion with God, there should be no exaggeration of our good points (they all come by grace anyway) and no attempt to hid our bad points (He’s died for them already).
But the most damning aspect of this ornamentation relates to two things: sexuality and idolatry. You see, there is some evidence that young girls did not wear jewelry until they reached that time of womanhood that we call puberty (this is hinted in Ezekiel 16 where God uses the metaphor of wooing Israel from girlhood into womanhood). This may be because the cult prostitutes of the ancient world wore necklaces between their breasts to accentuate their desirability, married women wore different types of jewelry to express the idea that they “belonged” to their husbands (I once referred to my wedding ring proudly as Wailam’s “brand”), and married women often wore frog amulets or goddess amulets to increase their chance of fertility—depending upon other gods than the real God. Regardless, this verse suggests that the people knew that you had to avoid surrounding yourself with things that hide, things that distract, things that seduce you away from God, and things that are opposed to God.
We have all sorts of jewelry or ornamentation to remove (or not put on) if we are to make God welcome in our midst without risking destruction, judgment, and missed blessings. We wear reputation, awards, privilege, titles, tradition, bias, prejudice, desire, wealth, and pride as our modern ornamentation. But if we want God in our midst, we have to be willing to refuse even the most easy and seeming natural of these.
5) And Yahweh said to Moses, “Say to the sons of Israel, YOU, you are a people of a stiff neck. Let me go up in your midst ONE MOMENT and, as a result, I would destroy you. And now, take off your ornamentation from upon you and, as a result, I will know what I will do with you.”
Do you ever have a problem with some of these sayings? If God knows everything, why is God looking for a sign of obedience? If God knows everything and He has already said that His presence would destroy them, what’s happening now? God knows, but God limits His actions based on that knowledge to give us time to respond in freedom. Such a statement and such an action is merely grace in action. God guarantees our freedom, even when He knows it may go against Him. In this case, the decision didn’t.
6) And the sons of Israel stripped off [can also be delivered themselves from, rescued themselves from] their ornaments from Mount Horeb [on].
But you notice that the ideal here is not to strip off your ornaments, your security blankets, your modern gods of security, accomplishment, superiority, and luxury for a little while. The goal, even though we don’t see them fulfill it is to get rid of those things that stand between you and God, that interfere with God, once and for all.
7) And Moses took the tent and he placed it outside the camp, a distance from the camp, and he called it the “tent of meeting.” And everyone seeking Yahweh went out to the tent of meeting outside the camp.
Why is it that this important place for seeking God and meeting God is outside the camp? Numbers puts the tabernacle in the middle of the camp so that the people know that God is in their midst. The NT puts the Holy Spirit inside the believer’s body as a temple so that we are aware of God’s presence and power all the time. Why does this spiritual leader have to go outside the camp? I can’t prove it, but I believe it is because “familiarity breeds contempt.” As II Cor. 5:7 tells us, “we walk by faith not by sight.” But if we constantly see the things of God, if God constantly reveals Himself on a silver platter before us, if everything is too obvious and there is no struggle, no doubt, no frustration, guess what? We’re not living by faith.
I believe this tent of meeting was to remind Moses and the entire camp that God is beyond all of our understanding, all of our expectations, all of our experience, and even all of our theology. It isn’t WE are Lord. It is HE is Lord and that means He doesn’t necessarily play by our finite rules. He is infinite God. Sometimes, we need to be reminded that even though HE comes to US, it isn’t always at our convenience.
8) And it was that whenever Moses went to the tent, all the people stood, each man standing at the door of his own tent, and they watched until Moses came to the tent.
Now, I don’t mean to stir anything up here and I’ve already said that the references to the male gender apply to all of us. BUT, think about this. In a male-dominated age, the man of the tent provided an example and set the discipline for his entire family. Can we do anything less? Why is it that so many males have abdicated their spiritual responsibilities, today?
9) And when Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud [cloud that stands] came down and stood in the door of the tent and spoke with Moses.
10) And all the people saw that the pillar of cloud stood in the door of the tent and, as a result, they prostrated themselves, each man in the door of his tent.
11) And Yahweh spoke to Moses face-to-face [here, but in Numbers 12:8, it literally says mouth-to-mouth] just as a man speaks to his friend and he [ Moses] returned to the camp, but his right-hand man, Joshua, son of Nun, he did not return from the midst of the tent.
And why does God appear in the form of mist, a cloud? I believe it is because we humans have a tendency to try to put boundaries on all we know—how big, how strong, how powerful, how bright, how dense, how thick—we want to measure it all. And if we were to experience ALL of God and survive—which we will see in a moment is impossible—we’d try to limit God to that part we could put in the little box of our understanding, our comfort zone. So God appears visibly as a mist, a pillar of cloud here, a train of smoke in the temple during Isaiah’s vision, an angel in the fire for Samson’s father, and a cloud with fire or lightning for Ezekiel in Ezekiel 1:4. And as God wouldn’t give Jacob His real name so that Jacob could CONTROL God, even so God doesn’t show His REAL appearance here. We see a manifestation of God in the cloud, but we don’t see His totality. We see a manifestation of God in His people, but never see His totality. His totality was there in Jesus, but humankind comprehended it not. Don’t put God in a box or you’ll miss out.
12) And Moses said to Yahweh, “Look, YOU are the one saying to me to cause this people to go up but YOU, you did not cause me to know whom you are sending with me and YOU, you said, “I know you by name and you found grace in my eyes.’
13) Now, please if I have found grace in your eyes, please cause me to know your ways and, as a result, I will know you such that I will [continue] to find grace in your eyes. Look BECAUSE this nation is your people.”
Notice that Moses remembered God’s words, longed to be closer to God, wanted to make sure he was in God’s will—YOUR WAYS, and wasn’t afraid to ask God for what he wanted. And what he wanted was God’s presence, God’s support, and clarity of God’s will. He puts the ball in God’s court and that’s what we have to do in faith.
14) And HE proceeded to say, “My presence [faces] shall walk before you and I shall proceed to cause rest for you.”
Moses received the answer to his prayer. God would not only scout out the way as Moses recounted in Deuteronomy 1, but this idea of “rest” is the idea of fulfillment. It isn’t idleness. It isn’t retirement. It is rest after meaningful accomplishment. It is resting in the certainty of God’s purpose and God’s blessing. But it isn’t idleness. And Moses just has to be sure that he’s hearing what he thinks he’s hearing.
15) And he [Moses] proceeded to say to Him, “If your presence does not so walk, don’t cause us to ascend from here.
16) And how will it be known that I and your people have found grace in your eyes if you are not walking before us, and as a result, I and your people will be separated from all the people upon the face of the ground?”
Moses knows the secret that there is no victory without God.
17) And Yahweh proceeded to say to Moses, “Even this word that you spoke to me, I will do it BECAUSE you found grace in my eyes and I know you by name.”
And Moses realized that God knew everything about him, but he didn’t know everything about God. Praise the Lord. When we realize that, it means we can experience more of Him.
18) And he [Moses] proceeded to say, “Cause me to see, please, Your glory.”
19) And He said, “I, I will cause all My goodness to pass over your face and I will proclaim by name [my personal name] Yahweh before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will have compassion to whom I will have compassion.”
20) But He proceeded to say, “You are not able to see my face because humankind [lit. Adam] cannot see me and live.”
21) And Yahweh proceeded to say, “Check it out—a place near me, and, as a result, you shall stand upon the rock,
22) And when My glory is passing by and, as a result, I will place you in the crevice of the rock and My hand will cover over you until I pass.
23) Then, I will turn back My hand and you shall see behind Me, but My face you will not see.”
God is always accommodating Himself to our incapacity. We can only see the results of God’s activity. I remember being in a meeting with Rabbi Lawrence Kushner where he noted that the human skin is not smooth. If we look at it under a microscope, the surface would vaguely resemble the coastline of California with all its coves, bays, and nooks. Then, he observed that molecules from that skin surface are constantly “flaking” off such that an electron microscope would be able to discern a trail of molecules behind us. Theoretically, the right kind of instrument could see where we’ve been.
That’s much the way we experience God. We won’t get to look Him in the eye until we get to heaven. But isn’t it nice to know that He is in our midst and available to us WHEN we get rid of our ornamentation, WHEN we seek Him out, and WHEN we want to know His way.
