THE COVENANT RENEWED The fall of the people into worshipping the golden calf was not a minor matter. Therefore, God hastened to let Moses go down to them. Hearing how God intended to destroy them, Moses interceded on their behalf and God accepted his intercession. Returning to the foot of the mountain, and seeing how the people were falling into sin, Moses angrily broke the two stone tablets, and bitterly chastised the people. He then interceded for them asking God, either to forgive them, or let him die together with them, and God again accepted his intercession. There had to be new dialogues for the renewal of the covenant that the people broke by their sin, which was symbolized by breaking the two tablets of stone. That is what we see in the two chapters: 33 and 34. Chapter 33 includes the following: 1- A divine admonishment to the people 1 – 6 2- Moses’ tent as a tabernacle 7 – 11 3- Moses pleading with God 12 – 17 4- A divine friendship 18 - 23 1- A divine admonishment to the people God accepted Moses’ intercession, and confirmed to him that He would stay honest to the people despite their dishonesty. He thus said to him, “Depart and go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it” (Exod. 33.1). Although He is realizing His promises to their fathers, yet we notice some change in the way He is going to do that: A- He still suffers bitterness from the people. He does not call them “My people”, as He used to, and does not use His language of friendship; Probably, for the people to find sin uneasy, and not to abuse God’s love and mercy. B- God would not personally go up in their midst saying, “I will send an Angel before you...I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff necked people” (Exod. 33.3). He is sending an Angel, to defend, help, and guide them. Yet he is not the same Angel that He talked about in the twenty-third chapter, Who is the Second Person, saying, “For My Name is in Him” (Exod. 23.21). God would not go up in the midst of those people, as what fellowship would there be between God and the stiff-necked man? (Exod. 33.5), and man, himself would not bear it, hearing God say, “Say to the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you” (Exod. 33.5). As though, it is out of God’s mercy, not to come up into their midst while they are still in their sin. C- God opened the door of hope before Moses and the people by talking of repentance saying, “Now, therefore, take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you” (Exod. 33.5). As though He is saying to them, “Stop leaning upon yourselves, forsake the lusts of your bodies and give Me a chance to work in your midst. 2- Moses’ tent as a tabernacle When the people heard these great tidings, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments (Exod. 33.4, 6), as a sign of their sacred grief and repentance. However, God stopped meeting with Moses in the camp that was defiled by that horrible sin; 235 and Moses had to take his tent and to pitch it outside, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting (Exod. 33.7). This is not the tabernacle that God commanded Moses to make later on, but it was Moses’ personal worship tent, namely, his secret place of prayers, that he took away from that evil place in order to be able to meet and to “speak to God face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Exod. 33.11). That does not imply that Moses has seen the face of God, but that phrase means that he spoke to Him in a direct way, with a clear and distinct voice, and not as it was with the rest of the people who stood very far, “each man stood at his tent door, watching the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door” (Exod. 33.8- 10). Moses, through his love to God and his people, entered into a personal friendship with God. St. John Chrysostom says, “But the lips of Moses, because he was exceeding gentle and meek “Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth” (Num. 12.1), He so accepted and loved, as to say, face to face, mouth to mouth, as a man speaks to his friend (Exod. 33.11; Num. 12.8).”1 By that tent, God prepared the people for the tabernacle of meeting, which Moses was to make through the command of God. As they saw the glory of God at the door of Moses’ tent, all the people rose and worshipped, each man in his tent door; and they began to dignify Moses, “Whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door, and watched him until he had gone into the tabernacle” (Exod. 33.8). They started to realize the holiness of the encounter with God, and the holiness of God’s ministers. Yet, a Disciple of Moses, on the holy mountain of knowledge, Joshua, Moses’ young assistant, did not go up with him to its summit (Exod. 24.13). Here, Moses instructed Joshua with the spirit of worship; the Book says, “He (Moses) would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle” (Exod. 33.11). Discipleship does not stop at knowledge, but is supposed to go hand in hand with pious life of worship. Leaving Joshua in the tent could probably also be to support his master through praying for him because preaching and worship are complementary. There would be no success for ministry without the spirit of praying and worship. Father Aphrahat2 believes that by staying inside the tent, Joshua committed himself to the life of virginity, as no woman was allowed to approach or minister in the tent. Joshua stayed in it, dedicating his whole life to worship, away from any family preoccupation. 3- Moses pleading with God Moses knew how to deal with God with the spirit of humility, together with that of love and boldness; he was an (opportunist); that is, he used every opportunity to go deeper into the Divine bosom, and to lay hold, for himself and for his people, of love and mercy. That is why the Lord Himself says, “The forceful men lay hold of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 11.12). After God forgave the people their horrible sin, and resumed speaking with Moses face to face in the temporary tabernacle outside the camp, Moses started to admonish the Lord, with boldness, yet with humility, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people’, But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet 1 St. Chrys. In Matt. 78:4. 2 Aphrahat. Demon. 6 On the Monks. 236 You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight’” (Exod. 33.12). It is as though Moses is saying to God, “Do I need to draw Your compassion on Your people? Who has sent the other? You are the One who commanded me to bring this people up from the land of Egypt. Would You forsake me now? You told me that You know me by name; and that I have found grace in Your sight. Therefore, listen to me, and do not forsake me.” With intimacy he says, “See” and, “You have said, ‘I know you by name’”; and according to the Septuagint version, “I know you above all”. God knows all, as He knows every thing, yet the knowledge here is not that of understanding and comprehension, but of acceptance and friendship. The apostle Paul says, “The Lord knows those who are His” (2 Tim. 2.19); but to the wicked, he says, “I never knew you” (Matt. 7.23)1. Again, with true love and intimacy, he says to Him, “Show me now Your way, that I may know You” (Exod. 33.13): if You, as God, have known me by name, and granted me that grace, allow me to know You, through Your dealings with Your people! As You know me by name, let me know You, not the knowledge of understanding and comprehension, but that of love and friendship. He says to God the word thrice, “Your people” (Exod. 33.13, 16); as though he is saying to Him, ‘If You are calling them (the people), then, they are related to You and all the world knows that’. Finally, having entered through love into such an amazing level, Moses says to the Lord, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here” (Exod. 33.15): we shall not do without You and shall not find comfort without You! Before such love, God responds to Moses saying, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest ... And I will also do this thing that you have spoken” (Exod. 33.14, 17). Who can manage to lay hold of God’s heart in such a way, that the Creator does what His servant speaks of? Let us entreat God with Moses, before any work or action, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here”. God’s presence, here, refers to the second Person, Who incarnated, and came to us to lead our lives, and bring us up to the bosom of God the Father. 4- The divine friendship Moses’ requests from God did not stop at this point. Indeed, every thing came back to its original state as before the people fell into their horrible sin by worshipping the golden calf. God promised to do what Moses asked for: to go with His presence among them. Yet Moses went so far to request boldly, “Please, Show me your glory” (Exod. 33.18). Moses dared to ask God for what nobody before has dared to ask. As his heart was kindled with divine love, he yearned to see God as He is. He wished to see the Incomprehensible, and to perceive the Imperceptible. God’s response to him was: “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 compassion2. But, He said, ‘You can not see My face; for no man shall see Me and live’” (Exod. 33.19-20). It is as though God says to Moses, “You have asked for what you cannot hold out. I would not keep from my 1 St. Gregory of Nyssa. On the Making of Man. 20:1. 2 See: the following chapter, article 2. 237 creation any of My goodness, graciousness, and compassion. Yet My face, no man can see It and live! That ultimate and complete vision is beyond any human capacity!” In Moses’ request, “Show me Your glory” is a clear declaration that our knowledge of God is not through human wisdom, but through God’s strength. St. Clement of Alexandria says that Moses was convinced that God is not to be known through human wisdom ... and he was committed to enter into the dense darkness (the cloud), where God’s voice was, to reach the thoughts pertaining to the presence of God, the Incomprehensible and the Imperceptible. God is not in darkness, nor in a place, but He is beyond place and time, and above everything1. He also says that by this saying, he has clearly referred to the fact that God can neither be learned through man, nor can be expressed by words, but is known through His power2. God, the Imperceptible, proclaims Himself in the soul, as much as it can hold to see; but the essence of His divinity could not be perceived as “No one knows the Father except the Son” (Matt. 11.27; John 6.46). St. John Chrysostom believes that all the visions enjoyed by the fathers and prophets were through God’s consent, proclaiming Himself to them as much as they could hold, even the heavenly creatures see God as such. Only the Son knows the essence of the Father, having incarnated, not to manifest the divine essence, but to manifest Himself through His Human Person3. When the apostle Philip said to the Lord, “Lord, Show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us” (John 14.8), the Lord answered, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14.9). According to St. John Chrysostom, He is as if saying to him, “You can not see neither Him nor Me” because Philip assumed that, as he can see and know the Lord Christ through his sense of vision, he wished, likewise, to see the Father. But the Lord clarified to him that he did not yet see, even Christ Himself4. We see Him here, through His work in us. We follow His example, to become His own and His friends. Thus, we behold Him, not in the essence of His Deity, but through the relationship of love and fellowship with Him. St. Clement of Alexandria says that it is obvious that nobody in this life can clearly behold God but those “Pure in heart shall see God” (Matt. 5.8); as, through the ultimate perfection, they can reach Him5. Finally, God said to Moses, “Here is a place by Me, and You shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen” (Exod. 33.21-23). These words refer to the divine incarnation;6 he says, “Here is a place by Me”, I.E. “I shall realize your request as far as you are able to hold; I showed you the secret of incarnation, to let you lean on the Rock, the Lord Christ, the true Rock.” His words: “You shall see my back”, refer to the end of time, when God crosses the world manifesting His love, that we will see Him through the Divine incarnation, as if protected by the hand of God (Christ). We can behold the Divine glory (in the cleft of 1 Strom. 2:2. 2 Strom 5:1.1 3 In Joan. 15:7. 4 In Joan 74:1. 5 Strom. 5:1. We have previously dealt with ‘seeing God’ in more detail in our book St. John Chrysostom, in the chapter concerning his theological thoughts. 1968. 6 St. Ambrose. On the Holy Spirit. 3:5. 238 the rock), to say with the apostle John, “We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1.14). St. Basil has the following spiritual interpretation for the Lord’s response: “Here is a place by Me”, Plainly meaning the place or contemplation in the Spirit wherein, after Moses had entered thither, he was able to see God intelligibly manifested to him. This is the special and peculiar place of true worship; for it is said, “Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; but in the place which the Lord chooses” (Deut. 12.13). Now what is a spiritual burnt offering? "The sacrifice of praise." And in what place do we offer it? In the Holy Spirit. Where have we learnt this? From the Lord himself in the words “The true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth” (John 4.23). This place Jacob saw and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place” (Gen. 28.16). It follows that the Spirit is verily the place of the saints and the saint is the proper place for the Spirit, offering himself as he does for the indwelling of God, and called God's Temple. So Paul speaks in Christ, saying "In the sight of God we speak in Christ," So also in the Spirit he speaketh mysteries, and again the Spirit speaks in him1. 1 St. Basil. On the Holy Spirit. 62
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