Exodus 33 – The Lord promises to send the people
into the land He swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and He will send His angel
before them. But He says He will not
accompany them Himself because they “are a stiff-necked people; [and He] might exterminate
[them] on the way” (33:4). In repentance, the Israelites lay aside their
ornaments (33:6).
The Meeting
Tent or “Tent of the Lord’s Presence,” is pitched outside of camp “at some
distance.” When Moses entered the Tent, the people saw a column of cloud
outside the entrance “while the Lord spoke with Moses” (33:9). This was a cue for everyone to worship at the
entrances to their own tents. Joshua
would stay in the Tent of Meeting even when Moses returned from it.
Moses convinces God that He really must come along with
them, that He must accept them as His
people: “For how can it be known that we, your
people and I, have found favor with you, except by your going with us?” (33:16)
The Lord tells Moses “I myself [note indicates the word literally is ‘my
face,’ that is ‘my presence’] will go along, to give you rest.” This passage
precedes Moses’ argument to God, but it seems to me to be a response. Schocken’s translation is better, I think,
making it a question: “If my presence were to go (with you), would I cause you
to rest easy? (33:14). Moses then tells
YHWH if He will not come, then He should not bring them up from here; for only
through that presence that they can become a distinct people at all.
Moses asks to
see the Lord’s “glory” and God assures Moses He will permit him to see His
“beauty,” but the Lord’s “face” he cannot see “for no man sees me and still
lives” (33:20). He places Moses “in the
cleft of the rock” and screens his vision until He passes, but He permits Moses
to see His “back” (33:23). The note
suggests that God’s “back” is also reflected in the creation.
Early Christian Writers
Justin Martyr (100-165 AD) – First Apology
Immortality and Resurrection
18 – If we reflect on those kings and other rulers just talked
about, we know they all die “the death common to all.” If death resulted in
“insensibility” [the death of all that comprises who they are], then that would
be a blessing to those who are wicked. But we believe “sensation remains to all
who have ever lived, and eternal punishment is laid up . . . for the wicked.”
It is not only
to the traditional Christian view of man’s eternal nature that Justin Martyr
appeals. He is surrounded by necromancers, diviners and “dream-senders” who
also believe in a spiritual realm not visible to the human senses. They all
believe that “the spirits of the dead, whom all call daemoniacs or madmen” can
reach into our lives. And he points out that all the great thinkers of their
day – and earlier – ascribed to a belief in the afterlife – Empedocles,
Pythagoras, Plato, Socrates, Homer.
19 – He gives an amazing argument in
favor of the possibility of “resurrection” – bodily resurrection. He starts by observing the miracle of life
coming from the “human seed” that is the start of every life. No one would ever
look at that drop of seed and imagine that a man or woman would arise from
it.
“In the same
way, then, you are now incredulous because you have never seen a dead man rise
again. But as at first you would not have believed it possible that such
persons could be produced from the small drop, and yet now you see them thus
produced, so also judge ye that it is not impossible that the bodies of men,
after they have been dissolved, and like seeds resolved into earth, should in
God’s appointed time rise again and put on incorruption [incorruptibility].”
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