(Exodus) Exodus 33:1-11 — J. Vernon McGee

God's Promise to Lead Israel into the Promised Land

Now, will you notice as we come now to chapter 33,. And the Lord said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou, and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, under the land which I swear unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Under thy seed will I give it, and I will send an angel before thee.

The Nations to Be Driven Out Before Israel

Now this is the angel of the Lord. And I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Kittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, and the Electorate-lite. All of them are going to be driven out, you see.

Preparing the Land and the Tabernacle

Now will you notice, he's now preparing them to enter the land. And we'll see them resume the wilderness march in the book of Numbers. Actually, the book of Leviticus is the continuation of the instructions for the service of the tabernacle, which now we'll see them begin to set up.

They're building it now, and it will be set up, and it'll be the place where they will worship. Verse 3, God says, I am taking you into this land, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. For I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee in the way.

The Tabernacle as the Place of Approach to God

Now actually, to say God dwelt with them, or dwelt in the tabernacle, is not quite accurate, of course, to say that. God never has occupied a building. That is always a pagan heathen notion. That's where he met with them.

Or, let me turn that around, that's where they approached God in God's method. And that's actually what the tabernacle teaches. Approach to God, and it all, as we've said, reveals Christ and the way that we approach God today.

It's given to us in picture form. Now we're told here in verse 4,. And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned, and no man did put on him his ornaments. And those ornaments were heathen, remember.

Pagan Ornaments and Christian Identification

For instance, the earrings that they wore, they brought those and made the golden cap. That was an evidence that they worshiped a certain God. It's very much like today, a person wears a little cross.

However, it's become meaningless. But the purpose of it is to reveal that the person who's wearing it is a Christian. Now verse 5, For the Lord had said unto Moses, saying unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiff-necked people.

Taking a Stand for God

Now I said, when God came down to redeem them, He didn't come down and redeem them because they were superior or they were better than others. God's very careful here, and He's repeated this now. This is the third time.

And He says, Ye are a stiff-necked people. I will come up into the mints of thee in a moment, and consume thee. Therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. In other words, take down your sign that you're a heathen and pagan and take a stand for God.

Water Baptism as a Testimony of New Life

And I personally think that was the reason that water baptism was so all-important there in the early church. It was an evidence that they had left the old, and now they were taking a stand for the new.

And I think that it should give that kind of a testimony today. And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the Mount Horeb. And Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp.

The Tent of Meeting Outside the Camp

Now the tabernacle is being constructed. We'll have details of it given a little later, but apparently Moses set it up first without the camp. It came to pass that everyone which sought the Lord went out under the tabernacle of the congregation which was without the camp.

Now this tabernacle here was a tent of meeting. The tabernacle is not constructed yet in all of its detail. It's just now a tent of meeting. And it's just the bare bones of it, I think, frankly, just nothing in the world but maybe that outer fence that went around it, or just a tent put up.

That's what we have here. Now it came to pass when Moses went out under the tabernacle that all the people rose up and stood every man at his tent door and looked after Moses until he was gone into the tabernacle.

God's Presence in the Cloudy Pillar

And it came to pass as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle and the Lord talked with Moses. Now we have something here that I hope that I can clarify.

Seeing God Through the Revelation of Christ

We have this question today, has anyone ever seen God? The answer is, of course, no man has seen God at any time. And yet the Lord Jesus said, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. Now the Lord Jesus says the revelation of God because He is God, but He was veiled in human flesh, you see.

Back here it was the angel of the Lord, and though He was there and talked with him, talked with Moses, and the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. It's just like you and I would stand face to face and talk to each other.

But Moses didn't see God, as we shall see. And he turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. Now this is, I think, the third time that we've had this mention of Joshua.

Joshua's Preparation to Succeed Moses

You see, he's the man God is preparing to succeed Moses, and I don't think anyone suspected this at this time. When we get to Joshua, we'll see he was probably the most unlikely person of all.