Exodus 33:17

_AND HE SAID UNTO HIM, IF THY PRESENCE GO NOT WITH ME, CARRY US NOT UP HENCE._ If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence - i:e., I should infinitely rather spend a wandering life in the wilderness, in the enjoyment of thy presence and favour, than be settled in Canaan without it, God's own words are eagerly caught hold of, and His promise made the subject of a prayer, in the full and just persuasion that the Israelites could appear "a chosen generations, a peculiar people," in the eyes of contemporary nations and of future ages, only by unmistakeable evidences of the divine presence and favour accompanying them and prospering their way. Moses throughout this intercessory scene displayed the disinterested zeal of a patriotic leader, no less than the humble but earnest piety of an eminent saint, and the prayer of faith prevailed....

17._And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also _He adds nothing new, but confirms by repetition what He had just said, in order to remove all doubt. Still He declares that He is induced by no other reason than by the gratuitous favor wherewith He had embraced Moses. This, therefore, is a kind of renewal of the Covenant, when the people is consecrated to God, so as to recover again the sacerdotal kingdom....

12-23 Moses is very earnest with God. Thus, by the intercession of Christ, we are not only saved from ruin, but become entitled to everlasting happiness. Observe here how he pleads. We find grace in God's sight, if we find grace in our hearts to guide and quicken us in the way of our duty. Moses speaks as one who dreaded the thought of going forward without the Lord's presence. God's gracious promises, and mercy towards us, should not only encourage our faith, but also excite our fervency in prayer. Observe how he speeds. See, in a type, Christ's intercession, which he ever lives to make for all that come to God by him; and that it is not by any thing in those for whom he intercedes. Moses then entreats a sight of God's glory, and is heard in that also. A full discovery of the glory of God, would overwhelm even Moses himself. Man is mean, and unworthy of it; weak, and could not bear it;...

Verse Exodus 33:17. _I WILL DO THIS THING ALSO_] My presence shall go with thee, and I will keep thee _separate_ from all the people of the earth. Both these promises have been remarkably fulfilled. God continued miraculously with them till he brought them into the promised land; and from the day in which he brought them out of Egypt to the present day, he has kept them a _distinct, unmixed_ _people_! Who can account for this on any principle but that of a continual especial providence, and a constant Divine interference? The Jews have ever been a people _fond of money_; had they been mingled with the people of the earth among whom they have been scattered, their secular interests would have been greatly promoted by it; and they who have _sacrificed_ every thing besides to their _love of money_, on this point have been incorruptible! They chose in every pa...

Compare Exodus 33:13. His petition for the nation, and his own claims as a mediator, are now granted to the full....

EXPOSITION THE REVOCATION OF THE THREAT OF WITHDRAWAL. After some days' "wrestling with God" in the "tent of meeting," Moses prayed to know definitely what God had determined on. "Show me thy way," he said (Exodus 33:13)—"Whom wilt thou send with me?" To this demand, God made the gracious reply—"My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest" (Exodus 33:14). This was satisfactory, except that it did not distinctly include the conduct of the people—it might be merely a promise to himself. So Moses (Exodus 33:15,...

AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES, I WILL DO THIS THING ALSO THAT THOU HAST SPOKEN,.... Or asked for, namely, go with them himself in this amazing and distinguished manner, in the pillar of the cloud and fire; this he would do as well as show him his way and his works, and indeed all this he did by granting that: FOR THOU HAST FOUND GRACE IN MY SIGHT, AND I KNOW THEE BY NAME; he owns the truth of the thing, on which Moses had formed his plan, and by granting his request gave a fresh proof and evidence of it; and what can be a greater blessing than to partake of the special grace, favour, and good will of God, and to be particularly and personally known to him, with such a knowledge as has connected with it the strongest affection and highest esteem?...

5. MOSES' INTERCESSION AND ITS RESULTS CHAPTER 33 Repentance and Intercession _ 1. The word of the Lord and the people's repentance (Exodus 33:1)_ 2. The tabernacle without the camp (Exodus 33:7) 3. Moses enters the tabernacle (Exodus 33:8) 4. Moses' prayer and Jehovah's answers (Exodus 33:12) 5. Moses' request (Exodus 33:18) The words of the Lord, with which this chapter begins, reveal Him as the covenant-keeping Jehovah. He remembers His covenant, though they are a stiff-necked people. Yet He is a holy Go

EXODUS 33:1 J, EXODUS 33:5 E, EXODUS 33:12 J. YAHWEH'S PRESENCE. The sections of 34 have been glossed and disarranged. In Exodus 33:1 J, Yahweh's refusal to go up in the midst of Israel leads the people to put off their ornaments. In Exodus 33:5 f. follows from E Yahweh's order to put off ornaments and its execution. This may have been connected with the construction of the sacred Tent which is assumed as known in Exodus 33:7, the details being dropped in view of Exodus

Moses resumes the intercession broken off at _v._3; and starting from the command given him in Exodus 32:34 a, Exodus 33:1 a obtains from Jehovah (_vv._14 16, as the text stands; see, however, on _v._14) the promise that He will not carry out the threat of _v._3, but will Himself accompany the people on their way to Canaan, and also (_vv._17 23) that He will vouchsafe Moses himself a glimpse of His glory....