The third intercession. Moses on this occasion pleads with God to restore his presence to the people. Very noteworthy are the steps in his entreaty.
1. He veils his request under the form of a desire to know the divine intentions (Exodus 33:12). Will God go up with them or not? God has not yet told him—will he tell him now? What, underneath this form of expression, the heart of Moses really presses for, is, of course, the assurance that God will go with them.
2. He urges the friendship God has shown him as a reason for granting his request—"Thou hast said, I know thee by name," etc. (Exodus 33:12).
3. He entreats God to consider that Israel is his own people (Exodus 33:13). He has chosen them; he has redeemed them; he has declared his love for them; can he bring himself now to cast them off?
4. When God at length—reading in his servant's heart the thought which he has not as yet dared openly to express—says, "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest" (Exodus 33:14); Moses eagerly seizes on the promise thus given him, and pleads with God to make it good. "If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence" (Exodus 33:15). This, in Moses' view, is the greatest distinction of Israel, that it has God in its midst, and if this distinction is withdrawn, he cares not what else remains (Exodus 33:16). The earnestness of his entreaty secures for him a confirmation of the promise, this time given without reserve. For in the utterance of Exodus 33:14, perhaps, a certain tone of distance is still to be detected. This disappears in Exodus 33:17. View the passage as illustrating—
I. THE PRIVILEGES OF FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD (Exodus 33:12, Exodus 33:13).
1. Friendship with God gives boldness of approach to him. It casts out fear (1 John 4:18).
2. Friendship with God admits to intimacy with his secrets (Exodus 33:13). "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him" (Psalms 25:14). Cf. God's words concerning Abraham—"Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation," etc. (Genesis 18:17); and Christ's words to his disciples" I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you" (John 15:15).
3. The best use we can make of friendship with God is to intercede for others. So Abraham for Sodom (Genesis 18:23-33). So Moses here. So Daniel (Daniel 9:1-27.). So Christ for his disciples (John 17:1-26.).
II. THE BLESSING OF GOD'S PRESENCE (verses 14, 15).
1. God's presence is the highest blessing. Nought else can be compared with it (Psalms 73:25, Psalms 73:26).
2. It is the blessing which enriches all other blessings. It is that which makes earthly blessings truly worth having. They are not the same to us without it as with it.
3. God's presence, going with us, invariably conducts to rest.
III. THE POWER OF PERSEVERING PRAYER (verses 16, 17).—J.O.