Exodus 33

God had already granted Moses' prayer for the nation of Israel to be spared, but the final issue of whether or not the broken covenant would be renewed was at this point unresolved, and also, if to be renewed, under what conditions. God's threatened withdrawal of his sacred presence from the apostate nation is announced (Exodus 33:1-6), and it became clear at once that Israel would be required to demonstrate genuine repentance for their shameful rebellion in which the covenant had indeed been forfeited. Israel's line of communication with God had been broken. Plans for construction of the Tabernacle were temporarily canceled, and the consecration of the priesthood and initiation of the Tabernacle system of worship were dropped until the matter of the broken covenant could be resolved and the covenant renewed. This emergency situation left Moses as the only hope of Israel, for, if it had not been for Moses, there can be little doubt that God would have destroyed Israel or left them to wander forever in the wilderness of Sinai, but Moses was equal to the Gargantuan task that confronted him. First, he improvised a temporary tabernacle to provide a provisional means of communication with God. This he did by moving his own tent to an eminence overlooking the whole camp of Israel, where God communicated with him, and then he took up a substitute residence for himself within the camp. We may be sure that Moses acted upon direct instructions from God in making these arrangements (Exodus 33:7-11). Moses' continued, and fervent intercession for Israel resulted in the complete restoration and healing of the broken covenant. Seeking still further assurance of the continued blessing and presence of God, Moses requested the favor of seeing God face to face in all of his glory (Exodus 33:18-23), a favor which Moses received in principle with the necessary limitations.

A few words about the critical assault upon this chapter will demonstrate the weakness and futility of such attacks. Martin Noth considered the first paragraph to have been taken "mostly from `D,'"[1] allegedly a "sixth century B.C." source; and the second paragraph was supposed by him to belong to some "unknown" pre-`D' or pre-`P' source "taken up" by `J.' (in the tenth century)! Honeycutt, however, attributed the second paragraph to `E,' (long after `J'), and the third paragraph to `J' (allegedly in the tenth century B.C.).[2] Any number of leading critics would scramble these alleged "sources" differently, but it is perfectly obvious that none of these "experts" knows anything about any of these alleged "sources," which have never been seen by any man, which, in fact, have no existence whatever, their substance in each case being exactly that of a fevered imagination or A FANTASTIC DREAM. Only those persons who are predisposed to disbelieve the Bible and are of a gullible disposition are capable of being deceived in such a manner.

The King James Version failed to distinguish between the temporary Tent, which was evidently Moses' private dwelling until pressed into special service as a "tent of meeting," and that set off a whole library of speculation regarding "two contradictory traditions" melded into the Exodus narrative by "redactors," but as Philip C. Johnson observed:

"Critics have gratuitously introduced here a confusion which is not at all in the narrative. This Tent of Meeting (Exodus 33:7-11) is obviously not the Tabernacle which had been described to Moses but was not yet built ... What is stated here is that Moses set up a Tent outside the camp, a temporary sanctuary, where he might meet with Jehovah. This enforced and illustrated God's judgment that He would not dwell in the midst of Israel. The lesson was firmly driven home and awakened a longing in the hearts of the people that made a full restoration possible."[3]