4When the people heard these stern words, they went into mourning and refused to wear their jewelry and ornaments. 5For the LORD had told Moses to tell them, "You are an unruly, stubborn people. If I were there among you for even a moment, I would destroy you. Remove your jewelry and ornaments until I decide what to do with you." 6So from the time they left Mount Sinai, the Israelites wore no more jewelry.
7It was Moses' custom to set up the tent known as the Tent of Meeting far outside the camp. Everyone who wanted to consult with the LORD would go there.
8Whenever Moses went out to the Tent of Meeting, all the people would get up and stand in their tent entrances. They would all watch Moses until he disappeared inside. 9As he went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and hover at the entrance while the LORD spoke with Moses. 10Then all the people would stand and bow low at their tent entrances. 11Inside the Tent of Meeting, the LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Afterward Moses would return to the camp, but the young man who assisted him, Joshua son of Nun, stayed behind in the Tent of Meeting.
Points of Interest:
· ‘But I will not travel along with you’—in the first half of chapter 32, Moses reminded the LORD of his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and of his expressed intention to bring the people from Egypt to Canaan. Here God reaffirms his commitment to those promises. Even though the people have broken their part of the agreement so egregiously, God will keep his part. However, you get the impression that his heart isn’t quite in it anymore. He’s willing to do what it takes to get the Israelites their land, but his own enthusiasm for the project has dried up.
This cooling of God’s feelings toward the people and the plan to give them the land is terrible news. The very thing that makes the Israelites distinct, the magic elixir that Moses had gone to the mountain to get for them, is genuine connection with a powerful and loving God. The Israelites’ betrayal of God in the golden calf affair has put that special relationship in real, imminent danger of being lost completely.
The heroic adventure of the Israelites was to be a priestly nation, a showcase for the rest of the world of what it is like to be God’s special possession. Now, it looks like that adventure is over, before it had really even begun; the Israelites have failed; their relationship with God is broken; and it appears that there’s nothing left to do but to return to ordinary life (the only difference being they’ll live in Canaan rather than Egypt).
· ‘If I did, I would be tempted to destroy you’—in a way, putting some distance between himself and the people is an act of mercy on God’s part. He wants to remove from himself the constant temptation to destroy them. Sadly, this strategy shows just how sick God is of the sight of the Israelites.
It’s easy to see God’s punishment of the people and his removal of his presence from them as a harsh, though just, response to the fact that they broke the rules. But God isn’t behaving so much like a judge here as like a lover who’s been betrayed. He seems hurt and angry that his people would so quickly and easily decide to have a fling with another god.
· ‘the tent known as the Tent of Meeting’—recently, Moses has been meeting God on the mountain. Now that they are moving on, Moses creates a portable place for God and him to meet. Moses doesn’t want conversation with God to be only for special occasions; he wants to have daily access to the presence of God.
· ‘far outside the camp’—even before the incident of the golden calf, the people asked that God no longer speak to them directly for fear that they would die. In this passage, following the golden calf affair, God agrees: ‘If I were among you for even a moment, I would destroy you.’ So, in order to meet with God, Moses has to leave the rest of the people and go a safe distance away.
· ‘all the people would get up and stand in their tent entrances’—the last words they heard from God were a bit ominous: ‘until I decide what to do with you.’ So, each time Moses meets with God, they’re eager to know if God has reached a decision. They’re like a convicted criminal waiting for sentencing, or like a man waiting to hear if his wife is going to divorce him for cheating on her.
· ‘as a man speaks to his friend’—while God’s relationship with the rest of the people has grown more distant, his intimacy with Moses only continues to grow. God doesn’t treat Moses like a servant or an employee, but like a friend. It seems that their friendship has grown much like any other friendship: they spend a lot of time together; and they have a lot of shared interests and experiences. Moses and God spent 40 days together on the mountain, and they still get together frequently at the tent of meeting. Also, they’ve worked closely together, defeating Pharaoh and leading the people. God considers Moses to be like a friend because he knows that he can trust Moses and that Moses understands his hopes and the challenges he is facing.
Taking it home:
· For you: Moses builds a friendship with God by spending time with him and by working side-by-side with him. Most of us tend to gravitate toward (at most) one or the other of these things. We focus on either ‘being’ or ‘doing.’ We can even look at these two ways of spending time with God as mutually exclusive, but Moses’ example shows that it’s really the two of these things together that make our relationship with God a potential friendship. Are you a ‘being’ person or a ‘doing’ person? Do you like deep conversation with God, or getting out there and doing something together? What would it take to add more strength to your weak hand—without losing what you’re already strong in?
· For your six: The Israelites’ experience in this passage an appropriate grief concerning their sin. It’s not a neurotic guilt, an attempt to somehow make it up to him, nor a callous disregard of their mistakes. Rather, it’s a sort of quiet sadness about their missed opportunity to enjoy a closer relationship with God. Ask the Holy Spirit to give your six the eyes to see and the ability to appropriately mourn any of their own missed opportunities to get to know God.
· For our church: As a church, we desire to be always becoming more like a place where people can come and know God more deeply. Pray that God would see fit to fulfill this desire, and that we would be a church community filled with “Joshuas,” people who love to linger in God’s presence..
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