Then the LORD said to Moses, "Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of the land of Egypt, and go to the land that I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said, 'I will give it to your descendants.' Sermons
I. THE CONDITIONED PROMISE (vers. 1-4). God has consented to spare the nation. They are to set out forthwith on the journey to Canaan. But his presence is no longer to go with them. He would send an angel. Notice - 1. Everything, in one sense, remains the same. The people are to be conducted to Canaan. They are to inherit the promises. God will drive out their enemies before them. The land will still flow with milk and honey. It will still be able to be said of them, that there is no nation on earth so favoured as they are. Yet, 2. Everything, in another sense, is different. Blessings without God in them are not the same blessings. They want that which gives them their chief value. See below, on ver. 15. II. THE SUMMONS TO REPENTANCE (vers. 4-7). A command is next given to the people to strip off their ornaments. They are to humble themselves before Jehovah that Jehovah may know what to do with them. This command they obeyed. From this time forward they ceased to wear ornaments. On this observe, 1. Repentance for sin is an indispensable condition of restoration to God's favour. It was required of Israel. It is required of us. There can be no salvation without it (Luke 17:5). "Cease to do evil; learn to do well" (Isaiah 1:16, 17). Had Israel not repented, Moses would have interceded in vain. 2. Repentance, if sincere, must approve itself by appropriate deeds. - "Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance" (Matthew 3:8). The people put off their ornaments. Ornaments do not become those with whom God is displeased. This act of the people was a first step in obedience. 3. A very imperfect repentance is sometimes accepted by God as a reason for forbearance with the sinner. The people mourned; but their repentance, as events showed, did not amount to a real change of heart. They mourned for "the evil tidings." It was the consequences of their sin which distressed them, more than the sin itself. Yet do them justice. The "evil tidings" was not the loss of any material blessings, hut, solely, the loss of God's presence. There is still good in a heart which feels the withdrawal of God's presence to be a loss to it. 4. It is well that the remembrance of great sins should go with us all our days. Those who have committed them should go softly ever after. III. THE WITHDRAWAL OF JEHOVAH'S PRESENCE FROM THE CAMP (vers. 7-9). Moses, we are next informed, took a tent, possibly his own, possibly one which had hitherto served as a sanctuary, pitched it "without the camp, afar off from the camp," and called it "the tent of meeting." Thither came out every one that sought the Lord. The act was, 1. A symbol of Jehovah's formal withdrawal from the midst of the people. 2. A token that a final decision had not yet been come to as to how God meant to deal with them. Communications were not wholly broken off. Space was left for repentance. God might still be entreated of them. Learn (1) iniquities separate between man and God (cf. Isaiah 59:2); (2) the withdrawal of God's presence is not necessarily the end of the day of grace. There is an "accepted time" during which, if the sinner repents, he will be forgiven, and God's presence will be restored to him (2 Corinthians 6:2). Meanwhile, even God's keeping back from him has its side of mercy. God's near presence would consume (cf. ver. 5). (3) The day of grace which sinners enjoy is won for them by the intercession of another. Israel's "accepted time" was based on the intercession of Moses. Ours, as the passage above referred to implies, rests on the intercession of Christ. "I have heard thee (Christ) in a time accepted" (cf. Isaiah 49:8) - "Behold, now is the accepted time" - for men (2 Corinthians 6:2). (4) it is our duty to seek the Lord while he may be found, and to call on him while he is near (Isaiah 55:6). IV. THE TOKEN OF FAVOUR TO MOSES (vers. 9-12). The cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle. There the Lord talked with Moses, as a man talketh with his friend. This was (1) a mark of favour to Moses himself; (2) an honour put upon him before the people; (3) an encouragement to further intercession. - J.O.
Without the camp. I. First, then, they that seek the Lord must GO WITHOUT THE CAMP.1. It is scarcely necessary for me to say that no man can be a true seeker of God who has anything to do with the camp of the profane. We must take care that our garments are entirely clean from those lusts of the flesh, and those blasphemies of the ungodly. 2. Again, we must as much come out from the camp of the careless as from the camp of the profane. The largest company in the world is not that of the profane, but of the thoughtless — not those who oppose, but who neglect the great salvation. 3. But we must go further than this: if a man would have fellowship with God he must go even out of the camp of the merely steady, sedate, and thoughtful; for there be multitudes whose thoughts are not God's thoughts, and whose ways are not His ways, who are in every respect conformed outwardly to the laws of God, and who rigidly observe the customs of upright society — who think, and therefore abhor the trifles of the world — but who, notwithstanding, have never learned to set their affections on things above. It is not enough to leave the Amalekites; thou must leave even the hosts of Moab, brother though Moab may seem to be to the Israel of God. 4. He that would know anything of God aright must even come out of the camp of the merely religious. Oh, it is one thing to attend to religion, but another thing to be in Christ Jesus; it is one thing to have the name upon the church book, but quite another thing to have it written in the Lamb's book of life. II. THIS GOING OUT OF THE CAMP WILL INVOLVE MUCH INCONVENIENCE. 1. You will find that your diffidence and your modesty will sometimes shrink from the performance of duty's stern commands. If Christ be worth anything, He is worth avowing before the world, before men, before angels, and before devils. 2. Peradventure when you go without the camp you will lose some of your best friends. You will find that many a tie has to be cut when your soul is bound with cords to the horns of the altar. Can you do it? As Christ left His Father for you, can you leave all for Him? 3. You will find, too, when you go without the camp, you will have some even professedly godly people against you. "Ah!" they will say, when you are filled with the Spirit, and are anxious to serve God as Caleb did, with all your heart — "Ah! young man, that is fanaticism, and it will grow cool by and by." 4. Another inconvenience to which you will be exposed is that you will be charged falsely. So was your Master, remember. Endure, as He did. 5. Again, you must expect to be watched. If you profess to go without the camp, others will look for something extra in you — mind that they are not disappointed. I have heard some say, "I do not like to join the Church because then there would be so much expected of me." Just so, and that is the very reason why you should, because their expectation will be a sort of sacred clog to you when you are tempted, and may help to give impetus to your character and carefulness to your walk, when you know that you are looked upon by the eyes of men. III. Now I come to use certain arguments, by which I desire EARNESTLY TO PERSUADE EACH CHRISTIAN HERE TO GO WITHOUT THE CAMP; TO BE EXACT IN HIS OBEDIENCE; AND TO BE PRECISE IN HIS FOLLOWING THE LAMB WITHERSOEVER HE GOETH. 1. I use first a selfish argument, it is to do it for your own comfort's sake. If a Christian can be saved while he conforms to this world, at any rate he will be saved so as by fire. Would you like to go to heaven in the dark, and enter there as a shipwrecked mariner climbs the rocks of his native country? 2. But I have a better reason than that, and it is, for your own growth in grace do it. If you would have much faith, you cannot have much faith while you are mixed with sinners. If you would have much love, your love cannot grow while you mingle with the ungodly. 3. I beseech you, Christian men and women, come right out and be your Master's soldiers wholly for the Church's sake. It is the few men in the Church, and those who have been distinct from her, who have saved the Church in all times. 4. And for the world's sake, let me beg you to do thus. The Church itself can never be the salt of the world, unless there be some particular men who are the salt of the Church. 5. And now lastly, for your Master's sake. What have you and I to do in the camp when He was driven from it? What have we to do with hosannas when He was followed with hootings, "Crucify Him, crucify Him "? What have I to do in the tent while my Captain lies in the open battle-field? ( C. H. Spurgeon.) People Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Hivite, Hivites, Isaac, Jacob, Jebusites, Joshua, Moses, Nun, PerizzitesPlaces Mount Horeb, SinaiTopics Ascend, Conducted, Depart, Descendants, Egypt, Forward, Hast, Hence, Isaac, Jacob, Oath, Promised, Saying, Seed, Spake, Speaketh, Spoke, Sware, Swore, SwornOutline 1. The Lord refuses to go as he had promised with the people4. The people mourn there 7. The tabernacle is removed out of the camp 9. The Lord talks familiarly with Moses 12. Moses prevails with God, and desires to see his glory Dictionary of Bible Themes Exodus 33:1 1348 covenant, with Abraham Library The Mediator's Threefold Prayer'And Moses said unto the Lord, See, Thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and Thou hast not let me know whom Thou wilt send with me. Yet Thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in My sight. 13. Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee, that I may find grace in Thy sight: and consider that this nation is Thy people. 14. And He said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. 15. And he … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture June the Seventeenth the Invisible Presence Election no Discouragement to Seeking Souls A view of God's Glory Of the Way to Attain Divine Union After the Preceding Ways, There Remains an after Way, Preparatory to Divine Union, in which Wisdom and Justice Make the Passive Purification of the Soul, All Let us Now Examine the Conditions under which a Revelation May be Expected To... Whence Also the Just of Old, Before the Incarnation of the Word... Ninteenth Lesson. I Go unto the Father!' The Blessed Privilege of Seeing God Explained Moses the Type of Christ. The Wonderful. Appendix viii. Rabbinic Traditions About Elijah, the Forerunner of the Messiah Epistle xxviii. To Augustine, Bishop of the Angli . The Personality of Power. An Exposition on the First Ten Chapters of Genesis, and Part of the Eleventh The Great Commission Given. Covenanting a Privilege of Believers. The Winsome Jesus. The Angel of the Lord in the Pentateuch, and the Book of Joshua. Jesus Calls Four Fishermen to Follow Him. The Mercy of God Links Exodus 33:1 NIVExodus 33:1 NLT Exodus 33:1 ESV Exodus 33:1 NASB Exodus 33:1 KJV Exodus 33:1 Bible Apps Exodus 33:1 Parallel Exodus 33:1 Biblia Paralela Exodus 33:1 Chinese Bible Exodus 33:1 French Bible Exodus 33:1 German Bible Exodus 33:1 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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