A Study by C. H. Mackintosh (1820- 1896)   Exodus 33-34 - A Stiffnecked People   ​Chapter 33 33:1  And the Lord said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it: 2  And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: 3  Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way. 4  And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments. 5  For the Lord had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. 6   And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb. 7  And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp. 8  And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle. 9   And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. 10  And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door. 11   And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. 12  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, shew 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 said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. 16  For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. 17  And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. 18  And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. 19  And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. 20  And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. 21  And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: 22  And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: 23  And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen. Chapter 34 34:1  And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest. 2  And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount. 3  And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount. 4  And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. 5  And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6  And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7  Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. 8  And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. 9  And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. 10  And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee. 11  Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 12  Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: 13  But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: 14  For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: 15  Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; 16  And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. 17  Thou shalt make thee no molten gods. 18  The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt. 19  All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male. 20   But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty. 21  Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest. 22  And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end. 23  Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. 24  For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year. 25  Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning. 26   The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk. 27  And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. 28  And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. 29  And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. 30  And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him. 31  And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them. 32  And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in mount Sinai. 33  And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face. 34  But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the vail off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. 35  And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him. (KJV)   Jehovah refuses to accompany Israel to the land of promise. “I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people; lest I consume thee in the way” (vs. 33:3). At the opening of this book, when the people were in the furnace of Egypt, the Lord could say, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their task masters; for I know their sorrows” (Ex. 3:7). But now He has to say, “I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people”  (Ex. 32:9). An afflicted people is an object of grace; but a stiffnecked people must be humbled. The cry of oppressed Israel had been answered by the exhibition of grace; but the song of idolatrous Israel must be answered by the voice of stern rebuke. “Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment and consume thee : therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee that I may know what to do unto thee” (vs. 33:4). It is only when we are really stripped of all nature’s ornaments that God can deal with us. A naked sinner can be clothed; but a sinner decked in ornaments must be stripped. This is always true. We must be stripped of all that pertains to self, ere we can be clothed with that which pertains to God. “And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb” (vs. 33:6). There they stood beneath that memorable mount, their feasting and singing changed into bitter lamentations, their ornaments gone, the tables of testimony in fragments. Such was their condition, and Moses at once proceeds to act according to it. He could no longer own the people in their corporate character. The assembly had become entirely defiled, having set up an idol of their own making, in the place of God—a calf instead of Jehovah. “And Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of the congregation” (vs. 33:7). Thus the camp was disowned as the place of the divine presence. God was not—could not—be there. He had been displaced by a human invention. A new gathering point was, therefore, set up. “And it came to pass that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp” (vs. 33:7). There is here a fine principle of truth, which the spiritual mind will readily apprehend. The place which Christ now occupies is “without the camp,” and we are called upon to “go forth unto him.” It demands much subjection to the word to be able, with accuracy, to know what “the camp” really is, and much spiritual power to be able to go forth from it; and still more to be able, while “far off from it,” to act towards those in it, in the combined power of holiness and grace—holiness, which separates from the defilement of the camp; grace, which enables us to act toward those who are involved therein. “And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle” (vs. 33:7). Moses exhibits a higher degree of spiritual energy than his servant Joshua. It is much easier to assume a position of separation from the camp, than to act aright towards those within. “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” (vs. 33:12). Moses entreats the accompanying presence of Jehovah as a proof of their having found grace in His sight. Were it a question of mere justice, He could only consume them by coming in their midst, because they were “a stiffnecked people.” But directly He speaks of grace, in connection with the mediator, the very stiffneckedness of the people is made a plea for demanding His presence. “If now I have found grace in thy sight, Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance” (vs. 34:9). This is touchingly beautiful. A “stiffnecked people” demanded the boundless grace and exhaustless patience of God. None but He could bear with them. “And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest” (vs. 33:14). Precious portion! Precious hope! The presence of God with us, all the desert through, and everlasting rest at the end! Grace to meet our present need, and glory as our future portion! Well may our satisfied hearts exclaim, “It is enough, my precious Lord.” In chapter 34, the second set of tables is given, not to be broken, like the first, but to be hidden in the ark, above which, as already noticed, Jehovah was to take His place, as the Lord of all the earth, in moral government. “And he hewed two tables of stone, like unto the first: and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with them there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation” (vs. 34:4-7). This, be it remembered, is God, as seen in His moral government of the world, and not as He is seen in the cross—not as He shines in the face of Jesus Christ—not as He is proclaimed in the gospel of His grace. The following is an exhibition of God in the gospel: “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (II Cor. 5:18-19). “Not clearing” and “not imputing”  present two totally different ideas of God. “Visiting iniquities” and cancelling them are not the same thing. The former is God in government, the latter is God in the gospel. In II Cor. 3, the apostle contrasts “the ministration” recorded in Exodus 34 with “the ministration” of the gospel. My reader would do well to study that chapter with care. From it he will learn that anyone who regards the view of God’s character given to Moses, on mount Horeb, as unfolding the gospel, must have a very defective apprehension, indeed, of what the gospel is. Neither in creation, nor yet in moral government, do I, or can I, read the deep secrets of the Father’s bosom. Could the prodigal have found his place in the arms of the One revealed on mount Sinai? Could John have leaned his head on the bosom of that One? Surely not. But God has revealed Himself in the face of Jesus Christ. He has told out, in divine harmony, all His attributes in the work of the cross. There “mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Ps. 85:10). Sin is perfectly put away, and the believing sinner perfectly justified “by the blood of the cross.” When we get a view of God, as thus unfolded, we have only, like Moses, to “bow our head toward the earth and worship,”—suited attitude for a pardoned and accepted sinner in the presence of God!     This article is taken from:  Mackintosh, C. H.  Notes on the Book of Exodus. London: George Morrish, 1858.  A PDF file of this book can be downloaded, free of charge, at http://www.ClassicChristianLibrary.com