000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

102 Proper 24 [29]/Year A
Israel, now God promises only that “an angel” will go before the people.
Moses objects. He wants, instead, God’s very own presence: “If your presence
will not go, do not carry us up from here” (v. 15). Moses shows a lot
of chutzpah, twice speaking in the imperative to God. First he says, “See,
you have said to me, ‘Bring up this people’; but you have not let me know
whom you will send with me” (v. 12). “See” means “look!” Moses wants
God to stop and think and says so. In verse 13 he again demands: “Consider
too that this nation is your people.” God has been willing to deal
with Moses but, in spite of having had a change of heart, still does not
want to be personally present to the people. Moses twice insists that God
consider what God is proposing. He is an effective priest, mediator, on
behalf of the people.
In verse 16 Moses questions God: “how shall it be known that I have
found favor in your sight, I and your people, unless you go with us?” In
this long story of his intercession, Moses takes the initiative. Remarkably,
God patiently hears Moses out and responds favorably. Moses’ prayers are
answered. God is affected by Moses, and Moses’ prayers open up possibilities
for the relationship between God and Israel. God promises Moses:
“I will do the very thing that you have asked; for you have found favor in
my sight, and I know you by name” (v. 17). This is neither the first nor the
last time in the Scriptures of Israel that God responds favorably to being
questioned. Perhaps God wants us to question.
To all of which, Moses makes yet another demand: “Show me your
glory, I pray” (v. 18). Moses wants to see God clearly, as he and Aaron and
seventy of the elders had in 24:9. But this time God shunts Moses’ question
in a new direction; rather than God’s glory, God will show Moses “all
my goodness” and “will proclaim before you the name, ‘The LORD’”
(v. 19). God wants to convince Moses of God’s faithfulness, more than
God’s presence, of which Moses can hardly be unaware, having been
engaged in prolonged conversation with God.
Having previously promised that God’s presence would go with Israel
(v. 14), God now makes a further promise and statement about God’s character:
“I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy
on whom I will show mercy” (v. 19). It is an awesome, momentous matter
to know that God is gracious, more significant than seeing God. God
answers Moses’ prayer to “see” God by meeting Moses’ deeper need; God
gives us what we most need, not always what we most want.
The passage ends with YHWH’s saying to Moses that he may see God’s
back but not God’s face. Since Moses and others had clearly already seen
God, the point is not that it is impossible to see God; rather it is that after