EXODUS 33

1 And Yahweh 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:


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:

The reference is to a subordinate angel, not the one referred to in Exo. 23:20-23 upon whom the name of Yahweh had been placed, and in whom the presence of the invisible God was revealed to Moses and to Israel.

This teaches that there are gradations of rank in the host of heaven, some angels exercising higher status than others. Gabriel, for example, stood "in the presence of God" (Luke 1:19), and seems to have been His chief messenger. Others exercised various duties.

For example, Palmoni had charge of the timing of prophecies, and therefore was questioned, by other angels who lacked this knowledge, as to when they would be fulfilled -Dan. 8:13; 1 Pet. 1:11-12).

Similarly there will be gradations of rank in the family of God in the age to come. Though all will be granted immortality, some will have higher status and authority than others (Lk. 19:17-19; Col. 1:15-16).

The Christadelphian Expositor


Then I heard one saint [kadosh (angel)] speaking, and another saint [kadosh] said unto that certain saint [kadosh] [Heb Palmoni -the numberer of secrets, or, the wonderful numberer - KJV margin] which spake, How long shall be the vision [chazon] concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression [ peysha ] of desolation, to give both the sanctuary [Kodesh] and the host [tzva] to be trodden under foot? - Dan 8: 13




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.

A lesser Angel to lead them. They had apostasised (Ex.32), and although purged by the Levites (3000 perished), there were further consequences since they were a stiffnecked people and really, unregenerate at heart. A lesser angel was to lead them (not Michael).

He would go before them and purge the land of the filthiness and iniquities of the Canaanites and their godless heathen idolatrous companion tribes (v.2). In the Kingdom there will be no place for the (spiritually, morally) unclean and filthy (Zech. l4.21, Rev.21.8, 27, Zech.13.1-4).

The whole earth will be purged of its abominations in the day of great cleansing, and the saints will possess the kingdom under the whole heaven (Dan.7.26,27).

The holy land will then truly be a land flowing with milk and honey to feed the multitudes of worshippers coming up to the great Temple and the city of the great King. *



6 And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.

Stripped of outward adornment. The ornaments or outward adornment symbolised the pride and vanity of the flesh, the fair show, whether in the women folk or by the man. The stripping of this or casting away, was the repudiation of the flesh and all its vanity, pride and arrogance, which is necessary if a person will be acceptable to Yahweh.

Haughty puffed up self-will and pious pomposity and strutting vanity and arrogance of the flesh, spiritual peacocks, which refuses to humble itself before the mighty hand of Yahweh, but takes refuge in human weakness, is the downfall of many (Pv. 8.13, 16.18, 11.2).

"When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom."

The converse is often the case

"Fools make mock at sin." (Pv. 14.9).

The melting of the brass mirrors to produce the laver is a similar principle of the transformation of the once proud flesh to a vessel of purification. *



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.

Quite a sight...multitudes of thousands looking unto Moses the type of Yahoshua.

Tabernacle pitched without the Camp. The requirements of the Truth are not convenient to the flesh and if a person would seek and come to Yahweh they have to go out of their comfort zone, even if this humiliating and inconvenient to them.

This of course many are unprepared to do, and create all sorts of barriers why they should not comply. But the spirit of the apostles and first believers is expressed thus ...

"And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship,

and in breaking of bread and in prayers."

To ignore this is to be guilty of treating the things of Christ with contempt. If we are ashamed of the things of Christ, then he will be ashamed of us when he cometh in his glory (Lk.9.26, Mk.8.38).

"Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach." *



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 Yahweh talked with Moses.

Moses the type - "I and My Father are One"



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 Yahweh 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.

Yahweh speaks with Moses face to face. Surely this is a glimpse of the reward that awaits those who have gone forth without the camp, when immortality and glory has been conferred on them, to speak with Yahweh face to face (Ezk.43.1, Jhn.1.51). The people saw a cloudy pillar descend and talk with Moses at the entrance to the tabernacle.

This rein forces the prophetic connotation - the name bearing Angel descends to Moses, a representation of Deity manifest in a cloud of witnesses, a multitude in One (Rev.l 0.1-4), or the apocalypse of the Lord from heaven, at the gates of the Kingdom, when the people will be grafted into the new Covenant and worship him in spirit and in Truth, following their long exile of Apostasy and blindness (Jer.31, Zech.12, Zech.13).

Moses, at this point, enjoyed that intimate fellowship with the Name bearing Angel, who communed with him "as a man speaketh unto his friend" (v.11) which again echoes the restoration of angel man fellowship in the Kingdom Age.

Joshua (Yahoshua), we are informed, remains in the tabernacle after Moses has departed. Why should we be told about this seemingly little incident? What is its significance? Surely this can only be a type of the inheritance of the house of Joshua (Yahoshua), which speaketh better things than the house of Moses.

Paul is at pains to explain this in his letter to the Hebrew (Jewish) Christians, who were clinging to the law (Judaisers) (Hb.3.1-6):

"For this man (Yahoshua) was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house ... whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.' *



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 Yahweh 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.

Moses pleads with the Name bearing Angel to lead them. Moses was anxious about his role in leading the people through the waste howling wilderness to the promised land, if he did not know who would be leading them, in particular, if it was not by the one with whom he spoke, that is the Name bearing Angel (Michael). Moses had not asked for this position Ex.6.12, and wanted reassurance that God's favour was with him in performing this onerous task.

He had seen the Apostasy and waywardness of the people, yet he humbly submitted to the task, which he felt unequal to, providing he knew that Yahweh was with him. Moses had been a lonely shepherd for 40 years, and this was to prepare him for being a shepherd to the fickle flock of Israel, as Christ ministered to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and had compassion towards them, the little lambs, taking them upon his shoulders, and leading and guiding them through the treacherous paths, as David and Moses before him.

He came to save sinners, not those that are whole. He came to the poor and needy, not to the well heeled and self sufficient, and he loved them and cared for them as the good shepherd (Isa 40:11, Lk.15:4,5, Jhn.10.1-5, 14, Lk.5.31). He is reassured that the Name bearing Angel would go before them (v.14,17).

"My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest."

This applies in principle to all faithful sojourners in the wilderness of life who put their trust in Yahweh the living God (Pslm.68. 4-9).

"A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land."

He will give the suffering remnant their rest which remaineth for the people of God

(Hb 4,.9,10). *



20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

Yahweh on the Mount


This was not the personal Creator, both Jesus and Paul expressly affirming that no man hath seen God at any time.-(John 1:18; 1 Tim. 6:6.)

It was his manifestation by Spirit in the angels of his power.-(See Acts 7:38, 53; Heb. 2:2.) The impossibility of man looking in the face of the Being who appeared to Moses, is not inconsistent with this, since such may be true in relation to the higher order of angelic manifestation on the principle that made it impossible for Israel to behold even the face of Moses when he came down from the Mount.

As to Phanerosis, p. 51, the statements must be read subject to the propositions appearing on p. 38. Proposition 2: "That the one self-existent Eternal Ail hath never been seen by any mortal man." Proposition 9: "That they (the Scriptures) teach that in seeing God, men saw embodiments of the Spirit of the eternal Increate, not the Eternal himself."

The Eternal, who is omnipresent by His Spirit, manifested Himself to Moses, in the person of the chief of the Elohim, on Sinai, who bore Yahweh's name. We have submitted the query to the author of Phanerosis, who says there was no need for the light-inhabiting Eternal Father to leave his dwelling-place to manifest Himself to Moses, since he is everywhere present, and can, at any time or place, manifest himself as he chooses.

The Christadelphian, April 1870




In the coming age...

The Ezekiel temple is a "house of prayer for all nations," in which the "Yahweh Elohim Almighty" will officiate as the sacerdotal intermediation between him who dwells in light, whom no man can see and live, and all the enlightened, justified and regenerated nations of the Millennial Age (Exod. 33:20, 1 Tim. 6:16).

Eureka 8.1. 'And there were voices'.



21 And Yahweh 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 cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:

The cleft rock: A place of shelter and safety specially prepared by Yahweh

In searching for the meaning of the cleft rock, we are led to consider certain facts to which the scene of this record evidently points. The Rock stands related to two systems, or "order of things," outlined by the two Covenants. The One, given from Sinai-the Mosaic:-the other, confirmed and brought into force by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ-the Abrahamic.

At the first giving of the law from Sinai, the ten commandments were spoken in audible voice to the people: and the terrors of the law were shadowed forth in the thunderingsand lightnings and voice of a trumpet, the fire and the smoke. And the "two tables of testimony,-tables of stone, written with the finger of God,"-were given to Moses, that he might teach the law and commandments to the children of Israel. This covenant, dedicated with blood,-which Moses

sprinkled upon all the people,-they did not keep.

They quickly turned aside from the holy commandments and corrupted themselves; and were many of them visited with the fire of Yahweh's jealousy-in swift destruction from among His people. A primary, antitypical fulfilment of the things representatively enacted then, we find at the close of the Mosaic Aion.

Then, there was a national falling away of the children of Israel from the holy covenant delivered unto them by Moses;and only a very small remnant of faithful ones remained. When that covenant had waxed old, and was ready to vanish away (Heb. 8:13), the "heavens" thereof are described by Peter as about to "pass away with a great noise, and the elements to melt with fervent heat" (2 Pet. 3:10).

This national removal, and the cause of it, Moses had foretold: and said, "Jeshurun" had "forsaken God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation"

(Deut. 32:15).

Sis Lasius - Yahweh Elohim



Moses, being within the Rock-was covered by the hand of Yahweh. This covering hand, is the subject of the prophet's testimony. The Spirit, through the prophet, addressing the anointed One, saith:

"I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand: that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth; and say unto Zion, Thou art my people" (Isa.51:16).

The right hand of Yahweh, is spoken of as being instrumental in the work of salvation. The Psalmist saith:

"1 know that the Lord saveth his anointed, he will hear him from his holy heaven, with the saving strength of his right hand" (Ps. 20:6). His right hand, it is said, is "full of righteousness." As saith the Psalmist; "According to thy name, Ο God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth:thy right hand is full of righteousness" (Ps. 48:10). "Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand: upon the Son of man, whom thou madest strong for thyself" (Ps. 80:17).

It is through the saving power of his right hand, "the righteousness of ages" has been brought in. The righteousness belonging to the name of Yahweh is manifested through the name of Jesus. Therefore the Spirit of Christ through the prophet, saith,-"I will greatly rejoice in the

Lord: my soul shall be joyful in my God: for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath coveredme with the robe of righteousness" (Isa. 61:10).

This righteousness is a part of that "goodness" of which the Lord spake to Moses, when He said, "I will make all my goodness pass before thee." This goodness and righteousness form

part of that glory which was veiled within the shadow of the covering hand: as said the messenger, "I will cover thee with my hand while I pass by."

The glory was with the angelic representative, within the covering cloud. Christ, coming to be invested with the covering robe of Yahweh's righteousness, the Scriptures teach that all who

have put on Christ are covered with it also. Moses, together with all the faithful ones of every age, must find a covering there. "This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord;and their righteousness is of me, saith Yahweh" (Isa. 54:17).

Sis Lasius - Yahweh Elohim



23 And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.

Moses desires to see Yahweh's glory. Moses is told that no man can see Yahweh's glory - his face, and live. Remember, the Yahweh name bearing angel that spake with him was invested in a cloud. The angel thus was concealed from Moses vision, but was tantalisingly close that he spake face to face with him (v.11).

It was the moral glory that was revealed to Moses. But Yahweh would hide him in the cleft rock, and he could see the back parts of the angel, but not his face. The cleft rock is Christ, and through him, Yahweh's cleft rock, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, are we able to see visions of Elohim (Ezk.I.2, Rev.4, Rev.5).*

*Bro Richard Lister -

The Apocalyptic Messenger, Oct 2016

thomas.lister1@btinternet.com