Crystal Writes A Blog

Hide and Seek

Hide and Seek by Flickr User Aftab Uzzaman, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial
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What would you do if God gave you the opportunity to actually see Him walking near you? Even though most of us realize that we, ourselves, are the temple of God’s Holy Spirit, we rarely think of God’s actual presence dwelling with us because a spirit doesn’t seem quite the same as a physical being. So, if suddenly He came by and told us we could see Him physically, I think we would all have the mixed emotions of a kitty cat ready to pounce–excited to go forward (seek) but unsure and ready to run at the same time (hide).

In today’s reading from Exodus 33:17 through Exodus 33:23 (the end of the chapter and another super short one), Yahveh is telling Moses that He will do as Moses has asked and continue to walk with Israel. God reminds Moses that He is doing so because Moses has found favor in His sight, and because He knows Moses by name.

So, here’s Moses having this very personal conversation with The Creator of the Universe who is telling him that He knows him by name, but Moses wants more. He asks God to show him His glory. And since God does not get upset with Moses, I’m guessing this continuous seeking is okay with Him. As I’m typing this, I have a purring kitty cat meowing at me and digging at my arm to reach over and pet him each time I stop to type, and even though I must continue, I am actually quite blessed at knowing he wants more of me and my attention. I’m guessing from this that God was blessed by Moses’ seeking more of Him.

God tells Moses He will pass by him. He leads Moses to a rock where He says Moses can stand to watch the event, and then He tells Moses that He will hide him in a cleft of the rock until He has passed by to where Moses can only see Him from behind. He reminds Moses that if no man can see His face and live, so in actuality God is showing mercy to Moses here. Maybe that’s why just before telling Moses about hiding his face, He says He will show favor to whom He will, and He will show mercy to whom He will.

It’s a little difficult to find more of a story in such a short reading, but still, I can find a number of treasures in these words. Standing on the rock is a sure and stable place, while hiding in the rock is like safety from surrounding storms and attacks. God placing His own hand over Moses is a personal and powerful type of protection for him. God speaking His name as He walks by is an assurance of who He is and that He is to be trusted. And I’ve heard an interesting theory that Moses seeing God from behind represents the history that God gave him to record in the first five books of the Bible, aka The Torah that we are studying now. Now it’s your turn to tell me in the comments what the words in this passage mean to you.

Oh, and just because of the Scriptures covered today, I must share this old hymn (Rock of Ages) as sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford…

February 18, 2014 - Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) | Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Adonai, Almighty, Bible, Bible Gateway, Bible reading, Bible study, cleft of the rock, Complete Jewish Bible, Creator, crystalwriter, Exodus, God, God's glory, God's presence, hide and seek, Holy Bible, Lord, Moses, Old Covenant, Old Testament, Parashah, Portions, Rock of Ages, Scripture, seeing God, The Complete Jewish Bible, Torah, Torah commentary, Torah Portions, Torah Reading, Word, Word of God, Word of the Lord, www.biblegateway.com, Yahveh, Yahweh