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Exodus 33

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1 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, Depart, go up hence, thou and the people that thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land of 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 And Jehovah said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people; if I go up into the midst of thee for one moment, I shall 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 from mount Horeb onward.

7 Now Moses used to take the tent and to pitch it without the camp, afar off from the camp; and he called it, The tent of meeting. And it came to pass, that every one that sought Jehovah went out unto the tent of meeting, which was without the camp.

8 And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the Tent, that all the people rose up, and stood, every man at his Tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the Tent.

9 And it came to pass, when Moses entered into the Tent, the pillar of cloud descended, and stood at the door of the Tent: and [Jehovah] spake with Moses.

10 And all the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the door of the Tent: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man at his Tent door.

11 And Jehovah spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his minister Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the Tent.

12 And Moses said unto Jehovah, 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 favor in my sight.

13 Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thy sight, show me now thy ways, that I may know thee, to the end that I may find favor 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 now shall it be known that I have found favor in thy sight, I and thy people? is it not in that thou goest with us, so that we are separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth?

17 And Jehovah said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken; for thou hast found favor in my sight, and I know thee by name.

18 And he said, Show me, I pray thee, thy glory.

19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and will proclaim the name of Jehovah before thee; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face; for man shall not see me and live.

21 and Jehovah said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon the 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 until I have passed by:

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

   

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True Christian Religion # 691

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691. Moses said to Jehovah:

Show me your glory. Jehovah said to him, You cannot see my face, because no one can see me and live. And he said, Here is a place, where you can stand on the rock, and I will put you in a crevice of the rock and put my hand as a covering upon you, until I have passed by; and when I take my hand away, you will see my back parts, but my face will not be seen, Exodus 33:18-23.

The reason why man cannot see God and live is that God is love itself, and love itself or the Divine love in the spiritual world appears to the sight of angels like the sun, as far distant from them as the sun of our world is from men. If therefore God, who is in the midst of that sun, were to come close to angels, they would perish just as men would if the sun of the world came close to them, for it is equally burning.

[2] For this reason there are constant controls which modify and moderate the burning heat of that love, so that its radiation should not reach heaven undiluted, since this would consume the angels. When therefore the Lord makes His presence more immediately felt in heaven, the irreligious beneath heaven begin to complain, suffering torture and fainting, so that they take refuge in caves and fissures in the mountains, crying:

Fall upon us and hide us from the face of Him that sits upon the throne, Revelation 6:16; Isaiah 2:19, 21.

It is not the Lord Himself who comes down, but an angel with the sphere of love from the Lord around him. I have on several occasions seen irreligious people terrified by this coming down, as if they had seen death itself before their eyes; some of them hurled themselves deeper and deeper into hell, and some were driven frenzied.

[3] This was the reason why the Children of Israel prepared themselves for three days before Jehovah the Lord came down on Mount Sinai; and why the mountain was fenced about to prevent anyone approaching and being killed (Exod. chapter 19). It was much the same with the holiness of Jehovah the Lord in the Ten Commandments which were then made public, and written by the finger of God on two tables, and then laid up in the Ark. On top of this in the Tabernacle was placed the Mercy-seat, and cherubs on top of this, to prevent anyone directly coming into contact with it by hand or eye, Not even Aaron was able to approach except once a year, after making expiation for himself by sacrifices and censing.

[4] It was for this reason that the men of Ekron and Bethshemesh were killed to the number of several thousand, solely because they had seen the Ark with their own eyes (1 Samuel 5:11-12; 6:19); and the same happened to Uzzah, because he touched it (2 Samuel 6:6-7). These few examples illustrate what a curse and slaughter would have struck down the Jews, if they had not been prepared by John's baptism for the reception of the Messiah, who was Jehovah God in human form; and if He had not assumed the Human and revealed Himself in that form. They were prepared by being enrolled in heaven and counted among those who at heart waited and longed for the Messiah, as the result of which angels were sent to become their protectors.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.