Metaphysical Bible Interpretation of Exodus Chapter 33
Metaphysically Interpreting Exodus 33:1-6
33:1And 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: 33:2and 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:33:3unto 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.
33:4And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments. 33:5And 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. 33:6And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from mount Horeb onward.
Metaphysically Interpreting Exodus 33:7-11
33:7Now 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. 33:8And 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.33:9And 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. 33:10And 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. 33:11And 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.
Metaphysically Interpreting Exodus 33:12-23
33:12And 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. 33:13Now 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. 33:14And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. 33:15And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. 33:16For 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?
33:17And 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. 33:18And he said, Show me, I pray thee, thy glory. 33:19And 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. 33:20And he said, Thou canst not see my face; for man shall not see me and live. 33:21and Jehovah said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon the rock: 33:22and 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: 33:23and I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back; but my face shall not be seen.
September 5, 1926: Exodus 33:7-16
What two general lines of thought are out-pictured in the history of the children of Israel especially in their escape from bondage in Egypt and in their experiences in the wilderness? The two lines of thought represented by the experiences of the children of Israel are: first, the development of the soul of man from sense consciousness to spiritual consciousness; second, the freeing of the soul from the bondage of sensation. The Israelites were imprisoned in sensation (Egypt). Imprisonment has various names. lt is sometimes called “the fall of man.” Today the millions of people who work for food simply to keep sensation alive are slaves; they are slaves of the Egyptians or the ruling forces of sense mind.
Does sense mind understand or in any way appreciate spiritual principles? No. The sense mind believes in forms, shapes, personalities, and things that it can see, hear, smell, taste, and feel.
What causes man to break away from the slavery of sense? Man, in servitude of sense, ever longs for freedom, but does not know how to attain it. He must have a personal leader (represented by Moses).
What is the meaning of the statement that “the tent of meeting” was pitched “without the camp,” and “afar off from the camp”? The fact that “the tent of meeting” was pitched “without the camp,” symbolizes man's outer and intellectual consciousness of God, which man has in the beginning of his soul unfoldment.
How do we know that the children of Israel did not have an understanding of the indwelling God as taught by Jesus Christ? The history of their worship shows that they thought that Jehovah was personal and that he talked to their lawgiver, Moses, out of a cloud; also they thought that Moses met Jehovah in a tent (temporality) outside the camp.
Why were the Israelites so prone to engage in idol worship and to fall back into the religion of the heathens who had held them in slavery? The intellectual and half sensuous concept of God which the Israelites had possessed was closely allied to the superstition of ignorance and materiality. So long as this was the basis of their religious understanding, they were liable to slip back into the worship of the gods of the Egyptians. In the previous chapter we are told that they made a golden calf and worshiped it during Moses’ absence.
Moses spoke to God face to face. Is not that evidence that Moses had established the right relation with the Father? No. To speak to God face to face, as a friend, or as one man would speak to another, indicates a personal and intellectual concept of God. In its evolution the soul passes through this phase of understanding of God, but the final and correct understanding and communion with God is the conception of him as the indwelling, universal Spirit. Jesus and Paul taught the truth about God. Moses, like John the Baptist, was a way-shower, but he did not have the consciousness of the kingdom of the heavens within.
Transcribed by Lloyd Kinder on 02-03-2014
