Exo 30:11-31:18
Exo 31:12-35:3, with a loose end outside the bounds of the Ki Tisa Torah portion, forms a chiastic structure:
1a) Exo 31:12-17 Sabbath commandment;
1b) Exo 31:18a YHVH made an end of speaking with Moses;
1c) Exo 31:18b YHVH gave Moses the two tablets of the Testimony;
1d) Exo 32:1-6 Idolatry committed + the covenant broken;
1e) Exo 32:7-20 Moses intercedes for the wrath of YHVH to turn from them;
1f) Exo 32:21-29 Idolaters restrained at the entrance to their tents;
1g) Exo 32:30-32 Confession of sin and plea for forgiveness;
central axis) Exo 32:33-33:3 Consequence for sin = separation from YHVH’s Presence;
2g) Exo 33:4-6 Repentance of sin;
2f) Exo 33:7-11 Every man worshiped at the entrance to their tents;
2e) Exo 33:12-34:9 Moses intercedes for the Presence of YHVH to go with them;
2d) Exo 34:10-27 Idolatry forbidden + the covenant renewed;
2c) Exo 34:29a Moses came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony;
2b) Exo 34:29b-35 When YHVH spoke with Moses his face shone;
2a) Exo 35:1-3 Sabbath commandment.
The big picture being painted by the structure: Rest (the Sabbath commandment) opens it, and closes it. Rest paints a picture of right relationship with God. In between, is grievous sin and its consequence. But when there is recognition of sin, confession of sin, and repentance of sin, the mediator of the covenant (Moses as a type of Messiah) intercedes on our behalf and restores us in covenant with YHVH our God. That is the gospel of grace preached from Torah!
Exo 32:1-35
Was God really intending to destroy all of Israel and make a new nation of Moses, and but for Moses’ intervention we would have the children of Moses today instead of the children of Israel? I do not believe so. When we attempt to grasp the meaning of a passage, our understanding of that passage must align with other Scripture, if we want to be sure we have the correct understanding. Scripture is truth and truth does not contradict. So the understanding of one passage, if it is a correct understanding, will not contradict the correct understanding of another passage.
So this is what I believe is going on here: we had several chiastic structures, one upon another in Genesis, where the central axis was that God fulfilled His word, even if He didn’t have any humans who believed Him! So now He is going to forget His word and forget His promise? That contradicts what we already know about YHVH, so therefore I do not believe that is what the passage is teaching.
I am sure that Israel’s idolatry did not please Him, but we have to remember, this is the same YHVH who endured hundreds of years of idolatry from Israel before allowing judgment to come upon them. And He is going to lose His patience and lose control over one incident?
No – a prophetic picture is being painted here. Moses, remember, is a type of Messiah. The events of His life are teaching who Messiah is and what He will do when He comes. The big picture of chapter 32, is:
Man’s Sin;
God’s Wrath;
Messiah’s Intervention.
The intervention is in the form, not only of intercession, but listen to what Moses says:
Then Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold! Yet now, if You will forgive their sin–but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.” Exo 32:31-32
What is he doing here? He is asking to be made a substitute, so that the wrath of God will fall upon him and not on them! Does this sound familiar? This is exactly what Jesus has done in substituting Himself to drink the cup of God’s wrath for the sins of the world, to spare the world His just wrath! This is the gospel of grace!
Exo 33:1-16
YHVH gives Moses the bad news, as the Scripture calls it, that His Presence will not go with them. This has been the bad news since the day of Adam’s fall! That I am exiled from the Presence of the LORD, that His Presence go not up with me, is the bad news. But then before we get to Moses’ intercession and the good news, Scripture interrupts our narrative with a seemingly unrelated detail, with where Moses pitched the tabernacle of meeting, and how YHVH talked with Moses face to face (Exo 33:7-11).
In fact, this is not an unrelated detail. In Hebrew, the phrase that is used here and throughout the rest of the Torah, for tabernacle or tent of meeting, is moed. The tabernacle of moed.
Moed is an appointment, like an appointment on a calendar. So ,
And YHVH spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts (moedim) of YHVH, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts (moedim).” Lev 23:1-2
The festivals, or holy days (holidays) of YHVH (not of the Jews) are His set time of appointment. But the vast majority of the time that moed occurs in Torah, it is as the tabernacle of moed – of meeting. So moed is an appointed or set time or an appointed or set place, that He has reserved in order to meet with His people, thus the English translation of tabernacle of moed is “tent of meeting” (and not tent of appointment). The Hebrew reveals the purpose of the appointment – so that God may meet with man. For them to draw near to each other until they meet!
It is not an accident that the seemingly out of place detail about Moses pitching the tabernacle of moed, of meeting, is sandwiched between the bad news of God’s Presence separated from Israel, and the good news (“gospel”) of “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest,” (Exo 33:14). The tabernacle of moed, which is a prophetic picture of Messiah and the new birth, of God’s Presence dwelling within the believer through Messiah, brings us to the good news!
I believe this is not another example of Moses getting God to change His mind (as we saw yesterday; Moses did not change God’s mind, for He is unchanging!), but the way God interacted with Moses throughout this incident, He did purposely for our sakes, to paint a prophetic picture of the bad news, and the good news! And once again it is Moses’ (Messiah’s) intervention that brings about the good news!
Exo 33:17-34:35
Exo 33:17-34:35 {p+p+s} Chiastic structure: Keep My commandments;
1a) Exo 33:17-23 {p} The plea of Moses: show me Your glory;
1b) Exo 34:1-4 Moses took up the second set of tablets;
central axis) Exo 34:5-26 {p} The renewal of the covenant = keep My commandments;
2b) Exo 34:27-29a Moses brought down the second set of tablets with the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments;
2a) Exo 34:29b-35 {s} Moses’ face shown with the glory of YHVH.
Notice what YHVH says:
And He said: “Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.” Exo 34:10
Yeshua echoes this very thing when He says:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” Joh 14:12-14
The works Yeshua did were healing the sick, raising the dead, feeding thousands with five loaves and two fishes, walking on water, answering every question with wisdom, even trick questions designed to entrap Him – the things of the Spirit (Act 10:38). The believer in Messiah Yeshua (that is me and you) will do greater works than Yeshua, because He went to His Father. What happened when He went to His Father? He poured out His Spirit on His disciples (Act 1:4-9, Act 2).
Notice that in the structure above, the comment of YHVH about the great works is in the central axis. Following it is the summary of His commandments which are originally found in Exo 20-23. And what surrounds it? Moses took up the 2nd set of tablets, and he brought down the 2nd set of tablets, inscribed with the words of the Ten Commandments. So you might say the central axis has at its heart, the prophecy of the miraculous works of the Spirit of God, enclosed and bounded by the commandments of God.
Now if you would really like your mind blown, go back to Yeshua’s discourse in Joh 14:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” Joh 14:12-18
John 14:15 is at the heart: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” This admonition is enclosed and bounded by the prophecy of the miraculous works of the Spirit (Joh 14:15 is the central axis of the chiastic structure found in Joh 14). Yeshua is repeating the same message that Moses heard on Mount Sinai at the renewal of the covenant, but in reverse order.
EXODUS 30:11-34:35 ANNUAL KI TISA “WHEN YOU TAKE” OUTLINE | EXODUS INDEX OF STUDIES
THE LAW OF LOVE: THE GOSPEL OF GRACE REVEALED IN THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD
Leave a Reply