Exodus 33:12-23/vv.12-14 – “The God Who is Real”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹²And Moses said to the LORD, “Look, You [are] saying to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ and You have not declared whom You will send with me, and You have said, ‘I know you in name and also you have found grace in My eyes.’ ¹³And now, if (na) I have found grace in Your eyes, cause me (na) to know Your ways, and I will know You, so that I will find grace in Your eyes; and see (impv.) that this nation is Your people. ¹⁴And He said, “My faces will walk [with you] and I will give you (sing.) rest.”

I am still working my way back to finishing my study of Galatians but want to work with the OT Hebrew a while longer before heading back into NT Greek. Exodus 33 is a passage that caught my eye many years ago and I have often read it again with pleasure, always hoping someday to get the time to actually study it. Facing the various uncertainties of the future, my mind has often quoted the (paraphrased) words, “Lord, if Your presence goes not with us, send us not up!”

So here I am! I feel like the proverbial kid in the candy shop! This is another passage I alost feel like I should take off my shoes just to gaze at these words. What a blessing. Well, let’s wade in and see what “wondrous things from Thy Word” we’ll find!

First off, as I have been studying, I realize that I have never really appreciated the context of this passage. I have loved to read Moses’ words, to see him conversing so directly with the Lord, and then of course reading the “cleft of the rock” passage; but I never noticed context. This whole interchange is immediately following Israel’s great apostacy with the golden calf. This is a time of intense emotion in Moses’ life. His whole world has been about leading these people to the Promised Land. He was on the mountain, receiving from God the Ten Commandments, no doubt filled with hope and excitement for the days ahead. Then suddenly it all falls to pieces. And to make it even worse, it is Aaron who actually orchestrated the failure -- his own brother, the man who has been his bosom companion through it all. Then God announces that He will no longer go with these people, yet still tells Moses to lead them.

I like how Adam Clarke sums it up:

He was in great perplexity and doubt; he was afraid that God was about to abandon this people; and he well knew that if he did so, their destruction must be the consequence. He had received general directions to decamp, and lead the people towards the promised land; but this was accompanied with a threat that Jehovah would not go with them. The prospect that was before him was exceedingly gloomy and discouraging; and it was rendered the more so because God predicted their persevering stiffneckedness, and gave this as one reason why he would not go up among them, for their provocations would be so great and so frequent that his justice would be so provoked as to break through in a moment and consume them.

Here is Moses, surrounded by failure, and threatened with the fear of God’s abandonment. Our worlds can often feel this way, whether in cataclysmic circumstances (like this) or in the little catastrophes of our everyday existence. In one way or another, our hopes get suddenly demolished and suddenly our future becomes uncertain. We don’t know the outcome, but we easily fear the possibilities. We don’t know that the Lord is going to help us (or so we feel). What should we do?

We should do exactly what Moses did and take it all to the Lord. The rest of this passage teaches us profound truths about the Lord, about our relationship with Him, and about prayer in the midst of disappointment and uncertainty.

First off, I find it amazing how Moses dialogues with God. The Lord has expressly stated His intentions in verses 2 and 3, “I will send an angel before you … but I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.” Pause and realize that Moses’ entire prayer here is actually contradicting what the Lord has clearly expressed as His intent! Moses is actually objecting to the plans of the Sovereign of the Universe(!) – and doing it right to His face! I’m reminded of Abigail when she met David on his way to destroy Nabal and actually persuaded him against it.

I like what a man named John Schultz wrote:

One of the great lessons of Moses' attitude at this point seems to be that there can be a wrongly resting in our circumstances. There may be times in our lives when God is pleased when we resist what overcomes us, even if our circumstances are ordained by Him. This may sound contradictory, but the key for knowing when to accept and when to resist lies in the understanding of the love of God. At times God's love and mercy may be severe and we need insight into the character of God to know the difference between bowing and standing up. Moses did the right thing when he refused God's proposal and God richly rewarded him for it.

God is so personal and so real. He’s so approachable. Who would ever dream it was okay (even good!) for a mere human to approach the God of the universe and object to His plans?!! And yet, obviously this is the very depth of relationship into which He invites us. I love that Schultz noted that the key is “understanding the love of God.” The love of God. We could talk in this situation about the holiness of God, the majesty of God, His justice, etc., but love is a relationship word. And in the midst of deep disappointment and uncertainty, it certainly is the love of God, that personal, embracing relationship, we need.

Moses clearly understood this. And so, in the midst of his own deep disappointment and uncertainly, he stepped into the warmth and security and hope of this love relationship between himself and the Lord, and there entreats the Lord to alter His plans.

J.I. Packer once referred to “The people who know their God.” Moses was one of them. I want to be another. Like Paul said, “I want to know Him.” I have studied the Bible these last 30-some years, longing to know this God who saved me, and He has certainly never disappointed me. The more I learn of Him, the more He amazes me. There really is no end to understanding what is the height and depth and breadth and length of the love of Christ. Who has known the mind of the Lord? His ways are past finding out! Yet, to know Him at all is to want to know Him better.

There is much more to say, I think, even about verses 12-14, but I think I’ll save those thoughts for another post. In the meantime, may I enter even more fully into this love relationship between me and my God. May I enjoy more and more just how deeply personal this relationship is!

Psalm 116: 17-19 – “Wrapping Up”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁷To You I will sacrifice a thank-offering and I will call in the name of the Lord. ¹⁸I will repay my vows to the Lord before the all of His people, ¹⁹in the courts of the house of the Lord, in the midst of me, Jerusalem. Praise the Lord.

These verses, of course, repeat (to some extent) thoughts the Psalmist has expressed earlier. For the fourth time he expresses the idea of calling on the name of the Lord, and for the second time he repeats his determination to “fulfill his vows.” He adds the “thank-offering” and also the specific reference to the temple and to Jerusalem.

The passage, once again, has some grammatical oddities I’m not sure what to do with. He says he will fulfill his vows “in the midst of me, Jerusalem.” The “me” is universally translated “you” in order to make sense, but, unless I’m missing something, it is clearly “me” in the Hebrew. In this case, I just left it “me” in my translation, even though I don’t think that makes any sense. I don’t know if the rest of the world is translating it “you” just to make sense or if they know something I don’t. Always learning!

I need to wrap up this study but did want to record some thoughts on the business of vows. Apparently while the Psalmist was in the midst of this calamity, he must have made vows like, “If You’ll get me out of this, I promise I’ll …” For whatever it’s worth, I want to say that I long ago decided vows are dangerous things and probably most often best left unsaid. Ecclesiastes 5:4-6 says,

“When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow.  It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it.  Do not let your mouth lead you into sin ...”

My issue with “vows” is the idea that it is better not to vow than to make one and not fulfill it. The “not fulfill it” is too likely a possibility for this sinner. I have failed at too many good intentions too many times in my life, to the point I don’t trust myself to make vows. I like better what Jesus said, “And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one” (Matt 5:36,37).

Obviously there is a place for vows, particularly in marriage, because of the momentous issues involved. Thankfully I can say I’ve “kept my vows” and been faithful to my wife these thirty years. In this case I personally think it’s a good thing to have those vows “hanging over my head” like an executioner’s axe. It doesn’t hurt anything to add that element of fear. On the other hand, I realize that I didn’t simply vow not to fall in bed with some other woman. I vowed to “love her and cherish her ‘til death do us part.”  That’s where my problem with vows comes in. It’s a good thing I’m covered in the blood of Jesus because this impatient, selfish, proud sinner has too many times failed at this business of loving and cherishing – which is precisely “having made a vow and not keeping it.”

So, I guess, bottom-line is that a vow is a good thing in a marriage because of the dire consequences involved, but beyond that, I don’t know of anywhere in my life I want to get in the business of making vows. “Better to not make them than to make them and then fail to keep them.” “Let your yes be yes and your no be no.”

This has been quite a Psalm for me. I am still reeling in the realization that love is inherently reciprocal and that, by choosing to be thankful to God and others, I am actually feeding the love-cycle in my life. It also still floors me that it is actually a form of praise to God when, after having cried out to Him and been delivered, I cry out to him again. I’m so glad He cleaned out even that last little sense of “apology” in my heart for coming “again.” Now I can tell Him, “Here I am again, needing You” and say it fully as a praise.

I also appreciate Him teaching me so poignantly in verses 10 and 11 that, in the midst of pain, I need to be careful what I say. Although even my expressions of pain (“I am greatly afflicted!) can still be faith, it is also easy to say things that I will later regret (“All men are liars!”).

I am so thankful He helped me understand verse 15, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” In the midst of trouble – when we feel we’re going to die (literally or figuratively), we should always remember, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” We will not die one second before or after that which the Sovereign of the universe has decreed, and we will die in exactly the way He has planned (not that of some malevolent person or even the devil himself). Our very death is a matter of great importance to our Lord. There’s never just “a step” between me and death, but there’s always just a God between me and death. So, man up, look it all straight in the eye, and rest assured, what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger!

Last of all, I just want to say what a pleasure it has been to study the whole Psalm where I long ago found verse 7, “Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.” What a jewel this verse has been to my heart. Over 30 years later, those words “The Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee” are literally a “full measure, pressed down and running over.” I’m still trying to learn to “rest” in Him, but He has certainly given me plenty of reason to.

Just makes me want to say,

I love the Lord, for He heard my voice;

 He heard my cry for mercy.

Because He turned His ear to me,

 I will call on Him as long as I live.

Psalm 116: 15,16 – “Privileged”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁵Precious in the eyes of the Lord [is] the death of His loved ones. ¹⁶Indeed, O Lord, because I am Your servant, I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid. You have loosed my bonds.

I have brought along verse 15 above because I think the thought is connected, which I will explain later. First of all, I have to confess that verse 16 is very difficult to translate, at least for me. It begins with a particle “anah” which apparently everyone else is inclined to translate “truly” or “indeed” or something like that. I don’t know enough to say for sure what to do with it. I suspect it is just a particle of exclamation, but one particularly applicable when in the presence of a superior. There is a similar particle, simply “nah,” which I have always understood was just a Hebrew way of acknowledging authority. When someone commands us, in our culture we may say, “Yes, sir” and then dip our head slightly. I understand the Hebrew “nah” is a verbal way of expressing the same as our dip of the head. It appears in Amy Grant’s song, “El Shaddai” when she sings (in Hebrew), “Erkhamka na, Adonai.” “Erkahmka” means, “I love you,” and Adonai means “Master.” What is the “na” in between? My understanding is it is that “dip” of the head, so to speak. So, that is why I suspect “anah” is simply an exclamation of being in the presence of one’s Superior. …but I’m not sure.

Also, there is a Hebrew “kiy” in the middle which I have translated “because.” It doesn’t really make any sense there, but it is there, so I just translated it in place. Not sure what else to do with it. Finally, it is interesting that the word “handmaiden” appears to me to actually be the word for “faithful.” The word is “amat” which one way or another looks like “emet,” “truth” or “truthful” or “faithful.” The word “amah” is a “maidservant.” The only difference is the “t” or the “h” at the end. Things turn murky because the word also has the pronominal suffix “kah” on the end, which is the “Your” in “Your handmaiden.” Apparently “amah” turns into “amat” when you add “kah,” since the words are universally translated “Your handmaiden” (or something like that) as opposed to “Your truthfulness.” I notice too that the Septuagint translated it into the Greek word for “handmaiden.” That would be a fairly strong case for it, that Jews living in 200 BC understood it as “handmaiden.” But, once again, it is a little beyond me. I chose to translate it “handmaiden” basically just because everyone else does (a dangerous habit, of course, but perhaps justified in this case).

So we go with it as it is.

Here’s what I suspect is going on: In verse 15, the psalmist refers to himself as one of the Lord’s “loved ones,” which of course is His “hasadim,” His “special ones.” I think in verse 16, he is still dwelling on his “special” status with the Lord, only it morphs over into the imagery of slavery, which of course was ubiquitous in their culture. To them, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. To be someone’s servant could be a very good thing, especially if the master was a good man. To be a servant in a good man’s house meant you had food to eat and your basic needs cared for. You were protected from roaming marauders and basically lacked for nothing. This all feeds into the reasoning why, in Exodus 21:5,6, the servant who should be freed in Jubilee could actually choose to become a man’s servant for life.

The psalmist here, having reminded himself he is one of the Lord’s “hasadim,” now also revels in the privilege of being a servant in the Lord’s house. Twice he says, “I am Your servant,” and, once again, I have underlined the “I” in my translation since it is actually expressed in the Hebrew. Again, they didn’t need to articulate pronominal substantives. When they did it appears usually to have been for emphasis, as in this case.

But it doesn’t stop there. He also declares that he is “the son of Your maidservant.” It was one thing to be a servant in a good man’s house. It was an even better thing to be born a servant in that good man’s house. In their culture, the children born to a servant girl automatically became the master’s servants as well. In their way of thinking, this was a good thing as they knew they’d be cared for from birth to death. There was a sense of a “special” status (hasadim!) for someone who could say, “I was born the master’s servant!”

The unseen hero in this discussion is, of course, the mother. It would seem undeniable that the psalmist is recalling that his mother was a servant of the Lord before him and, because she was, he was, in a sense, born the Lord’s servant too. Of course children have a choice whether to be the Lord’s servant whether their mother was or not, but I doubt anyone anywhere would deny the powerful influence of a mother’s faith. “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” I used to wonder in my mind how a godless, evil man like Ahaz could possibly father a son like Hezekiah or how men like Manasseh and Amon could be the progenitors of a Josiah. Then it occurred to me that one explanation could be their mothers. As godless and evil and wicked as any father is, a mother’s influence can still be the guiding star in a young child’s heart.

This phrase, “the son of Your maidservant” also occurs in Psalm 86:16. In that case, the psalmist is, in fact, David himself. I don’t know for sure that David is the psalmist here in 116, since it doesn’t say, but, after almost 35 years of studying the Bible, I have to say, everything in this Psalm sure breathes of David’s style. At any rate, I think it interesting to point out here that, in the Bible, nothing is ever said of David’s mother. (There are at least a couple references to David’s “father and mother” but nothing at all about her person). We know of him as “the son of Jesse” but we know nothing of his mother. However, for sure it is David in Psalm 86 who refers to her when he claims that special status, “the son of Your maidservant.” Clearly, she was a woman of faith and that faith she imparted to her young son David.

I suppose I’m rambling, but I personally think I sense a mother’s influence in David’s life. What I mean is this: David was clearly a man’s man. He was a fierce warrior, a very brave man (i.e., fighting bears, lions, and giants!), and a strong leader. No doubt much of this he learned from his father. But I can’t miss that there was also in David a tenderness of heart and a sensitivity to God and people, which things I personally think savor of a godly woman’s influence. Once again, I am probably rambling, but I think that is the beauty of God’s design, that ideally, a boy should grow up in a home with a father who teaches him to be a man and a mother who tempers that manliness with the influences of her feminine gentleness. To lack either too often renders an imbalance from which that young man will never recover. To have both can and should, as in David’s case, produce a man after God’s own heart – a man who can be both strong and gentle, a man of both aggressive action and quiet faith.

I will ever be thankful for my own mother’s influence. It has always been interesting to me that I have never “fit” very well in the man’s world I have lived in. I remember even as a very young boy disliking “the way men act.” What I was seeing was them guffawing and boasting, “strutting” their stuff, being coarse and raunchy, and just plain mean-spirited. At the same time, I have known men who could be strong and yet gentle too (my father being one), and I admired them. I just never understood “what makes me different.” Somewhere along the years I realized it was my mother’s presence and influence, her imprint, her “early impress,” so to speak.

It is a matter of supreme thankfulness to claim the title, “son of Your maidservant.” No one gets to choose wonderful parents, but we can certainly recognize them and be thankful to the One who gave them to us!

The psalmist’s last statement, “You have freed me from my chains” is worth an entire blog of its own; but suffice it to say here that I’m not so sure his mind has left his “slavery” illustration. I understand that, in the ancient culture, a man could buy a prisoner who then became his servant. Prisoners were often either publically executed (for the amusement of the general populace) or subjected to horrific labor which would soon kill them. To be purchased by a good man once again meant at least you would be cared for and could go on living some reasonably acceptable lifestyle. Obviously the same is true of us. It is freedom itself to be purchased by the blood of Jesus and made a servant in the household of the Lord. “My chains are gone! I’ve been set free! My God, my Savior has ransomed me. And like a flood, His mercy rains, unending love, amazing grace!”

“O Lord, truly I am Your servant;

 I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant;

 You have freed me from my chains!”

Psalm 116: 15 – “Conquered Death”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of this verse:

¹⁵Precious in the eyes of the Lord [is] the death of His loved ones.

My, my, my. I love studying the Bible. This verse has caught my eye for years. I’ve always wondered what exactly it meant and then why it occurs at this particular place in this Psalm. Generally speaking, every day, as I begin to study this Psalm, the first thing I do is read through it from beginning to end. And every time I pass verse 15 I wonder what it really means and how it fits. It seemed like a sort of random thought thrown into the text. Finally, I get to study it and find it makes perfect sense -- and not only does it make sense what it means and why it fits in here, but, as always, I learn something cool I haven’t really seen before.

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints,” so the old text goes. First of all, the word “precious” is a word you would use to describe a very large and very expensive diamond. The Hebrew contains all the senses of “heavy, highly honored, highly valued,” which we can then translate into English as “precious.” Then the name “saints” or “loved ones” is a Hebrew term for which it seems there simply is no English equivalent. It is the “Hasidim,” the same word used of the “Hasidic” Jews. It is built on the beautiful Hebrew word “hesed” which describes God’s kind of covenant love for us. It is basically a relationship word which then becomes a people, His “hasidim.” Again, it is basically a word for love but because it is about a relationship love, it contains the idea of commitment, of dedication to one another, of “special” status, hence the variety of translations, “loved ones,” “saints,” “favorites,” etc. One could ask, “Those are all different ideas, so, which one is it?” The answer is “all of the above.” The word simply contains all of those ideas. The fact is, although the Lord certainly loves everyone and makes His sun to shine on the evil and the good, yet, there are those whom He uniquely calls His children, His “hasidim”.

For a parent, this is not so hard to understand. We love all children. We particularly love the children of our closest friends and family. But then there are our children. I remember once at church pushing a group of small children on a swing set. One by one I would pick them up as their little cherub faces looked up at me anxious for their turn to be set on the swing and pushed. Every one of them was so precious. Then it was my little Esther’s turn. As I reached down to pick her up and looked into her eyes, all I could think of was “You are altogether lovely.” All those other children were so special and precious in and of themselves … but none could compare to my Esther. You couldn’t help but love all of those children, but Esther was (and is) my “hasid.”

So it is with God. To be found in Christ is to be one of His “hasidim,” one of His “special ones.” And what this verse declares to us is that the Lord particularly notes and holds in very high value the death of any one of His “special ones.” What this means to us is that we will die not one second before or after the exact time when the Sovereign of the Universe has decreed it to be so; and we will die in precisely the way He has planned (not necessarily the way an enemy or malevolent person might have intended). Further, being “special ones” to Him, we can be assured we will, like those who’ve gone before, find His peace and sufficient grace to be our portion when that time has come for us. To our Father, our death is something as precious as a very large and expensive diamond – and that applies to each of us very specifically and very personally.

Satan would have loved to kill Job; but, as he complained, the Lord had “put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has” (Job 1:10). When God allowed, Satan killed Job’s livestock, his servants, and even his children, but he could not take Job’s life. The Lord had said, “Only on the man himself, lay not a finger” (v12). In the end, it says, “After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so he died, old and full of years” (42:16,17). Job died precisely when and how the Lord decreed and even satan himself is powerless to alter that decree. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”

In a way, this is precisely where David “lost it.” After years of suffering as a hunted fugitive, David finally succumbed to it all and concluded, “One of these days I will be killed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines” (I Sam 27:1), and so God’s anointed king of the Jewish people went to live with their most bitter enemies. This was one of the lowest days in David’s life. The endless drudgery of his pain finally overwhelmed him and he forgot that “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” He forgot that, though Saul hunted him mercilessly, though people betrayed him, though it seemed there was “but a step between him and death,” yet He lived every second under the watchful eye of his Shepherd. It was not true that there was “but a step between him and death.” There was a God between him and death! If only he could have remembered that one thought, he could have perhaps persevered yet another day; but he forgot it and hope was lost.

This is where verse 15 fits in our Psalm. “The cords of death entangled me,” he said in verse 3. Whether he meant that literally (as if he were perhaps sick and near death) or if he is speaking figuratively (like we do) speaking of the intensity of his suffering, yet in the worst of it all, at the lowest possible moment, at the time when it seemed the suffering had finally completely engulfed him, yet it was still true, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” Even in death itself, the believer lives in hope. Even when we find ourselves bereaved of anything and everything that ever mattered to us, yet still our Father’s watchful eye stands over us. We will be His “special ones” right up to and through the moment of our very death – whenever and however He decrees that should come.

No wonder George Washington could die saying, “All is well.” So can we.

I guess I’ve never seen this quite so clearly. I hope that having studied this verse and (I think) understood it, I will carry this little jewel near to my thoughts. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” Is life hard? Am I to the point I’m weary of it all? Does it seem that fear or pain or loss have swept completely over me? Do I feel either literally or figuratively there is “but a step between me and death?” Then let me recall that “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” I need not fear any evil, “for Thou art with me.”

As I look back on trials past, the fact is they did not “kill” me. Though I have too, too, too many times literally brushed with death itself, yet still here I sit typing at my keyboard. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” My times are in His hands.

May these words be written in my mind and may they be one of the tools in the arsenal of my heart to maintain my hope even in those darkest of hours. There will always be but a God between me and death!