Day 41 —  We are in the second month! We’ve been reading for over a 1/12 of a year! Praise God! I hope that it’s become a GOOD habit that will continue.

   Day 41 – Exodus 33 – 35  (Intimate intercession, Covenant renewed, generous donations.)

Chapter 32 left us with broken laws, idolatry, and retribution.  And Moses beginning to intercede for the people and for his brother, Aaron.

Now in chapter 33 he pleads for God to continue His presence WITH them. And he asks God an impossible favor – to SEE God’s face. But God is Spirit, so no person can see His face, nor can they see His glory without vaporizing! However, God allows his friend Moses to see a bit of His fading glory (His goodness) after he passes by. Moses is safe in a cleft of rock with God’s “hand” covering the entrance.

In chapter 34, God “passes before Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy and faithfulness, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but…. Who will by no means clear the guilty…”  And Moses falls on his face and worships God, and once more pleads that HE will pardon the sin of the people and take them for His inheritance.

God promises (covenants) to be their God, only they are to have NO OTHER GODS BEFORE HIM (for He is a jealous God) nor to MAKE FOR THEMSELVES ANY GODS OF CAST METAL. (These are the first two of the TEN commandments, and the ones that the people had already broken with that golden calf.)

God also reminds Moses that they must keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover – to remember and celebrate how He freed them from Egypt – and to obey the laws of the Sabbath. He re-wrote the Ten Words on the stone tablets and sent Moses back down the mountain.

And Moses’ face glowed so brightly from the presence of God that the people were terrified. After he spoke to them all that God had told him, Moses veiled his face. (After that. he set up a special tent outside the camp where he would go and meet the LORD. This wasn’t the Tabernacle which was to be set up in the middle of the camp.)

In chapter 35, Moses tells the people about building the Tabernacle, a place where their God would dwell among them and make His presence known to them. He told them all that was required for the tent, the furniture, and all the priests clothing. “Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the LORD’s contribution.”

And the people, both men and women, began to generously give their freewill offerings of jewelry and gold, silver, bronze, and linen and yarns. And both men and women volunteered their skills to help in the construction, led by Bezalel ben Hur and Oholiab ben Ahisamach.

And so it seems a catastrophe was averted by a man’s intercession before a Most Holy God. Oh, that WE would pray like this!.