Exodus 33: Proto-Tabernacle, ☧ Blows Off Steam with Moses

Rev. Kevin Martin, pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Exodus 33. “Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” Ouch. Exodus 33 can come off pretty harsh, but this needs to be understood in light of the intimate relationship between God and Moses—it’s as if God is blowing off steam “as a man speaks to his friend” (v 11). Their back-and-forth is only possible because of the incarnation, the rock and hiding place that saves us from God’s glorious wrath. Moses spoke to Christ the God-Man in the Proto-Tabernacle, in whom the baptized are called “friends” of God like Moses and Abraham (John 15).