Moses in the Meeting Tent

(Exodus 33:1 - 34:3)

Jehovah spoke to Moses, "Leave this place, you and the people you have led out of Egypt, and go to the land  I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with my oath -- 'I bestow this upon your descendants.'  Ahead of you I will dispatch an agent who will clear the land of the Canaanites, Amorites, Hethites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites so the you may occupy the land flowing with milk and honey -- but I will not go with you, for you're such a rebellious people I might be tempted to destroy you on the way.”

The people received these ill tidings with dismay; no one would even put on his fine clothes or jewelry.  Jehovah bade Moses tell the Israelites, "You're a rebellious people.  If I ever came among you even for a moment, I would annihilate you.  --- Take off all your finery so I may decide what to do with you."  And so the Israelites encamped at the foot of Mount Horeb set aside all their gold jewelry and fine raiment. 

Moses regularly pitched a tent far from the Israelite camp and called it the Meeting Tent.  Anyone who wished to appeal to Jehovah could do so there, outside the camp.  It happened that when Moses would visit the Meeting Tent, all the people came out and stood at the entrances of their own tents watching him until he entered.  When Moses went in, a cylindrical cloud would descend over the tent and hover before the entrance while Jehovah spoke to Moses.  Whenever those who watched saw this cloud, they would bow and pray, right there at the entrance of their tents. 

Jehovah communicated directly with Moses in spoken words as one friend to another.  When Moses left the Meeting Tent, his aide, the youth Joshua, the son of Nun, stayed behind. 

Moses said to Jehovah, "You’ve told me to lead this people, but you haven’t yet said whom you are sending to accompany me.  You’ve told me, 'I have singled you out and you have found favor with me.'  But if I really enjoy your favor, confide in me your plans so that I may truly know you and may more easily find favor in your eyes.  And please, keep thinking of this nation as your people! "

Jehovah replied, “Set your mind at ease, my presence will be with you till the end.”

Moses responded, “If you aren't going with us, please don’t make us leave this place.  Unless you accompany us how can it be known that my people and I have found favor with you, for your favor is what makes us special from among all the peoples of the earth.”

Jehovah said to Moses, "What you have asked of me I will do, for you enjoy my favor and are my friend.”

"Pray then, show yourself to me!"

Jehovah declared, “I will permit the entirety of my true form to pass right before you, and I will speak my name “Jehovah” so you may hear it.  (I show favor to those whom I will and am accommodating to those who please me.  But you may not see my face, for no man is allowed to do so and live.)  You may stand on a rock near where I will pass.  I will show you a crevice in the rock where you may conceal yourself.  When my glorious presence passes that place, I will raise my hand, blocking your view, but when I have walked by, I will lower my hand and you will be able to glimpse my back.  But my face you will not be able to see."

Jehovah continued to speak to Moses: “Prepare two stone tablets like the ones we had before and I will inscribe upon them the same writing that were upon the other two tablets that you broke.  Be ready in the morning and come to Mount Sinai and present yourself to me at the top of the mountain.  No one must come with you.  Let no man be found upon the mountain, nor should you even let livestock graze at the foot of the mountain."

Notes
1.  Jehovah makes it clear he will accompany the Israelites no further.  He is prone to lose patience with them and lose his temper, so much that he fears he might not be able to resist the temptation to destroy them -- not a very flattering appraisal of the people he had done so much for, but who had shown themselves to be unworthy of his efforts on their behalf. But he relents after talking to Moses.

2.  The people cast off their jewelry, an act that makes no sense except symbolically, the casting off of earthly desires and a renunciation of attachment to physical possessions and displays of wealth.  It seems strange, though, that this should regarded as a particularly relevant lesson for newly freed slaves wandering in the desert.

3.  Jehovah visits the Meeting Tent in a cylindrical cloud.  (This is not the Tabernacle described earlier: that obviously hadn’t been built yet.)  It is hard to know what to make of this description.  If the Jehovah of Moses is a spirit being, his manner of appearance does not conform with what is usual with such encounters.  A long history of sightings confirm that spirit beings usually manifest themselves as luminous orbs or as indistinct areas suffused in light -- light, not cloud.  And there are various degrees of physical manifestations that are commonly reported: the vague, wispy shape, the gray human-like wraith, the human-like apparition which may be transparent, translucent, or incompletely formed and which may be surrounded by lights, halos, or auras, or be luminous and resplendent, and the materialization that is virtually and visually indistinguishable from a physical person.  There is little in the biblical account of Moses' communion with Jehovah to suggest that he is a spirit being.  Is the cylindrical cloud an object, a vehicle in which Jehovah physically conveys himself?  Is it the same as the aerial ship that guided the Israelites into the desert earlier in the story?  Or is it some drone-like device through which he can see, hear, and speak?   The last is very possible and makes sense.  Jehovah wants Moses to come up to the mountain and meet with him personally, since he could not do so at the Meeting Tent.

4.  It is specifically stated that Moses and Jehovah communicated in a normal way, speaking to each other.  That is, there was no communication through dreams and visions or telepathic rapport.  This also seems to militate against Jehovah being a spirit being, for spirits, save in phony seances, rarely communicate in audible speech.

5.  Moses has spoken to Jehovah many times, but during all their meetings Moses has never been allowed to glimpse his face.  This, first of all, is a confirmation that Jehovah appeared to him as a man, either because Jehovah is a man or because he chose to assume human form.  The reason that Jehovah did not wish his face to be seen may be the same reason why he did not wish idols to be made of his image.  Perhaps he was self-conscious about his looks or was deformed in some way.  Or perhaps Jehovah, though humanoid, was not totally human and felt the appearance of an alien visage might be disturbing to Moses and his people.  Was there some magical power in his face, some radiation of energy emanating from it that would be deadly to a man?  Would Jehovah, like the Greek Medusa, turn men to stone with his gaze?  Another reason for hiding his face might have been Jehovah's desire cultivate a godly mystique.  Not allowing his face to be seen would create a respectful distance between him and his worshipers -- a Wizard of Oz strategy that would be employed by many absolute rulers.  Jehovah, making a concession to the curious Moses, allows him to view him in stealth as he passes by.  Jehovah hides his face with his hand (as if on a perp walk), but lets Moses glimpse his back.

6.  Moses is instructed to prepare a second set of tablets to replace the ones written by Jehovah that he smashed in anger.  The contention that the tablets were made of some special kind of stone is probably disproved by this statement, since Moses could only have worked with the raw materials available.   One wonders how many man hours might be necessary to chisel out a pair of stone tablets suitable to be inscribed with writing.

7.  Jehovah not only wants Moses to come back up the mountain alone, but prohibits livestock from grazing at the base of the mountain.  Was he afraid some goat might see too much?  Or was there something dangerous, radioactivity, toxic air, extreme heat?, connected with Jehovah's sojourn on the mountain?  It might be that Moses, due for another 40 days and 40 nights, was to be taken up again in Jehovah's aerial craft, and Jehovah wanted the area to be clear for the take off.