What does it mean to see God’s back?
Old Testament Reading: Exodus 33:12-23
For Sunday, Oct.16 , 2011: Year A—Ordinary 29
It seems like God and Moses have realized their grand experiment has not worked out that great. The whole thing is kind of a mess.
Rethinking?
After the golden calf debacle and the smashing of the stone tablets, God begins to rethink his involvement.
God clearly feels some obligation, having brought these people out of Egypt and into the dessert, having promised them a land of their own, but God is not really sure God even likes these people.
Rejection?
Maybe it was the rejection. Like, they don’t really seem that satisfied with the Lord either. As Debbie Blue described in last week’s post, God is kind of scary and distant. God’s not nearly as fun as the golden calf party.
So, God decides that God will not be going with them on the rest of the journey; God will send an angel instead. Moses pleads with God, saying that was not the deal—These are Your people; an angel is not the same; the whole thing won’t work if you don’t come; the people want your Presence. I want your Presence.
Presence
God gives in, although it seems a little cryptic. My presence will go, God tells Moses. Having gained some ground Moses pushes farther. Moses pleads again—Show me your glory. It is as if he is saying to God—Look, we’ve been through a lot and we are going to go through a lot more together and I don’t really even know you that well. I don’t even know what you look like. You are asking a lot of me, of the people, couldn’t you just show me your face?
God’s well-known reply is—No human can see my face and live. God offers another cryptic response, an alternative to face-to-face. God will put Moses in the crag in the rock, cover his face with God’s hand, pass before him in all God’s glory, and then remove God’s hand in time for Moses to see God’s back—the backside of God’s glory.
The Hardest Question
What exactly is the message God is sending to Moses? God is not ready for that kind of face-to-face intimacy? Is it an insult because God still is a little hurt about the rejection and not quite ready to make up completely? Or is their some truth to the, no one can see my face and live, thing?
What Moses sees might be something like the wake of God’s glory, the residual effect of God’s full frontal passing-by. It’s as if Moses (and all of humanity) has no ability to comprehend the fullness of God, but only the resulting impact of God’s presence in the world, in history, in the lives of God’s people.
How do you read?
What does it mean to see God’s back?
Russell Rathbun is a preacher at House of Mercy in St. Paul, Minnesota, the author of Midrash on the Juanitos (Cathedral Hill Press, 2010) and the curator of The Hardest Question.
