Exodus 33:11, commentary and pictures

The Lord spoke with Moses in close, personal, friendly fellowship, face to face as a person speaks with a friend, describing direct intimate communion rather than equality between God and a human, and afterward Moses returned to the camp while his servant Joshua son of Nun remained in the tabernacle. The One who spoke with him from the pillar of cloud was the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the invisible Leader and teacher of Israel who gave instruction from the cloud and met with His people there. This fellowship followed Moses' burdened plea after the worship of the golden calf, when he prayed for God's favor and guiding presence to continue with Israel as what distinguished them from other peoples. God talked with Moses in this way because his life was closely linked with heaven through humble prayer, meekness and looking to God for education and duty, learned especially as a humble shepherd who was drawn nearer to the Chief Shepherd. The verse remains a lesson of intimate friendship with God, who is near to all who seek Him with the whole heart, so that prayer opens the heart to receive Him and speak with Him familiarly as with a friend.

Wording and Historical Setting

The phrase means the Lord spoke with Moses in close, personal, friendly fellowship, face to face as a person speaks with a friend. It describes direct, intimate communion, with the comparison to friendship expressing intimacy of speech rather than equality between God and a human being. After speaking, Moses returned again into the camp, while his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, remained and departed not out of the tabernacle.

When Moses entered the tabernacle he prayed aloud to God, so that the people could hear him from the doors of their tents, and God answered him in an audible voice. That praying vocally in the hearing of others is right. The meeting took place at the tent of meeting set apart from Israel's camp, with the cloudy pillar standing at its entrance. The cloud over it veiled the brightness of God's presence so the people could endure its nearness.

The people watched for a sign that Moses' intercession was accepted, and when the cloud descended they rejoiced and worshiped, taking this as hope that God would not utterly destroy them. The separation of the tabernacle from the camp rebuked sinful Israel and made a distinction between the faithful and the unfaithful. The Israelites felt the rebuke, humbled themselves, and laid aside their ornaments in penitence, while God would reveal Himself to Moses yet refused to dwell among the people lest their waywardness bring His wrath upon them. The surrounding account shows God continuing to hold fast to the nation while Moses pled for the people to be recognized as God's own despite their perversity. The face-to-face encounter is located at Sinai amid thunder and lightning.

Face-to-face speech is only one way God communicates. Though sin made a gulf between God and humanity, He could still communicate through His Son and the holy angels, and more often communicated through dreams and visions. He still speaks directly in the last days even to families who have refused to recognize Him, alongside His speaking in storm, rolling thunder, earthquake, flood, destructive elements, ships sinking in the ocean, whirlwind and storm. That direct speech stands alongside His speaking through storms and calamities and alongside His whispering love to the little trusting child and to the very old man.

Divine Speaker and Presence

The One who spoke with Moses face to face as a person speaks with a friend was the Son of God, Jesus Christ Himself, speaking from the pillar of cloud as He had spoken from the burning bush. The glory in the cloud came from Christ, and His presence was manifested at the tabernacle where the people worshiped, which was God's dwelling place on earth where His voice was often heard and where He met with people after the fall. After Moses returned to the camp, Joshua remained in the tabernacle.

Christ was the invisible Leader, teacher, and mighty Counsellor of ancient Israel, keeping the encampment under His eye that never slumbers nor sleeps, correcting evil ways and encouraging trust in the living God to lead safely to the land of promise. He often appeared to His people with His glory hidden in human form and spoke with them as a friend speaks with a friend, while also speaking to them through Moses as the visible leader God had appointed. Notwithstanding that close communion, Israel murmured against Moses when the enemy tempted them to evil surmising, jealousy, and faultfinding, and they did not resist temptation and stand firmly for principle.

From the pillar of cloud Christ gave Moses clear instruction, communicating God's will, statutes, laws, covenant, and Ten Commandments so the people could distinguish right from wrong. Those laws were unchanging, never to be amended by the people, and were God's intended education for His people, yet they were given less honor than the words of infidel writers. By this close fellowship Moses was greatly honored, and God revealed His excellent glory to him in a way He had never revealed to anyone else. He was permitted to see the bright light and glory surrounding the Father.

Christ's familiar conversation with Moses before He assumed humanity is set beside Moses' conversation with God at Sinai. Heavenly beings still visit earth to walk and talk openly and familiarly as friends speak together. Again and again angels came unrecognized to Christian fugitives in the mountain valleys, talked with them in this friendly way, led them to places of security, renewed their drooping spirits with encouraging words, and carried their minds above the highest mountains to behold by faith the white robes, crowns, palm branches of victory, and rewards which the overcomers will receive when they surround the great white throne. Even amid busy cities crowded with business, sport, and pleasure where few contemplate unseen realities, heaven still has watchers and holy ones, invisible agencies observe every word and deed, in every gathering for business, pleasure, or worship there are more listeners than natural sight sees, and sometimes heavenly intelligences draw aside the curtain hiding the unseen world to withdraw thoughts from hurry and rush and remind of unseen witnesses to all said and done.

Moses' Preparation and Character

God spoke with Moses face to face because his life had become closely linked with heaven through belief in the great God, holding communion with the Father through humble prayer, and looking to the Highest for an education in spiritual things and for knowledge of his duty as a faithful shepherd. As a shepherd of sheep he learned to care for the afflicted, to nurse the sick, to patiently seek the straying, to bear long with the unruly, and to supply with loving care the wants of the young lambs and the needs of the old and feeble. As that character was developed he was drawn nearer to the Chief Shepherd and became united to and submerged in the Holy One of Israel. After fleeing Egypt and becoming a humble shepherd, he disciplined his mind to seek God as a refuge, recognized God's presence around him with all nature filled with the Unseen One, knew Him as a personal God, and by meditating on His character grasped His presence more and more and rested in His care. Through that face-to-face communion light shone into his heart and mind, so that God became his refuge, his dwelling place, and his home.

That close communion educated Moses and prepared him to exchange his shepherd's crook for the rod of authority and to leave his flock to lead more than a million idolatrous, rebellious people. He was to remain dependent on the invisible Leader as a willing instrument in the hand of Christ, and through his firm faith and abiding trust blessings and the riches of heaven would reach Israel. He was specially chosen to be the visible leader of Israel and the channel through whom God voiced divine instruction, a responsibility never delegated to others. Through long years of discipline he learned humility until he became the meekest of all men, a daily learner in the school of Christ whom God could teach and guide, who endured as seeing Him who is invisible because he was himself controlled by the Holy Spirit instead of seeking to control the Spirit.

He was honored by God because he was meek, not because of his experience at the Egyptian court. His nearness did not come from education in Egyptian wisdom or the most scientific schools, but from learning in the school of Christ meekness, lowliness of heart, and reverence for sacred things, and his long service as a shepherd taught him that his own plans were not God's plan. Intimate friendship and manifest favor did not make him satisfied, selfish, or proud, nor lead him to think he could direct God's work. He kept pleading for one spiritual blessing after another, advancing step by step, taking the people with him and refusing to separate his own case from theirs, still asking to be shown God's way that he might know Him and find grace in His sight.

The divine revelation and commission made him great, and awareness of his own inability and weakness drove him to God in unceasing pleading to see His glory, which God made to pass before him. That closeness made his leadership rule by mercy with no thread of selfishness. Though naturally diffident, slow of speech, hesitating, and self-distrustful, he became eloquent in beseeching God for the people under his leadership. God entrusted him with sacred nearness and revealed His glory to him, which made his later failure to give God the glory more serious, so that although he repented and humbled himself he could not lead Israel into the promised land.

Intercession for Rebellious Israel

The close speaking came after Israel worshiped the golden calf, when Moses went to plead for the people under the burden of leadership and the danger that God would abandon them and withdraw His guiding presence, and he asked that favor be restored and that presence continue because it alone distinguished Israel from all other peoples, with God discerning the sincerity and unselfish purpose of his heart, not reproving him but stooping to listen as he cast himself and every burden fully upon God and freely poured out his soul. Such intimate communion was granted to a feeble mortal, the Lord condescending to commune face to face as a man speaks with a friend, giving assurance that God hears prayer and that His presence attends His servant. Even so highly favored, Moses was not made satisfied or selfish but kept pleading for one spiritual blessing after another, advancing step by step and taking the people with him, refusing to separate his own case from theirs while still asking to be shown God's way that he might know Him and find grace in His sight. God tested and proved his love and faith in that persistence, without displeasure at his urgency.

That friendship belonged to the wilderness march to the promised land, where Moses stood as the appointed visible leader yet was hindered and disheartened by murmurings, disputings, envy and jealousy, and the people still murmured even when God displayed His glory in the tabernacle. Christ Himself as the mighty Counsellor, enshrouded in the pillar of cloud and fire, kept the encampment under an eye that never slumbers nor sleeps, correcting evil ways and encouraging trust in the living God to lead safely to the land of promise, working through His servant Moses. When the enemy tempted them to evil surmising, jealousy and faultfinding they did not resist temptation nor stand firmly for principle but murmured against Moses. Moses did not lose faith in the Lord or love for the people but pleaded earnestly for them, and in that setting God spoke with him openly as a friend.

When God said He would destroy the people, Moses became eloquent in beseeching Him for those under his leadership, presenting their great sin in making gods of gold and offering to be blotted out of God's book and out of the book of life if Israel could not be forgiven and saved. That unceasing pleading was driven by realization of his own inability for the work given him, and by longing to see God's glory, which God made to pass before him, and the revelation and commission made him great while making his leadership rule by mercy with no thread of selfishness. Through all their perversity God continued to hold fast to the nation while Moses pled that the people be recognized as God's own.

Admission to such close converse made Aaron's great sin especially astonishing. It also gave Israel evidence that Moses truly spoke with God, for he was admitted to God's secret councils and received instruction for the people, so that the directions he gave came from Him.

Prayer and Present Application

Exodus 33:11 is a lesson of intimate friendship with God and a source of valuable light and knowledge, for God is near to all who seek Him with the whole heart, and learning to know Him in this way is an education of the highest kind. Communion with God can be personal and familiar, like a person speaking with a friend, and prayer opens the heart to God in this way not to inform Him but to receive Him and be drawn nearer to Him. A person may plead with God as a man speaks or pleads with his friend, and through the Holy Spirit's work of intercession believers can approach God in this close, personal way. The comparison describes intimacy of speaking with God, not equality between God and a human being, and after Moses returned to the camp Joshua remained in the tabernacle. The Lord's presence in severe affliction brings the same sense of being able to speak with Him face to face.

Talking with God as with a friend means learning to commune with God and trust Him to work when difficulties arise and impossibilities must be met. Those obedient to all of God's commandments are to talk with Him as with a friend by praying everywhere, with silent petitions ascending to heaven on the steamboat, in the railroad car, among the multitude, or wherever they are. His ear is ever open to hear the cry of His needy saints, for human necessity is God's opportunity. Moses freely poured out his burdens and supplications and cast himself and all his burdens fully upon God, and God listened without reproving him or reading reproof into his urgency, reading the sincerity and unselfish purpose of his servant's heart. Such intimate communion is man's privilege, giving assurance that God hears prayer and that the divine presence attends His servant.

Moses constantly studied the laws of God's government, meditated on God, listened for His commission, recognized His presence in his surroundings, and knew Him as a personal God. Through that face-to-face speaking the light of righteousness shone into his heart and mind, giving him a deeper sense of God's presence, so that God became his refuge, dwelling place, and home, and he rose above every earthly inducement and trusted himself wholly to God. Moses had learned that to have influence with the people he must first have power with God, and those bearing responsibilities and in responsible positions must first connect with heaven for wisdom, foresight, discernment, and keen perception. That personal experience of knowing God was of more value to Moses as a leader than all his education in Egyptian learning, and the most brilliant intellect, earnest study, and highest eloquence can never be substituted for the wisdom and power of God, the grace of Christ, and the knowledge of God's will. The close intercourse Moses had with God gave a glorious manifestation that made his face shine with heavenly luster so brightly that Israel could not look upon him and he appeared like a bright angel from heaven.

Even so God will honor His people if they honor Him as Moses did and serve Him with a perfect heart, and He does not require His servants to carry their burdens in their own strength. God gives the same kindness, patience, long-suffering, gentleness, and trusting heart given to Moses to those who move forward under Christ's command today. Moses' direct experience of communion with God fitted him to converse with Christ about His coming sufferings. Moses' close communion with God and his honored place among mortals show that God's presence and instruction were known in Israel's time, standing against describing the Hebrew age as merely formal or spiritually dark.