The Cleft of the Rock

“Moses said, ‘Please show me your glory.’ And he said, ‘I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,’ he said, ‘you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.’ And the LORD said, ‘behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.'” – Exodus 33:18-23

Preceding the passage quoted above Moses had come down from meeting with the Lord on Mt. Sinai to find that the Israelites had made a golden calf to worship, forsaking Yahweh, who had brought them up out of Egypt. Moses of course throws down the tablets of stone, containing the ten commandments, many of the people are put to death, and a plague comes on the people. Moses then sets up a tent outside the camp of Israel where he meets with God. During this time, Moses begins to intercede for the Israelites, imploring Yahweh to have mercy upon them, and to not let his presence leave them. Moses, then, in seeking to find favor with Yahweh, makes the bold request we find in Exodus 33:18, “Please show me your glory.”

There is much we could glean from this passage, but for our purposes in this post, we will observe three guiding thoughts, 1) Moses’ Desire, 2) Moses’ Problem, and 3) God’s Solution.

Moses’ Desire

As we have mentioned, the first thought we will consider is Moses’ desire. His desire was to see the glory of the Lord. Moses’ is wanting to know more of who God is, so that he knows better how to find favor with him. In one sense this is a rather bold request from creature to Creator. In John Calvin’s commentary he sees this as an inappropriate question from Moses. He says that men ought to be content with the amount of revelation that has been given to them, and ought not to seek after something more. I very much empathize with that view, and do agree with it in certain respects. It really is a daring and outrageous thing to ask of Yahweh!

However, I will not totally scold Moses for voicing such a desire. In some ways, Moses shows us a good principle. Moses had gotten tastes of who God is, and he wanted more. It is true that once you taste and see that the Lord is good, you will only want more and more of him. In that respect this ought to be the passion and desire of our lives. This ought to be the drumbeat of our prayers. If you do not desire to know more and more of the Lord, you must seriously examine yourself to see whether you are a true Christian or not. We of course ought not to seek special revelations or experiences from God; but we ought to seek him diligently and fervently in His Word, where he meets us and reveals himself to us today. Is this a mark of your private worship – a zealous desire to know more of God?

It is clear though, that however noble the intentions of Moses’ desire, he showed that he did not realize what he was asking for.

Moses’ Problem

In verse 19 God does respond by telling Moses that he will allow his goodness to pass my and declare his name: Yahweh. And he assures Moses that he will be merciful and gracious to whom he will. But it’s not all roses for Moses. In verse 20, Yahweh says, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” In others words, God responds by saying, “Sure Moses, I will show you my glory, but you will not live if you see me.” Moses has a problem.

Why is it that man cannot see God and live? The answer to this involves two sides of the same coin. Side A: God is holy. Side B: Man is sinful. The holiness of God is foremost attribute to who he is. It is the song that we will sing on repeat throughout eternity. He is thrice holy: holy, holy, holy! It is beyond all that we can imagine Yahweh’s beautific perfections to encompass. It is totally other. It is totally set apart-ness. God is not like us. He is holy.

And man is sinful. Sin is the rebellion and rejection of holiness. It is treason and mockery of God himself. It is the the most vile and wretched offense creatures commit against their creator. It deserves the worst of all eternal torments and punishments to the worst degree. But God will not be mocked. Sin is a weak attempt to overthrow the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He crushes sin and sinners with his pinkie.

Thus we have Moses’ problem and our problem: sinners cannot stand in the presence of a holy God and live.

God’s Solution

In verse 21-23 we see God’s solution to Moses’ problem. God provides a covering in the cleft of the rock in which Moses will be put into, to be shielded with. I will paraphrase here, but in his classic book, The Holiness of God, R. C. Sproul makes the observation that when Uzzah reaches out to catch the Ark of the Covenant as it is about to fall to the ground (and then Uzzah is put to death for doing so), he does so because he made the false assumption that his hands were more clean than the dirt. That idea helped me see a similar theme here: a rock is more fit to stand before a holy God than the best of men, because the best of men are wretched and vile sinners at best. This ought to help us see the contrast between God’s holiness and our sin. Rocks are more worthy than we.

But what about us? How will we stand before a holy God on judgement day?

The cleft of the rock points to something greater. It is but a shadow of the covering that would be to come. Jesus Christ is the ultimate cleft in the rock for sinners to find shelter. Only by hiding in Jesus Christ, being covered by him can a sinner stand before a holy God and not die.

There are two ways Jesus becomes a cleft for sinners to hide. 1) By wiping our sins clean. On the cross, Christ absorbed God’s wrath toward us and our sin. He took the punishment and the penalty for sin. He died as a full and final sacrifice for sin. This is our great problem, that we are sinners. And in the cross, by substituting himself in the punishment place of sinners, Jesus takes care of this problem. 2) Not only does Christ forgive us and wash us clean, but he covers us in his robes of perfect righteousness, a requirement to stand before God. When sinners come to Christ, they do not come for a new start, they come for “it is finished.” Jesus doesn’t wipe our record clean and give us a second chance. No, he washes us clean, and then give to us the gift of his righteousness. So when we stand before us, God does not see a sinner that he must wipe out, but he sees his Son – as we stand there in his clothes. Jesus Christ is the truer and better cleft of the rock, in whom sinners find covering before God.

Are you hiding yourself in Jesus Christ? Or do you dare go before God on your own merits? The Bible says that our righteous deeds are as filthy rags. You must be covered by Christ, or you will not see God and live, and you will face the second death – eternal torment in hell.

I think of the old hymn, Rock of Ages , which says in one line,

Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me, Let me hid myself in Thee.

Final Thoughts

If you noticed in the passage from Exodus 33, God not only hid Moses in the cleft of the rock, but also covered him with his hand. This shows us that the physical rock was insufficient. It was only a shadow of Christ who was to come, not the substance of Christ. While rocks are more pure than sinners, rocks cannot and will not save us. God’s covering of Moses with his hand shows us that it takes God himself to save sinners. Thus God had to come to us in Jesus Christ. Thus the necessity and exclusivity of Jesus Christ. Rocks will not save, only the Rock of Ages saves.

When Christ returns sinners will call on rocks to fall on them and crush them, but they will not. Rocks do not respond to sinners. If you neglect the Rock of Ages, the cornerstone, Jesus Christ, the Rock of our Salvation, there will be no other rock to save you. Come to him today.