Reading for Tuesday, 17th Week in Ordinary Time

From: Exodus 33:7-11; 34:5b-9, 28

The Tent of Meeting
[7] Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp; and he called it the tent of meeting. And every one who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. [8] Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose up, and every man stood at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he had gone into the tent. [9] When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the door of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. [10] And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the door of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, every man at his tent door. [11] Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tent.

[5] (God) stood with him (Moses) there, and (Moses) proclaimed the name of the Lord.

God Appears
[6] The Lord passed before him, and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, [7] keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation." [8] And Moses made haste to bow his head toward the earth, and worshiped. [9] And he said, "If now I have found favor in thy sight, 0 Lord, let the Lord, I pray thee, go in the midst of us, although it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thy inheritance."

The Ritual Decalogue (Continuation)
[28] And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
__________
Commentary:
33:7-11. The tent of meeting, sometimes called the tent of witness, and also the sanctuary, normally means the main tent in the sacred precinct (cf. chaps. 2527). Here, however, it seems to be different firm the sanctuary, because the sanctuary was located in the center of the encampment and was a place of worship, whereas this tent is pitched away from the camp and is used for consultation. This discrepancy may well be due to the fact that this passage belonged to an older tradition than the Priestly one. Whereas the Priestly tradition lays the stress on matters to do with worship, the earlier one would have focused more on social matters.

The sacred writer, through this account, is showing that God continues to be present but at a certain distance, and that only Moses has the privilege of speaking to him "face to face" (cf. 33:20). The people are simply the silent witnesses of the conversations which take place between God and Moses, but God still shows them special favor.

34:1-28. This chapter narrating the renewal of the Covenant follows the same pattern as the account of its original establishment (cf. Ex 19-24); but it is shorter, concentrating on the two main protagonists, God and Moses. Thus, it begins with the preparations for the theophany and for the encounter with the Lord (vv. 1-5); then follows the revelation of God, and Moses' prayer (vv. 6-9); and it ends with the renewal of the Covenant and the so-called Rite of the Covenant (vv.1028). The account hinges on the remaking of the tables of stone after the sin of the golden calf; the tables symbolize God's offer to keep to the pact and never to go back on it.

34:1-5. The theophany is described very soberly here, but it has exactly the same elements as given in chapter 19: very careful preparation by Moses (v 2; cf. 19:10-11.); the people forbidden to approach the mountain (v.3; cf. 19:12-13); God appearing wrapped in the cloud (v. 5; cf. 19:16-20).

Comparing the two accounts, this one says less about the transcendence of God and puts more stress on his closeness to Moses: "he stood with him there" (v. 5). God's initiative in drawing close to man is clear to see; it lies at the very basis of the Covenant.

"He proclaimed the name of the Lord" (v. 6); the context would suggest that it is Moses who proclaims the name of the Lord, but the Hebrew could indeed be as the RSV has it, "and he proclaimed his name, 'Lord' ". The same wording appears in v. 6 implying that it is the Lord who is "proclaiming", defining himself as he promised he would (cf 33:19). The sacred writer may have intentionally left these words open to either interpretation; whether spoken by Moses or said directly by God, they are equal from the revelation point of view.

34:6-7. In response to Moses' pleading, the Lord makes himself manifest The solemn repetition of the name of Yahweh (Lord) emphasizes that the Lord is introducing himself liturgically to the assembled Israelites. In the description of himself which follows (and which is repeated elsewhere, cf 20:5-6; Num 14:18; Deut 5:9-18; etc.), two key attributes of God are underlined--justice and mercy. God cannot let sin go unpunished, nor does he; the prophets, too, will teach that sin is, first and foremost, something personal (cf. Jer 31:29; Ezek I 8:2ff). But this ancient text refers only in a general way to the fact that God is just, and puts more stress on his mercy. A person who is conscious of his own sin has access to God only if he is sure that God can and will forgive him. "The concept of 'mercy' in the Old Testament," John Paul II comments, "has a long and rich history. We have to refer back to it in order that the mercy revealed by Christ may shine forth more clearly. [...] Sin too constitutes man's misery. The people of the Old Covenant experienced this misery from the time of the Exodus, when they set up the golden calf. The Lord himself triumphed over this act of breaking the covenant when he solemnly declared to Moses that he was a 'God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness' (Ex 34:6). It is in this central revelation that the chosen people, and each of its members, will find, every time that they have sinned, the strength and the motive for turning to the Lord to remind him of what he had exactly revealed about himself and to beseech his forgiveness" ("Dives In Misericordia", 4). On "God's jealousy", see the note on 20:5-6.

[The note on 20:5-6 states: "A jealous God": an antropomorphism emphasizing the uniqueness of God. Since he is the only true God, he cannot abide either the worship of other gods (cf. 34:14) or worship of idols. Idolatry is the gravest and most condemned sin in the Bible (cf. "Catechism of the Catholic Church", 2113). Those in charge of worship in the temple are described as being "jealous" for the Lord (cf. Num 25:13; 1 Kings 19:10, 14), because they have to watch to ensure that no deviations occur. When expelling the money-changers from the temple (Jn 2:17), Jesus refers to this aspect of priests' responsibility: "Zeal for thy house has consumed me" (Ps 69:9).

On the Lord's merciful retribution, cf. the note on Ex 34:6-7.]

34:8-9. Moses once more implores the Lord on behalf of his people; he makes three requests, which sum up many earlier petitions: he begs God to stay with the people and protect them in their hazardous journeying in the desert (cf. 33:1517), to forgive the very grave sin they have committed (cf. 32:11-14), and finally to make them his own property, thereby distinguishing them from all other peoples (cf. 33:16) and restoring them to their status as "his own possession" (cf. 19:5). These three requests are ones that were constantly on the lips of the people of Israel and in the hearts of everyone who acknowledges God (cf. Ps 86:1-15; 103: 8-10; etc.).

34:7-8. The conclusion of the Covenant is described as soberly as its introduction (v. 10). On the meaning of the forty days, see the note on 24:12-18.

[The note on 24:12-18 states: ...then Moses stayed on the mountain for forty days, in close contact with the Lord. These periods of time are not meant to be exact but rather to show how intense Moses' relationship with God was; they will be evoked when important events are narrated later: thus, Elijah walked for forty days in search of God (cf. 1 Kings 19:8) and Jesus will spend forty days in the desert before beginning his public life (cf. Mt 4:2).]
___________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.