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		Yitro   (Ex 18:1 - 20:23)

Shemot/Exodus 20:18   And the people stood at a distance, but Moshe approached the thick darkness where there was G-d.

View whole verse and interlinear translation ...

Israel has just experienced the theophany at Mt. Sinai where The Name ...

HaShem: literally, Hebrew for 'The Name' - an allusion used to avoid pronouncing the Tetragrammaton, the so-called 'ineffable' name of G–d
HaShem appeared - "Mount Sinai was all in smoke, for the L-RD had come down upon it in fire; the smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently" (Shemot 19:18, NJPS) - to His people and declared the Ten Words to them: "Face to face the L-RD spoke to you on the mountain out of the fire" (D'varim 5:4, NJPS). As Nahum Sarna explains, the language Moshe uses to describe the experience "indicates the profound awareness among the assembled throng of the overpowering majesty and mystery of G-d's self-manifestation. It is an experience that cannot be adequately described by the ordinary language of the senses. The encounter with the Holy universally inspires fascination; inevitably and characteristically it also arouses feelings of awe, even terror."

As Moshe will remind the Israelites who are waiting, forty years later, on the plains of Moab to enter the Promised Land, this was a totally unique phenomenon: "Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live?" (4:33, ESV). Moshe reports that the whole people saw - if "to see" is the right verb - HaShem's revelation and words: "All the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the blare of the horn and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they fell back and stood at a distance" (Shemot 20:15, NJPS). But their response wasn't as positive as Moshe would have liked: they all took a step backwards. They retreated from the presence of HaShem and asked Moshe to mediate for them, to relay HaShem's words to them for them to obey, but they begged not to hear directly from HaShem again lest they should die. HaShem agrees and instructs Moshe, "Go, say to them, 'Return to your tents'" (D'varim 5:27, NJPS).

So we arrive at our text. וַיַּעֲמֹד is the Qal 3ms prefix form of the root עָמַד, to stand, with a vav-conversive to signal narrative past tense, followed by its subject, הָעָם, the people, and the qualifier מֵרָחֹק - an adverb derived from the root רָחַק, to be far off, distant, remote - to say where they stood: "and the people stood at a distance." They were remote, far off, unwilling to engage. Who Is ...

Abraham Ibn Ezra: (1089-1167 CE), born in Tudela, Spain; died in the South of France after wandering all around the shores of the Mediterranean and England; a philosopher, astronomer, doctor, poet and linguist; wrote a Hebrew grammar and a commentary on the Bible
Ibn Ezra points out that this phrase is an almost - allowing for word order - exact repetition of the end of verse 15, emphasising the people's fear. The second half of the verse, however, reverses the usual Hebrew word order - verb, subject, object - to underscore the difference between Moshe and the people. As Umberto Cassuto says, "the people remained far from the mountain, in the midst of their camp, but Moshe drew near ... to receive the rest of his teachings."¹

Interestingly, the verb נִגַּשׁ is the Nif'al 3ms affix form of the root נָגַשׁ, rather than the Qal, although both have the same meaning. Invisible in an unpointed text, the Masoretes used the Nif'al pointing to make a subtle point picked up by the Who Is ...

Ba'al HaTurim: Rabbi Yaakov ben Asher (1269-1343 CE), born in Cologne, Germany; lived for 40 years in and around Toledo, Spain; died en route to Israel; his commentary to the Chumash is based upon an abridgement of the Ramban, including Rashi, Rashbam and Ibn Ezra; it includes many references to gematria and textual novelties
Baal HaTurim: "This implies that Moshe was unwilling to take the initiative in approaching G-d. Instead the angels Michael and Gabriel grasped him by his two hands and brought him forward, against his will." Perhaps even Moshe experienced a certain reluctance to enter the thick darkness and directly encounter HaShem. Drawing on "darkness, cloud and thick darkness" (D'varim 4:11) the What Is ...

The Mekhilta: The earliest known halakhic midrash or commentary on (parts of) the book of Exodus; formally named for Rabbi Ishmael and therefore set around 100-135CE, it was redacted some years after his time; quoted many times in the Bavli Talmud as "Rabbi Ishmael taught ..."
Mekhilta suggests that Moshe had to pass through each of those three layers - "on the outside was darkness, inside of it cloud and inside the latter thick darkness" - in order to reach HaShem, matching "Then HaShem said to Moshe, 'I am going to come to you in a thick cloud ...'" (Shemot 19:9).

How are we to understand the difference between Moshe and the people? Thomas Dozeman casts it in a positive light, suggesting that "the separation of Moshe from the people underscores his authority. G-d had predicted that the public experience of theophany would authenticate Moshe to the people of Israel (19:9)."² Other commentators are less sanguine. Walter Brueggemann clearly expresses disappointment - "Moshe is near and Israel is distant. Israel will not again be exposed to the direct presence of G-d"³ - while Leon Kass dryly observes that "we will never again have a clearer demonstration of the difference between Moshe and the people, and it is precisely over the matter of how to relate to G-d. Moshe seeks His presence and prefers His company; the people seek His absence and prefer Moshe's authority. Moshe is satisfied by a relationship with G-d carried on through intelligible speech; the people will require something else."⁴ While Moshe seeks a direct relationship with HaShem, the people appear to desire nothing more than a second-hand experience of the Divine, mediated through Moshe.

But the Israelites at Sinai are not the only ones. Conscious of HaShem's words to Moshe - "You cannot see My face, for man shall not see Me and live" (Shemot 33:20), Isaiah is undone at the start of his "throne room" vision of HaShem: "Woe is me; I am lost! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my own eyes have beheld The King L-RD of Hosts" (Isaiah 6:5, NJPS). In his night vision, Daniel records, "Thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took His seat. His garment was like white snow, and the hair of His head was like lamb's wool. His throne was tongues of flame; its wheels were blazing fire" (Daniel 7:9, NJPS), and reports that "my spirit was disturbed within me and the vision of my mind alarmed me" (v. 15, NJPS), later that he was "very alarmed by my thoughts, and my face darkened; and I could not put the matter out of my mind" (v. 28, NJPS). A direct encounter with the Divine is profoundly disturbing to the human system.

In the Apostolic Writings, the authors maintain that mankind cannot see G-d. Rav Sha'ul tells Timothy that G-d is "the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see" (1 Timothy 6:15-16, ESV). John's first letter is quite blunt - "No one has ever seen G-d" (1 John 4:12) - and in the introduction to his gospel he underlines that by repeating: "No one has ever seen G-d" (John 1:18). In both places, John uses the adverb pw,pote, meaning "ever, at any time" and Craig Keener tells us that "the rest of the fourth gospel continues to maintain the Father's invisibility to the world"⁵ as Yeshua says to the Jewish leaders: "His voice you have never heard, His form you have never seen" (John 5:37, ESV). Now, however, in Yeshua there is a difference as John continues, "the only G-d, who is at the Father's side, He has made him known" (John 1:18, ESV). Keener again: "the specially beloved, incarnate G-d has fully revealed his character, so that the one who has seen Him has seen the Father (John 14:9)."⁶ This is matched by the letter to the Hebrews: "In these last days [G-d] has spoken to us by His Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of G-d and the exact imprint of his nature" (Hebrews 1:2-3, ESV).

At Sinai, the people were afraid, so drew back and distanced themselves from G-d. Messiah Yeshua became like us, taking on human flesh "which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands" (1 John 1:1, ESV) as John wrote. He was no longer at a distance but "G-d with us" (Matthew 1:23). Yeshua "came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near" (Ephesians 2:17, ESV). Whether close or distant, near or far, Jew of Gentile, Yeshua has the word for us: peace with G-d, full and complete reconciliation, forgiveness and relationship, becoming a part of His family. As that Hebrews writers says, "since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Yeshua ... Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 10:19, 4:16, ESV).

Fine words, you may say, but what about me? Rav Sha'ul is clear that we both stand on the same ground: "through Him [that is, Yeshua] we both have access in one Spirit to the Father" (Ephesians 2:18). That is objective fact. The only difference between us is subjective: our attitude, the way we think and feel. That governs what we are prepared to do, whether we feel able to use the access we have been given. Some of us, like Moshe, are seeking G-d's presence, pressing forward to engage with Him; others of us, like the people, are holding back, afraid of what He might do to us or what He might ask of us. The Father longs for relationship with each of us, as His dear children, bought with a price, redeemed and paid for by Yeshua. He has done everything He can - the rest is now down to us. Will you allow the Spirit to draw you into the Father's presence, trusting in Yeshua's love and faithfulness, or will you stay back and refuse His embrace? In this time of darkness will you stay stuck in the cloud, or will you push through into the glory of the kingdom to bask in the glow of His face?

1. - Umberto Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Exodus, (Magnes Press, Jerusalem, 1983), page 253.

2. - Thomas B. Dozeman, Exodus, Eerdmans Critical Commentaries, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmanns, 2009), page 253.

3. - Walter Brueggemann, "Exodus", in The New Interpreter's Bible Commentary Vol I, edited by Leander E. Keck, (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2015), page 419.

4. - Leon R. Kass, Founding G-d's Nation - Reading Exodus (New Have, Yale University Press, 2021), page 336.

5. - Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of John Volume One, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), page 422.

6. - Keener, page 423.

Further Study: John 4:22-24; Romans 5:1-5; Hebrew 10:19-22

Application: How often do you hold back and stand at a distance and so miss out on everything that G-d has to offer us as His children? Today is the day to repent of being aloof or afraid and to run into the arms of the Father, knowing that Yeshua has made way for us to be part of G-d's family and share in the riches and grace of His kingdom. What are you waiting for?

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© Jonathan Allen, 2024

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