The Danger of Being Undistinguished (Ex. 33-34)

We live in a world that wants to be distinguished, noticed, or elevated in some way from everyone else for varying motivations, but in Exodus 33:16, Moses wanted the people he accompanied in the wilderness to be distinguished from all of the other people on the face of the earth because a very real danger existed. If God in His anger over their actions did not choose to go with them, Moses knew that they would become the target of other nations. Without God’s tender favor and the mercy He has already shown them in removing them safely from Egypt, they have no hope. 

It is the word distinguished that has caught my eye this morning. Just a few verses before, Moses pleads with God to know Him more intimately after God declares He will not make the journey in their midst anymore because of their “stiff-necked (stubborn, rebellious)” behavior out of the very real probability that if He stays in their presence He “might destroy [them] on the way” (Ex. 33:3, AMP). God is not abandoning them or leaving them defenseless, as He has promised to send an Angel before them and to drive out the foreign nations in the Promised Land (v. 2), but He is announcing His intent to distance Himself from the nation as a whole for their own safety. 

But Moses, being the intercessor, appeals to God to reconsider.

First, he reminds God of the favor He has already bestowed upon him (v. 12). Then he draws on that favor to ask to know God more deeply and intimately in order to understand His ways more clearly and to find favor AND grace in God’s sight. He also slides in the reminder that God consider “that this nation is Your people” (v. 13). God graciously and compassionately agrees to go with Moses, but Moses (being cautious) begs God not to lead them anywhere He won’t go with him because of the danger of being undistinguished from all the other people. 

The danger of being undistinguished is real today too. Humankind is living in the wilderness of a world where the devil runs free, a world full of distracting sin and idolatry of the sort that repulses God. We, just like the children of Israel, are drawn by the things of the world and fix our eyes on its pleasures and cares rather than on the compassionate God who has given us a way out of Egypt and is willing to walk with us through the wilderness and deliver us to rest in the Promised Land. 

Often when I notice a word, I look it up in my favorite dictionary, Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, even if I know what it means. I often discover hidden truths about a word or its origins that lend depth to a passage and lead me to do more exploration about it so that I can get more out of it. I want the Word to speak clearly to me, so I dig to understand, and although I don't compare myself in any way to him, I want what Moses wanted: I want to know God’s ways to become more intimately acquainted with Him and be able to recognize His ways more clearly and find grace and favor in His sight. 

So here is what I discovered today about the word distinguished as used in this passage, based on Webster’s insights from 1828: the word distinguish (the way we understand it now) comes from Latin/Greek and in its primary sense means “to prick, to pierce with a sharp point, to thrust in or on; we retain the precise word in the verb, to stick, which see.” The definition continues by showing the applications in that time that had arisen of making marks by puncturing or sticking to note or ascertain different things, thus distinguishing one person’s work from another’s. The external mark indicates a difference (think a branding of sheep or cows or cloth or leather—a brand or maker’s mark) and separates one thing from something else. This distinguishing is dependent upon the senses, and it is in this I found what I was looking for today.

Webster’s 1828 lists these senses in the process of clearly defining what it means to distinguish:

1. Sight—it can be clearly seen that there is a difference. I can look at my children and know by 

    sight that they are mine. Webster’s notes this is an ascertaining and indicating difference by 

    an external mark.

My thought: God knows me. I am His. But does the world see that I am set apart, 

marked by the God I serve? Do I lead them to Him by the radiance of my countenance 

        when I speak of Him, when I sit down, rise up, even when I stumble or have hard times?

2. Feeling—even a blind man can touch and feel the difference between an egg and an orange 

    even if he cannot distinguish colors. Webster’s notes this is a separation.

    My thought: if someone truly gets to know me through a relationship with me, will they be able to tell by experience who I belong to? Is there a feeling of difference with me from the one who is consumed by the world around them? A blind man wouldn’t know what an egg or an orange is if no one tells him and allows him to experience what they feel like. Am I leading a lost and dying world to experience Christ?

3.  Smell—Webster’s notes the ease with which one can smell the difference between an apple 

     and a peach. 

    My first thought: Will the experience of being around me lead another to smell the fragrant aroma of Christ within me; do I leave the knowledge of Him wherever I go? (2 Cor. 2:14).

4. Taste—experience as in distinguishing a plum from a pear when I bite into it. 

    My first thought: “Taste and see that the Lord is good. How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him” (Ps. 34:8, NASB). Will being around me make you hungry for a taste of what it is like to be in His presence, to worship Him, to serve Him, to know Him more and more like Moses wanted to know Him?

5. Hearing—as to be able to distinguish the sound of a violin from a drum.

    My first thought: What do you hear when I open my mouth? Is it praises of the God I claim to serve or is it complaints about the life I am leading here in the wilderness of this world or is it clamor? Am I full of the glory of a life well-lived in the waiting for my rest, for my promised land, as I experience fully what it is like to be an alien here?

6. Understanding—“as to distinguish vice from virtue, truth from falsehood.”

    My thought on this “sixth sense” of sorts in this list from Webster is this: How am I contributing to your understanding of this holy, righteous, compassionate, merciful judge to whom I belong and follow and long to spend eternity with? Do I leave you with a bad taste in your mouth after hearing my words, seeing my actions, feeling the wake of an experience with me or do you long to know more of Him?

The reality is that this world is a hard place to walk through without complaining about the hardships and pain or without getting distracted or lost in the wilderness, without losing focus or feeling discouraged or bitter or angry . . . the point, though, is that God walks with those who belong to Him, who want to know Him fully and be known by Him. The LORD replies these words to Moses’ request: “I will also do this thing that you have asked; for you have found favor (lovingkindness, mercy) in My sight and I have known you [personally] by name” (Ex. 33:17, AMP). Moses’ response? “Please show me Your glory, God!” (v. 18).

Immediately Moses wants more of God than just His presence with Him in the wilderness. He wants to experience this God who called Him out, delivered Him, empowered Him, trained Him, and led Him into a frustrating desert and kept him there with a stubborn, stiff-necked people on the way to the Promised Land. Moses wants all of this God he can possibly get, and God lets Him experience Himself in a way none other has, even in the wilderness. Moses doesn’t see God's face, but God shows Him all of His goodness, proclaims His name, demonstrates His graciousness and lovingkindness to Him all while sheltering Him from the fallout of being that close to the holiness and the glory of God (Ex. 33:18-23; 34:5-7).

Moses’ response: he immediately bows to the earth and worships the Lord and asks again that God go with him while acknowledging the future need for pardon of their iniquity and sin (knowing they WOULD sin greatly again before God) and for God to take ownership of them (Ex. 34:9). If God doesn't distinguish us as His children, there is a very real danger in this world in which we live.