The hidden God (Exodus 33:12-23)
The God of Moses is both intimate and mysterious, known and unknowable.
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Moses has an intimate relationship with God who, in Exodus 33, tells him, “I know you by name” and “My Presence will go with you.” And yet, this intimacy also has boundaries. There is a distance between God and Moses, because God is too good, too mighty, too glorious for anyone, even Moses, to see and to know fully: “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live . . . you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
