Consequences Delivered

Reading:   Exodus 33

The people of Israel had angered God greatly and His wrath was such that even Moses, who had been in the presence of God on several occasions, could not look upon Him and live.  After cleaning house, having the Levites execute judgement upon 3,000 men (yes, to the death of each), Moses returned to The Lord...

EXODUS 33:20

20    And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. 

Now that is the King James Version of the text (KJV) and yet there is so much more as translated by Joseph Smith (JST)...

20    And he said unto Moses, Thou canst not see my face at this time, lest mine anger be kindled against thee also, and I destroy thee, and thy people; for there shall no man among them see me at this time, and live, for they are exceeding sinful. And no sinful man hath at any time, neither shall there be any sinful man at any time, that shall see my face and live.  

Now I'm not sure as to why Moses was unable to see God's face, the sin, as we know it, was performed by the evil part of the Israelites, not Moses.  So either, Moses was at fault for his reaction to the people, his judgement and harsh dealing with them (which I don't believe is the case because The Lord commanded him to deal with his people or He would), or Moses was at fault for some unknown sin we are not privy to.  The only other explanation could be that Moses had not committed any sin but that the wrath of God was so intense that Moses could not physically handle the change in God without suffering mortal death.

Needless-to-say, Moses was being taught a great lesson here; a lesson about the importance of discipline and following through with promised consequences.  Could Moses have talked with his people sternly and made a decent showing of wrath, sure he could; but, having dealt continually with the naysayers among the people since leaving Egypt, it was time to make a greater statement.  The commandment was simple, if you worship idols you will be put to death, Moses had to literally execute the judgement portion of the commandment or all the commandments would be deemed as good advice versus serious laws with serious consequences.  I'm sure it was difficult for Moses to give the command to kill but it had to be done.  Moses learned a valuable lesson and the Israelites learned a very hard truth - God will not be mocked!

~Kipling