Exodus 33:20 Study Bible: He said, "You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live."

◄ Exodus 33:20 ►

But He added, "You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live."

But He added
This phrase introduces a direct communication from God, emphasizing the personal and authoritative nature of the message. The use of "He" with a capital letter signifies the divine speaker, God Himself. In the Hebrew text, the verb used here is "וַיֹּאמֶר" (vayomer), which is a common term for "said" or "spoke," indicating a continuation of a conversation. This highlights the relational aspect of God, who engages in dialogue with His people, particularly with Moses, His chosen leader.

You cannot see
The phrase underscores the limitations of human beings in their current state. The Hebrew word for "see" is "רָאָה" (ra'ah), which means to perceive or look upon. This suggests not just a physical seeing but an understanding or experiencing. The inability to see God reflects the vast chasm between the divine holiness and human sinfulness. It serves as a reminder of the reverence and awe due to God, who is beyond human comprehension.

My face
In Hebrew, "פָּנַי" (panai) is used, which translates to "My face." This term is often used metaphorically in the Bible to represent God's presence or His favor. The face of God symbolizes His glory and essence. In the ancient Near Eastern context, seeing the face of a king was a privilege reserved for the most honored subjects. Thus, seeing God's face would imply an encounter with His full glory, which is overwhelming for any mortal.

for no one
This phrase emphasizes the universality of the statement. The Hebrew "כִּי לֹא" (ki lo) translates to "for no," indicating an absolute prohibition. It underscores the fact that this is not a limitation specific to Moses but applies to all humanity. It reflects the consistent biblical theme that God's holiness is unapproachable by sinful man without divine mediation.

can see Me
The repetition of the concept of seeing God reinforces the impossibility of such an encounter. The Hebrew "יִרְאַנִי" (yirani) is a form of the verb "to see," emphasizing the direct object, God Himself. This highlights the directness and intensity of the encounter that is being denied. It serves as a reminder of the need for reverence and the recognition of God's otherness.

and live
The final phrase, "וָחָי" (vachai), meaning "and live," concludes the statement with a stark reality. The implication is that seeing God in His full glory would be fatal to a human being. This reflects the biblical understanding of God's holiness as a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). It serves as a sobering reminder of the need for a mediator, which in the Christian perspective, is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who bridges the gap between God and humanity. This phrase calls believers to a life of holiness and reverence, recognizing the grace that allows them to approach God through Christ.

Persons / Places / Events

1. Moses
The leader of the Israelites, chosen by God to lead His people out of Egypt. In this chapter, Moses is interceding for the Israelites and seeking God's presence.

2. God (Yahweh)
The one true God, who is holy and whose glory is beyond human comprehension. He speaks directly to Moses in this passage.

3. Mount Sinai
The mountain where Moses meets with God and receives the Law. It is a place of divine revelation and covenant.

4. The Tent of Meeting
A temporary place where Moses would meet with God before the construction of the Tabernacle. It symbolizes God's presence among His people.

5. The Israelites
The chosen people of God, who are on their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. They are the recipients of God's covenant and law.

Teaching Points

The Holiness of God
God's holiness is so profound that no sinful human can see His face and live. This calls us to reverence and awe in our relationship with Him.

The Mediator Role of Moses
Moses acts as a mediator between God and the Israelites, foreshadowing Christ's ultimate mediation for humanity.

The Desire for God's Presence
Moses' request to see God's glory reflects a deep desire for intimacy with God, which should inspire our own pursuit of His presence.

The Limitations of Human Understanding
Our finite nature limits our ability to fully comprehend God's glory, reminding us to trust in His revelation through Scripture and Christ.

The Promise of Future Revelation
While we cannot see God's face now, there is a promise of seeing Him in eternity, encouraging us to live in hope and faith.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does the concept of God's holiness in Exodus 33:20 challenge your understanding of His character and your approach to worship?

2. In what ways does Moses' role as a mediator in this passage point to the work of Jesus Christ as our ultimate mediator?

3. Reflect on a time when you have experienced a deep desire for God's presence. How can you cultivate that desire in your daily life?

4. Considering the limitations of human understanding, how can you grow in trusting God's revelation through Scripture and His Son?

5. How does the promise of seeing God's face in eternity (Revelation 22:4) impact your current walk with God and your hope for the future?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Genesis 32:30
Jacob names the place Peniel, saying he saw God face to face, yet his life was spared. This highlights the mystery and grace of God's presence.

John 1:18
No one has seen God, but Jesus, the Son, has made Him known. This connects to the revelation of God through Christ.

1 Timothy 6:16
God dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see, emphasizing His holiness and transcendence.

Revelation 22:4
In the New Jerusalem, God's servants will see His face, pointing to the ultimate fulfillment of God's presence with His people.

Sermons

The Restoration to Divine Favour Completed	D. Young	Exodus 33:1-23
Intercession and its Reward	J. Urquhart	Exodus 33:12-23
Shew Me Thy Glory	J. Orr	Exodus 33:18-23
God's Glory Must be Veiled from Human Sight	J. Cumming, D. D.	Exodus 33:20-23
The Believer's Standing Place	A. T. Pierson, D. D.	Exodus 33:20-23
The Place by God, or the Right Standpoint	Gavin Kirkham.	Exodus 33:20-23
The Standpoint of the Cross	T. L. Cuyler.	Exodus 33:20-23

People

Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Hivite, Hivites, Isaac, Jacob, Jebusites, Joshua, Moses, Nun, Perizzites

Places

Mount Horeb, Sinai

Topics

Canst, Face, Possible, Unable

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Exodus 33:20

     1145   God, transcendent
     1225   God, as Spirit
     1441   revelation, necessity
     5150   face

Exodus 33:12-23

8112 certainty

Exodus 33:18-20

1045 God, glory of
8605 prayer, and God's will

Exodus 33:18-23

1193 glory, revelation of

Exodus 33:19-23

8470 respect, for God

Exodus 33:20-23

1255 face of God
8474 seeing God

Library

The Mediator's Threefold Prayer
'And Moses said unto the Lord, See, Thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and Thou hast not let me know whom Thou wilt send with me. Yet Thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in My sight. 13. Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee, that I may find grace in Thy sight: and consider that this nation is Thy people. 14. And He said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. 15. And he …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

June the Seventeenth the Invisible Presence
"Show me Thy glory." --EXODUS xxxiii. 12-23. Moses wist not what he asked. His speech was beyond his knowledge. The answer to his request would have consumed him. He asked for the blazing noon when as yet he could only bear the quiet shining of the dawn. The good Lord lets in the light as our eyes are able to bear it. The revelation is tempered to our growth. The pilgrim could bear a brightness in Beulah land that he could not have borne at the wicket-gate; and the brilliance of the entry into …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Election no Discouragement to Seeking Souls
However, whether we all of us agree to the doctrine that God is sovereign or not, is a very little matter to him, for he is so. De jure, by right, he should be so; de facto, as matter of fact, he is so. It is a fact, concerning which you have only to open your eyes and see that God acts as a sovereign in the dispensation of his grace. Our Saviour, when he wished to quote instances of this, spake on this wise: many widows there were in Israel in the time of Elias the prophet, but unto none of these …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 10: 1864

A view of God's Glory
THAT WAS A large request to make. He could not have asked for more: "I beseech thee, show me thy glory." Why, it is the greatest petition that man ever asked of God. It seems to me the greatest stretch of faith that I have either heard or read of. It was great faith which made Abraham go into the plain to offer up intercession for a guilty city like Sodom. It was vast faith which enabled Jacob to grasp the angel; it was mighty faith which enabled Elijah to rend the heavens and fetch down rain from …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 54: 1908

Of the Way to Attain Divine Union
Of the way to attain Divine Union It is impossible to attain Divine Union solely by the activity of meditation, or by the meltings of the affections, or even by the highest degree of luminous and distinctly-comprehended prayer. There are many reasons for this, the chief of which are as follow:-- First, According to Scripture "no man shall see God and live" (Exod. xxxiii. 20). Now all the exercises of discursive prayer, and even of active contemplation, while esteemed as the summit and end of the …
Madame Guyon—A Short and Easy Method of Prayer

After the Preceding Ways, There Remains an after Way, Preparatory to Divine Union, in which Wisdom and Justice Make the Passive Purification of the Soul, All
It is impossible to attain divine union by the way of meditation alone, or even by the affections, or by any luminous or understood prayer. There are several reasons. These are the principal. First, according to Scripture, "No man shall see God and live" (Exod. xxxiii. 20). Now all discursive exercises of prayer, or even of active contemplation, regarded as an end, and not as a preparation for the passive, are exercises of life by which we cannot see God, that is, become united to Him. All that …
Jeanne Marie Bouvières—A Short Method Of Prayer And Spiritual Torrents

Let us Now Examine the Conditions under which a Revelation May be Expected To...
2. Let us now examine the conditions under which a revelation may be expected to be given to the original recipients. It may be observed in the first place that a revelation must possess some distinctive character. Even, if it should turn out that there is no such thing in reality at all, at least the notion which we form in our minds must possess such points of difference as to distinguish it from all other notions. It appears needful to bear this in mind, obvious though it is, because there …
Samuel John Jerram—Thoughts on a Revelation

Whence Also the Just of Old, Before the Incarnation of the Word...
18. Whence also the just of old, before the Incarnation of the Word, in this faith of Christ, and in this true righteousness, (which thing Christ is unto us,) were justified; believing this to come which we believe come: and they themselves by grace were saved through faith, not of themselves, but by the gift of God, not of works, lest haply they should be lifted up. [2679] For their good works did not come before God's mercy, but followed it. For to them was it said, and by them written, long ere …
St. Augustine—On Patience

Ninteenth Lesson. I Go unto the Father!'
I go unto the Father!' Or, Power for Praying and Working. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name, that will I do.'--John xiv. 12, 13. AS the Saviour opened His public ministry with His disciples by the Sermon on the Mount, so He closes it by the Parting Address preserved to us by John. In both He speaks more than once of prayer. …
Andrew Murray—With Christ in the School of Prayer

The Blessed Privilege of Seeing God Explained
They shall see God. Matthew 5:8 These words are linked to the former and they are a great incentive to heart-purity. The pure heart shall see the pure God. There is a double sight which the saints have of God. 1 In this life; that is, spiritually by the eye of faith. Faith sees God's glorious attributes in the glass of his Word. Faith beholds him showing forth himself through the lattice of his ordinances. Thus Moses saw him who was invisible (Hebrews 11:27). Believers see God's glory as it were …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Moses the Type of Christ.
"The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him ye shall hearken."--Deut. xviii. 15. The history of Moses is valuable to Christians, not only as giving us a pattern of fidelity towards God, of great firmness, and great meekness, but also as affording us a type or figure of our Saviour Christ. No prophet arose in Israel like Moses, till Christ came, when the promise in the text was fulfilled--"The Lord thy God," says Moses, "shall …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

The Wonderful.
Isaiah ix:6. HIS name shall be called "Wonderful" (Isaiah ix:6). And long before Isaiah had uttered this divine prediction the angel of the Lord had announced his name to be Wonderful. As such He appeared to Manoah. And Manoah said unto the angel of Jehovah, What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass we may do thee honor. And the angel of Jehovah said unto Him "why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is Wonderful" (margin, Judges xiii:17-18). This angel of Jehovah, the Person who …
Arno Gaebelein—The Lord of Glory

Appendix viii. Rabbinic Traditions About Elijah, the Forerunner of the Messiah
To complete the evidence, presented in the text, as to the essential difference between the teaching of the ancient Synagogue about the Forerunner of the Messiah' and the history and mission of John the Baptist, as described in the New Testaments, we subjoin a full, though condensed, account of the earlier Rabbinic traditions about Elijah. Opinions differ as to the descent and birthplace of Elijah. According to some, he was from the land of Gilead (Bemid. R. 14), and of the tribe of Gad (Tanch. on …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Epistle xxviii. To Augustine, Bishop of the Angli .
To Augustine, Bishop of the Angli [136] . Gregory to Augustine, &c. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will (Luke ii. 14); because a grain of wheat, falling into the earth, has died, that it might not reign in heaven alone; even He by whose death we live, by whose weakness we are made strong, by whose suffering we are rescued from suffering, through whose love we seek in Britain for brethren whom we knew not, by whose gift we find those whom without knowing them we sought. …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

The Personality of Power.
A Personally Conducted Journey. Everyone enjoys the pleasure of travel; but nearly all shrink back from its tiresomeness and drudgery. The transportation companies are constantly scheming to overcome this disagreeable side for both pleasure and business travel. One of the popular ways of pleasure travel of late is by means of personally conducted tours. A party is formed, often by the railroad company, and is accompanied by a special agent to attend to all the business matters of the trip. A variation …
S.D. Gordon—Quiet Talks on Power

An Exposition on the First Ten Chapters of Genesis, and Part of the Eleventh
An unfinished commentary on the Bible, found among the author's papers after his death, in his own handwriting; and published in 1691, by Charles Doe, in a folio volume of the works of John Bunyan. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR Being in company with an enlightened society of Protestant dissenters of the Baptist denomination, I observed to a doctor of divinity, who was advancing towards his seventieth year, that my time had been delightfully engaged with John Bunyan's commentary on Genesis. "What," …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

The Great Commission Given.
(Time and Place Same as Last Section.) ^A Matt. XXVIII. 18-20; ^B Mark XVI. 15-18; ^C Luke XXIV. 46, 47. ^a 18 And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. ^b 15 And he said unto them, Go ye ^a therefore, ^b into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. ^a and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: 20 teaching them to observe all things …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Covenanting a Privilege of Believers.
Whatever attainment is made by any as distinguished from the wicked, or whatever gracious benefit is enjoyed, is a spiritual privilege. Adoption into the family of God is of this character. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power (margin, or, the right; or, privilege) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."[617] And every co-ordinate benefit is essentially so likewise. The evidence besides, that Covenanting …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Winsome Jesus.
The Face of Jesus: Jesus drew crowds, men, women, children, bad people, enemies--His personality--face--impress of experiences--the glory of God in that face, 2 Corinthians 4:6. Hebrews 1:3. The Music of God in the Voice of Jesus: the eye--Jesus' eyes, Luke 4:16-30. John 8:59. 10:31. 7:32, 45, 46. 18:6. Mark 10:32. 9:36. 10:13-16. Luke 19:48.--His voice, Matthew 26:30. personal touch, Matthew 8:3, 15. 9:29. 17:7. 20:34. Mark 1:41. 7:33. Luke 5:13. 22:51. (John 14:16-20). His presence irresistible. …
S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks about Jesus

The Angel of the Lord in the Pentateuch, and the Book of Joshua.
The New Testament distinguishes between the hidden God and the revealed God--the Son or Logos--who is connected with the former by oneness of nature, and who from everlasting, and even at the creation itself, filled up the immeasurable distance between the Creator and the creation;--who has been the Mediator in all God's relations to the world;--who at all times, and even before He became man in Christ, has been the light of [Pg 116] the world,--and to whom, specially, was committed the direction …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Jesus Calls Four Fishermen to Follow Him.
(Sea of Galilee, Near Capernaum.) ^A Matt. IV. 18-22; ^B Mark I. 16-20; ^C Luke V. 1-11. ^a 18 And walking ^b 16 And passing along by the sea of Galilee [This lake is a pear-shaped body of water, about twelve and a half miles long and about seven miles across at its widest place. It is 682 feet below sea level; its waters are fresh, clear and abounding in fish, and it is surrounded by hills and mountains, which rise from 600 to 1,000 feet above it. Its greatest depth is about 165 feet], he [Jesus] …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Mercy of God
The next attribute is God's goodness or mercy. Mercy is the result and effect of God's goodness. Psa 33:5. So then this is the next attribute, God's goodness or mercy. The most learned of the heathens thought they gave their god Jupiter two golden characters when they styled him good and great. Both these meet in God, goodness and greatness, majesty and mercy. God is essentially good in himself and relatively good to us. They are both put together in Psa 119:98. Thou art good, and doest good.' This …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

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