Commentaria in Exodum
THOU COMMANDEST ME TO LEAD FORTH THIS PEOPLE, AND THOU DOST NOT LET ME KNOW WHOM THOU WILT SEND WITH ME.—The Lord had said to Moses: “My angel shall go before thee,” but had not designated any certain one. But Moses, not content with the leadership and company of an angel, wished that God himself should accompany them, and be leader of the camp: this Moses here asks modestly, and therefore ambiguously and in general terms, saying: “Thou dost not let me know whom thou wilt send”; and, as his speech and spirit grow together, he explains it more clearly with freedom when he adds in verse 13: “Shew me thy face,” as if to say: Send that with us, let thy face lead us and go before the journey. Rupert and Lipomanus think that Moses asks that God send Christ: for this is he who is to be sent. But this is not literal.
ESPECIALLY WHEREAS THOU HAST SAID: I KNOW THEE BY NAME.—The Septuagint: I know thee above all, as if to say: Above all I have chosen and love thee, and thou pleasest me.
13. SHOW ME THY FACE.—Hebrew: show me thy way, that is, that thou thyself and thy face mayest lead and show the way for us: for this is thy life. Whence the Septuagint render, show me thyself manifestly, or knowably. Wherefore Eugubinus wrongly here carps at the Septuagint and our Interpreter. Hence it is plain that Moses did not here ask the vision of God, or of the divine essence, as St. Augustine seems to will, epist. 112, and book 2 On the Trinity, chap. 16, and St. Gregory, book 18 of the Morals, chap. 36, and St. Thomas on 2 Cor. 12; for a little after Moses will ask a clearer vision of God, which God will deny him, while he assents to these his former petitions.
14. AND THE LORD SAID: MY FACE SHALL GO BEFORE THEE,—that is, I myself will go before thee; for this Moses had asked in verse 13, namely that not an angel, but God himself should be present and go before the camp of the Hebrews. This God here grants to Moses, whence the Chaldee renders, my majesty shall go before thee.
Foreign, therefore, to the mind of Scripture is the exposition of Rupert and Abulensis, who by face understand some principal angel, who may be called the angel of the faces, because he stands nearest to God.
God uses the name of face; for he does not say I, but “my face shall go before thee.” First, because this is a manner of speech taken from princes, who know not all their citizens but only a few, whom they admit to inner familiarity, and who are wont to be in favour with them; because, as St. Gregory says, book 18 of the Morals, chap. 2, by the face is designated knowledge and familiarity, as if to say: I with my face will go before thee familiarly and continually through all hard places, and the way, however pathless it seem, will I show easy and open. Secondly, because by the name of face the regard of grace is designated, by which thou wast seeking and seeking again for the Hebrews, although I had tacitly granted the same before, namely that I should glorify you by signs and miracles in the sight of all nations, and that from now on you should not depart from this place save with me as leader, director and protector, but through an angel, to whom I commit my place.
Morally, let princes and Prelates, and each of the faithful, learn here how in all things they ought to ask the leadership and direction of God, as Moses does here: for so all things will succeed prosperously for them, and the people would be happily brought into the promised land. Here, then, God grants Moses what he had asked, and so shows himself here wholly reconciled to the people, and grants his former presence for illustrious victories, and for performing magnificent, miraculous and divine works for the Hebrews; but this God provided not immediately by himself, but by the angel presiding over the pillar, the leader of the army of the Hebrews, to whom he delegated his place, and whom he so furnished with his power and authority that it is said and seen to be not an angel but God that goes before the camp ; for this alone Moses asked, and this he obtained.
AND I WILL GIVE THEE REST,—that, leaning on my presence, signs and miracles in the midst of enemies, thou mayest rest secure in my help, and at length come as a conqueror to the promised land and possess it in peace.
15. AND HE SAID: IF THOU DOST NOT THYSELF GO BEFORE, BRING US NOT OUT OF THIS PLACE.—For “if thou dost not thyself go before,” the Hebrew, the Chaldee and the Septuagint have: If thy face go not before; whence it is plain that Moses here asked nothing else than the confirmation of what the Lord had already granted; but explains it more fully and urgently, both because, enticed by the divine conversation, he desired to enjoy it the longer, on which see St. Ambrose, book 3, epist. 11 to Irenaeus, who discourses piously and beautifully; and because the vehemence of his desire for the people’s salvation urged him to it: for Moses feared lest in some way the Lord, again provoked, should deny and recall what he had promised: whence in the next chapter, verse 9, he asks the same again; and finally because Moses was labouring with another petition in verse 18, and to prepare the way for it he dwells the longer on this.
16. FOR HOW SHALL WE BE ABLE TO KNOW THAT WE HAVE FOUND GRACE IN THY SIGHT, UNLESS THOU WALK WITH US?—The Chaldee renders: By what shall we know that we have found grace before thee, unless thy majesty walk with us, that miracles be done for us, and we be divided from every people of the earth? Thou seest here that Moses by “the face of God” asked nothing else than illustrious miracles and works of God: whence there follows, THAT WE MAY BE GLORIFIED FROM ALL PEOPLES.—The Hebrew word can be rendered in three ways: first, that we may be glorified; secondly, that we may be divided; thirdly, that we may be made wonderful: whence the Chaldee aptly and beautifully renders, that miracles be done for us; for to this end Moses asked not an angel, but God himself as leader of the way: and God granted it to him by giving him an angel who should bear and exercise not the name, person and power of an angel, but of God.
17. AND THIS WORD ALSO WHICH THOU HAST SPOKEN I WILL DO,—as if to say: More expressly here I confirm what more expressly
David prays, Psalm 118:133: “Direct my steps according to thy word”; and Psalm 24:4: “Shew, O Lord, thy ways to me, and teach me thy paths”; whence 1 Kings 18:14 it is said of him: “In all his ways David behaved wisely, and the Lord was with him.” When Saul persecuted him he composed many psalms, in which he asks to be protected and directed by God; and so he escaped the hands of Saul, was made king, and most happily subdued the Syrians, Philistines, Ammonites and all his enemies.
So Solomon asks to be directed by God: “Give me, O Lord, wisdom that sitteth by thy throne, for I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid, a weak man,” etc., Wisd. 9:4. The same advises, saying: “In all thy ways think on him (God), and he will direct thy steps,” Prov. 3:6; and chap. 16, verse 9: “The heart of man disposeth his way: but the Lord must direct his steps.”
So King Josaphat, beset by enemies, prays: “As we know not what to do, this only we have left, that we turn our eyes to thee”; and so he obtained from God a signal victory. Let us also, placed in dangers, straits, doubts and perplexities, run back to God with the whole heart, and we shall experience like help, light and direction from God.
For this reason Tobias teaches his son, saying, chap. 4: “Desire of him that he direct thy ways, and let all thy counsels abide in him”; and so the son, doing this, obtained the angel Raphael as guide of the way, Sara as wife, ample wealth and all prosperity; nay, he restored sight to his father.
Hence Cassian also advises us to pray before single actions: “O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me.” Whence the Church prays this very thing at the beginning of each of the canonical Hours; and every morning at Prime prays with David: “And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us: and direct thou the works of our hands over us; yea, the work of our hands do thou direct.” And at Prime, Terce, Sext and None, she recites Psalm 118, in which the Psalmist prays that God would direct our ways in his law.