1 YHVH said to Moses, "Depart, go up hence, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, 'To your descendants I will give it.'
2 And I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Canaanite, in Aramaic, means one who exists in and for material things. The other names are all tribes of Canaan. Amorite, one of the Canaanite tribes, means mountaineers but it has to do with the generative function. Hittite, another Canaanite tribe, means sundered and symbolized thoughts of opposition. Perizzite means rustic or dweller in the country and stands for lower life forces. Hivite means physical existence and signifies carnal thoughts. Finally, Jebusite means profaned or polluted and signifies thoughts that are opposed to spiritual development. These are all people, and you will remember we said that people symbolize thoughts in the Bible. So, YHVH, or the spiritual consciousness, must drive out all of these lower, carnal and material thoughts.
3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you in the way, for you are a stiff-necked people."
4 When the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned; and no man put on his ornaments.
5 For YHVH had said to Moses, "Say to the people of Israel, 'You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now put off your ornaments from you, that I may know what to do with you.'"
6 Therefore, the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.
7 Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp; and he called it the tent of meeting. And every one who sought YHVH would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.
8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose up, and every man stood at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he had gone into the tent.
9 When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the door of the tent, and YHVH would speak with Moses.
10 And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the door of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, every man at his tent door.
11 Thus, YHVH used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his servant, Joshua (Yeshua), the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tent.
The tabernacle which is the temple of the soul within, must be separated from the rest of the physical body or camp. Moses entered therein to speak with YHVH. The cloudy, meaning mysterious, pillar represents the spirit which cannot be seen by the mortal eyes of the Israelites. Joshua (Yeshua), the one who stayed in the temple, is the Hebrew name for the Messiah. It was changed to the Greek form, Jesus, when the new testament was written in Greek. As some other writers have done, I have changed it to Yeshua in my version, which is another transliteration of the same Hebrew letters. Joshua and Yeshua both mean YHVH is savior. This is the
spiritual consciousness which abides in man only in the temple which he has properly prepared. So, of course, he remains there.
12 Moses said to YHVH, "See, thou sayest to me, 'Bring up this people'; but thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.'
13 Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thy sight, show me now thy ways, that I may know thee and find favor in thy sight. Consider, too, that his nation is thy people."
14 And he said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."
15 And he said to him, "If thy presence will not go with me, do not carry us up from here.
16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in thy sight, I and thy people? Is it not in thy going with us, so that we are distinct, I and thy people, from all other people that are upon the face of the earth?"
17 And YHVH said to Moses, "This very thing that you have spoken I will do; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name."
18 Moses said, "I pray thee, show me thy glory."
19 And he said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name 'YHVH'; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
20 But," he said, "you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live."
21 And YHVH said, "Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand upon the rock;
22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by;
23 then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen."
Enlightened thoughts will always be separate from material, animal and carnal thoughts. As long as we are in the mortal form, many believe it would be deadly for us to come face to face with the power and presence of the gods. To protect him, Moses is sheltered in the cleft of a rock and by the hand of the gods. He cannot see the full manifestation of the divine radiance. But he may see its afterglow, as one sees the sake of a passing ship. Metaphysically, this belief is simply a recognition that the greater the spiritual consciousness manifests in the human mind, the less the animal, material and carnal consciousness and its thoughts can do so. It is possible for them to coexist in human consciousness, but that is not the proposed goal of this book (though I do it all the time).