Exodus 33 – Theme Words
When I really want to stress something important to my children, I repeat it several times, sometimes in different tones or with different emphases. That way I’m sure they will hear me clearly and I’ll get my point across.
God often does the same for us. Many times in a single passage or narrative unit, we will find a lot of words or phrases or ideas repeated. This can often indicate the theme or one of the main points of the passage.
For example, take Exodus 33. There are several prominent words emphasized that clearly pointed to the major thematic points of the passage. One of the most prominent is the word “face.” This is an extremely common Hebrew word, occurring nearly 2300x in the Bible. But sometimes, as here, it can be used in a theologically significant way.
The ESV has translated the word “face” 5x in Exodus 33 (33:11 twice, 16, 20, 23). These are all theologically significant occurrences (perhaps besides “face of the earth” in vs 16). A big part of the message of this text is what it means to see God’s “face.” However, there are several other times the same word occurs in the Hebrew text, though it is not translated “face” in English. The phrase “before you” in English translates the literal Hebrew phrase, “before your face.” We find this in 33:2 and 19 (2x), all of which have significant theological play with this main theme. In 33:2, God tells Moses that He will send an angel “before your face” instead of God Himself leading them. In 33:19, twice God says His goodness with pass before Moses’ face.
But that’s not all. The word translated “presence” in 33:14-15 also comes from the Hebrew word for “face.” Literally, God tells Moses His “face” will not lead the Israelites. This is in accord with the angel leading the people from vs 2. So overall, the word “face” occurs 10x in just Exodus 33, most of which have significance for the theology of the Lord’s presence/face in the passage.
But there is a word that is used even more often in this text. In fact, it is used 11x in just four short verses! In 33:7-11, the word “tent” appears just shy of a dozen times. Interestingly enough, this tent is the location where Moses speaks with God “face to face.” Both of these themes tie together. (There are some scholars who think 33:7-11 is displaced or added in here after the fact. Rather, it seems to fit well with the theme of the overall context, even if it may be dischronological.)
Several other words occur frequently or in high densities that point towards the passage’s theme or message. In 33:12-17, the verb “to know” appears 6x (33:12 twice, 13 twice, 16-17). Verse 13 is illustrative of how this is used: “Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too, that this nation is Your people” (NASB). Moses desires to “know” God, which will only happen by “knowing” the ways of God. God’s actions flow from His character, so to study what He does is a means of knowing Him better. Moses is concerned with truly “knowing” that God will do what He says He will do (33:16).
Finally, in this same paragraph (33:12-17), it would be hard to miss the phrase “found favor in your/my sight” (5x – in 33:12, 13 twice, 16-17). This also intricately connects with the other themes. Moses finding favor in God’s sight is part of how he petitions God not to remove His presence/tent from Israel. When we also recognize that the word is the same root as the word “gracious” in 33:19 (see also 34:6), the theme becomes even more significantly tied to the character of God.
This discussion is not to say that the mere repetition of a word proves it is the theme of a passage (the word “the” appears a whole lot more than the word “face,” but “the” is not the point of the passage, is it?!). But when a word appears several times in significant ways, and especially when it is tied to the narrative flow and story, it is a clue that we are looking at one of the main points of the chapter.
So keep a close eye out on repetition and reused vocabulary. It’s not that the authors of Scripture were too lazy to vary their words. It’s that they purposefully reuse the same word in order to draw the reader along as a literary technique.
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