When the Lord spoke to Moses on the mountain, they were alone. Moses had sent his flocks and herds away at God's command, and he stood there with God and no other. The Lord passed by in front of Moses, and Moses made haste to move; he made haste to bow low and worship. God had his full attention. It was a father to son moment, full of commands and promises, and Moses was listening.
Question: When the parent has the full attention of their fearful child, what words do they use? I think it's interesting that God used a loving parent-word here. God said to his son, "You might...".
He commanded Moses to tear down the altars of the false gods that those in the new land were worshiping, to make no covenant with them, and to worship only Jealous God. Perhaps He was anticipating the "Why?" question of a child when He used the word might, but He used it just the same. He said, "Otherwise, you might make a covenant; you might be invited to eat food sacrificed to idols, you might take their children for your sons and daughters, and you might play the harlot with their gods". It's like the parent who says, "I'm not accusing you on the front end; I'm just saying "you might"".
Parents understand about temptation because they've also been tempted, right? But wasn't this a different kind of parent-child conversation? This parent was God Almighty, and He has never been tempted by evil, and He Himself tempts no one. And this Father also knew that their "might" would become a "certainly". So why would God speak like this? Why would He allow the grace of possibility when He knew that sin would be the outcome?
I went back to the first words out of God's mouth in this "glory-shining" chapter to find the answer. Before God used the might word, He defined His character, with words like: compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands; who forgives. These words would be repeated by Moses upon Israel's choosing the words of 10 faithless men over the words of the 2 faithful ones who spied out the land of promise. And again, as Moses recounted the mercies of God to the nation of Israel before he was taken in death. Moses would learn, as he journeyed on through the wilderness with hundreds of thousands of people who would fall hard into sin, that God didn't have to use the might word, but He did anyway.
God would be jealous for His people when they went after other gods, and He would by no means leave the guilty without punishment. But in the punishment, there would also be compassion and grace, and I think Moses bowed low to the earth because of those words. In fact, Moses would learn, at the end of his life, that he too would fall hard, and not even be allowed to enter the land God spoke of. But instead of leaving that mountain with the shame of the "might's", Moses left with a face that shone with the grace that would cover. He left with glory that day, and he left with forgiveness for all the "might's" that would certainly come.
