In the Hebrew Bible, we are sometimes given a beautiful oasis in the harsh desert. Amid the Old Testament’s difficult stuff, amid talk of the vengefulness, wrathfulness, and tribalism of God, we sometimes come across an oasis of good news that is so relatable and real that it can bring one to tears. To begin this morning, I’d like to look at an example of this, looking at the book of Exodus chapter 33. Within the book of Exodus itself we see a dynamic playing out. Again and again in Exodus, Moses and his people experience the all-too-human stuff of the wilderness. But every now and again, Moses, and the people through Moses, experience mountaintop moments where the divine realm is real and all-encompassing. In Exodus 33, we are given an oasis of good news amid the desert, a little snippet of heaven, where God is presented as God really is. But surrounding that oasis is a hard and harsh story. Hardness and harshness makes sense. The people of Israel inhabit the hard and harsh wilderne