Moses said to Him: ‘Are You sending an angel with me? Were those the terms? Did You not say: “I have descended to rescue it from the hand of Egypt and to bring it up from that land [to a good and expansive land]” (Exodus 3:8), and now You say: “Behold, I am sending an angel before you” (Exodus 23:30)? “If Your presence does not go, do not take us up from here”’ (Exodus 33:15). [God] said to him: “For I will not ascend in your midst” (Exodus 33:3).
Moses said: ‘You said angel, and I say: “If Your presence does not go,” let us see whose words will stand’; that is what is written: “Moses said to the Lord: See, You say to me: [Take this people up, but You did not inform me whom You will send with me]” (Exodus 33:12). The Holy One blessed be He said to him: ‘As you live, “My Presence will go, and I will give you rest”’ (Exodus 33:14). The Divine Spirit cries out: “Since the king's rule is in his word, [who will say to him: What are you doing?]
One who observes a mitzva will know no evil matter” (Ecclesiastes 8:4–5).16The midrash applies the verse in Ecclesiastes to mean that someone of Moses’s stature had the ability to annul the divine decree.