The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, 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 offspring I will give it.’ 2 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. 3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”
12 Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” 14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. Exodus 33:1-3,12-15
So here we are again in Exodus. If you have been following my articles, then you know that all three, this being the third, have been from Exodus. This has not been by any sort of plan on my part. Exodus just happens to be where God is teaching me right now. I really enjoy following the story of the Israelites. In the last article, I examined a mistake that the people had made. This week I want to look at something Moses got spot on correct. The passage we are looking at today is just one chapter after the people have made the golden calf to worship, and, for obvious reasons, God was not very happy about that. Moses must beg for the Israelites lives because God was about to destroy them. In 1-3 of chapter 33 we see that God’s anger is still present, because he is refusing to travel with the Israelites as they enter the promised land. God told them that he would drive out all the people in the land but that he would not go with them. I have this mental picture of Moses’s head snapping around in mild panic when God finished that statement. I get this picture because of Moses’s strong words in verse 15 when Moses told God that if God’s presence wasn’t with them that he didn’t want to go anywhere.
At first, I was a touch confused by Moses’s response. I mean, God did promise that he would go before them and clear their enemies out. That seems like a good thing to me. But after a few more times reading, I began to understand how Moses might have been thinking. If you remember my first article, I discussed how that through the eyes of man, Moses was not qualified to lead the Israelites, but that by calling him, God promised Moses that God qualified him for the job, not man. Moses was still painfully aware of how inadequate he was to lead the Israelites, and he knew that without God’s presence, he could not lead. This knowledge is what inspires his words in verse 15. He knew that he could not lead the massive body of the Israelites without God, and he refused to move unless the presence of God was restored.
Now, you may be thinking, how does this apply to me? I am not in charge of leading thousands of people through a wilderness. The reality is we oversee something of equal or maybe even greater importance as modern believers. As followers of Christ, we have been tasked with the spreading of the gospel across the earth. Matthew records in chapter 28 of his Gospel what has been called the Great Commission, the charge to all believers to make disciples, to bring people of the whole earth into a relationship with the Lord. Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians that Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:20.
The Gospel that we know as believers is quite literally the most important thing a person could ever hear about. That being said, we must be very careful to stay in God’s presence because in his presence is his wisdom, guidance, and leadership. To act outside of God’s presence is to ask for disaster. Moses knew this; therefore, he begged God to return his presence to the Israelites.
Are you living outside of God’s presence? Maybe it’s unconfessed sin in your life. Maybe it is just pure stubbornness, refusing to accept God’s help, or maybe reading this you are an unbeliever. Whatever the reason is, please take a lesson from Moses on the value of the presence of God. Without him we can do nothing. This is such a crucial element to our lives; without it we can do nothing for the kingdom. So I would like you to do something for me. Today take some time away from distractions, and be honest with yourself about how important God’s presence is in your daily life. Do you truly desire it? If not, look at Moses’s example, and I would hope you would learn from his life. If you desire it but cannot find it, examine your own life, find the sin that is strangling your relationship with God, and confess it. Allow him to take it away from you. God’s presence is of the utmost importance in our lives.
Thank you for your articles. What a wonderful young man.