Exodus 33 “Presence”

S = Exodus 33:3 “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.”

v.15-16 “And he [Moses] said to him [God], “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

O = God blesses the people, promises to give them the land, led by an angel, a land of great blessing…the best of everything but without God among them. The presence of God with his people is a major theme through the whole Bible from the Eden of Genesis 2 to the New Heaven/Earth/Jerusalem of Revelation 21-22. Here God addresses the elephant in the room. Their stubborn, rebellious sin will be the death of them if God is in their midst. So what would they do? They respectfully tell God that is he doesn’t go with them they don’t want to go. The presence of YHWH is what makes them different. They don’t want to lose that distinction.

A = I wonder if I would respond like Moses did if God gave me the same offer today? It frightens me to think that I could settle for less than God’s presence in order to facilitate my stubborn attitudes and actions. I want to follow Moses’ example here and see my value and really my identity as tied to the presence of God in my life today. God did work out a solution for Israel that looked forward to the death and resurrection of Christ and the sending of the indwelling Holy Spirit. I don’t want to try to find my identity in any lesser “thing” or “practice” I want to cling to Christ in my need. I am reminded of that verse in Matt Maher’s hymn,

“Where sin runs deep Your grace is more

Where grace is found is where You are

And where You are, Lord, I am free

Holiness is Christ in me

Lord, I need You, oh, I need You

Every hour I need You

My one defense, my righteousness

Oh God, how I need You”

P = O Lord, I do need you as the song declares. And in my need I give you thanks for not only delivering me from the Egypt of bondage to sin, and giving me a hope for the future in heaven, but for your abiding presence with me every hour of my day. Help me to remember you are with me and let me live like it today. Amen.