Enjoying the Presence of God, Part 4
Pastor Joe Fuiten, August 19,
2001
1 Then the LORD
said to Moses, "Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of
Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
saying, 'I will give it to your descendants.' 2 I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites,
Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 3 Go up to the land
flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a
stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way." 4 When the people
heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no one put on any
ornaments. 5 For the LORD had said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites, 'You
are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might
destroy you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with
you.'" 6 So the Israelites stripped off their ornaments at Mount Horeb.
7 Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the "tent of meeting." Anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. 8 And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. 9 As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses. 10 Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent. 11 The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent. 12 Moses said to the LORD, "You have been telling me, 'Lead these people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, 'I know you by name and you have found favor with me.' 13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people." 14 The LORD replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." 15 Then Moses said to him, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?" 17 And the LORD said to Moses, "I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name."
In this passage, God is giving to Israel what we
might call a blank check of blessing.
God told Moses to take the Israelis to the land that he had promised to
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He would
help Israel to take and hold the land by means of his angels. It would be a land of physical
blessings. This is an incredible
blessing. It is like God saying to you,
“Make an investment in any stock and I will make sure it doubles every three
months and when you sell it the government will declare a one-week amnesty on
capital gains and income taxes.”
In the text, however, there is a big negative. God described the Israelis as being
“stiff-necked.” That is not a word we
use today. What it means is that is that they would not bow their neck. They wouldn’t lower their head in a sign of
surrender and submission.
If ever any word described 21st century
culture that would be it. We are going
to do it our way. We have our opinions
and ideas and won’t bow for God’s ideas and values. It’s all about us. The
Bible has a shorter word for that in the New Testament. “Stiff-necked” is shortened to another “s”
word. SIN! 16th century BC Israel and 21st century AD
America are quite similar in character.
Both ancient Israel and modern America are independent and want to do
their own thing.
For ancient Israel God said, in the end, they will
just want to do what they want to do.
They will only care about themselves, and won’t care about God. Under such circumstances, it won’t end well
for them. It would be better if I just
kept my promise and sent my angel to help them get into Palestine, or the Land
of the Caananites as they were calling it then.
In verse 7, Exodus gives us some background to this
scene. In the days before the law was
given on Sinai, and even before the tabernacle had been built or even ordered,
Moses had a special tent for meeting with God. The tent probably was not that
spectacular. It might even have been a
simple black goat-hair tent like the Bedouins of today still use. The point is that it was a special place
with a holy purpose. It was where Moses
and Israel met to hear from God. They
went to meet God there and God honored that place.
The Tabernacle that God prescribed would be
beautiful and expensive but he was not adverse to the sincere effort of Moses
and the people. I think it is
interesting that Moses chose a tent. He
didn’t go back again and again to the place where the bush had burned. The bush was an event in the past but a tent
represented a family. Families lived in
tents out in that wilderness. That
association of family, tent, and God was an unmistakable statement of relationship. The presence of God was available to Israel
whenever they would make the effort to go to his tent.
All this was being called into
question with the announcement that, although God would help them with his
angel, he would not personally go with Israel.
Moses, who had developed a relationship with God that was of a face to
face in nature most keenly felt the change.
Moses could have settled for the
miracles and the demonstrations of God’s power that he had seen in Egypt. God said he would do it for them. They would know God protection and power but
not his presence. Moses never had a
greater moment than this moment. He
chose what was most valuable. He chose
God’s presence.
Let’s think about this situation and
absorb its implications for our lives. You can have a valid and true
representation of God without God himself. God was willing to send his angel to go along. There is nothing really wrong with
that. This is not false religion. This is not religion based on wrong
ideas. It is simply God’s religion
without his direct presence.
They would have material success
without God’s presence. He would drive
the others out and give them the land of Israel. By extending that principle, we might even say that a person
could end up going to heaven without that real sense of God’s presence
in their life. They would still have to
be one of God’s people, that remains the qualification. It was not about the promised land, our
equivalent of heaven.
Moses clearly negotiated for the presence of God to continue. Yet, to say he negotiated is to make too much of what Moses did. The real dynamic here is God’s response to the request of Moses. God did not really want to withdraw his presence. What moved God was the desire of Moses for his presence. Those Israelites were not any less disposed to failure and sin than before. God was not any more willing to accept sin and failure than he had been before. Yet what Moses wanted was really the same thing that God wanted. Moses wanted the presence of God among the people and God wanted a people who wanted his presence.
From that day to this, that one fact about God has not changed. He still responds to people who want him
around. If you have that desire—and
if you will express it to him—God will respond to you. Something significant will happen.
It is not about how much you know. You do not have to know everything about the Bible, about church,
or even about God himself. God responds
to the desire.
It is not about how long you have been around. You might think of other people as very far along in the
spiritual life and you are just a novice.
You might be misunderstanding the most fundamental thing about God. Sometimes the people who have been around
the longest start taking God for granted.
The impact of taking God for granted is the same as taking your marriage
for granted. You are not a second-class
member of this church because you are new to the faith. God looks at, and responds to the heart.
It is not about your age, gender, or race. You might be quite young or very old. God does not respond to those kinds of details. He responds to the heart. He will be where he is valued and wanted,
end of story.
In times gone by you may have heard someone
criticize going to church, or trying to earn your salvation, or thinking you
can buy your way into heaven. You know
what I think. I think people go to
church because they love God. I think
they get involved in the work of God because they love God. I think people financially support God’s
work because they love God. And if God
asked for their blood they would happily give that too. That’s the way it is when you love
someone. These devotional acts mean
something to God because it is how we humans express devotion. If you think spiritual devotion is all just
in the heart your religion is as empty as you are. Love requires action.
In our second core purpose, after learning to love
God fully, we say that we will increasingly love others through acts of mercy,
especially for the poor, bruised, and broken-hearted.[1] It follows what Jesus taught in the parable
of the Good Samaritan. He said you
cannot say you love people unless you are willing to help them. You know if you are willing if you actually
do help them.
If we want his presence, we have to show it in some
way. If we love God, it has to
show. If we love others, it has to be
shown to be real.
God will help us because we are his people. He will send his angels. We will advance. It is in the nature of God to do such things. For Israel’s part, they would have done
well. Everything would have been
beautiful. A lovely land, bountiful
harvests, big families, to all appearances it would have been perfect. But it would be like getting a sentimental
hallmark card from your wife without even a signature, or with merely a
signature. Beauty without romance is
not beauty.
Every time we come to this tent of meeting we make
the same choice. We can listen to the
beautiful choirs and music. We can
enjoy the art and the light streaming in.
We can even admire the reading of God’s word, the preaching of the
sermons, and the crowds of people. But
in the end it isn’t the poem in the greeting card. There has to be a signature.
There has to be someone behind it all.
We need the heart of Moses. We have to say to the Lord, if you are not
going with us, then we aren’t going either.
AWESOME
IN THIS PLACE (c) 1992 Integrity's Hosanna! Music
As I come into Your presence, past the gates of praise,
Into Your sanctuary till we're standing face to face;
I look upon Your countenance, I see the fullness of Your grace,
And I can only bow down and say,
"You are awesome in this place, Mighty God,
You are awesome in this place, Abba Father;
You are worthy of all praise, To You our lives we raise,
You are awesome in this place, Mighty God."
[1] GOMU: Our first purpose learning to fully love God. The “O” in GOMU is for others.
Our second purpose is increasingly love others by acts of mercy
especially for the poor, bruised and broken-hearted. “M” is for me; refreshing my faith by regular acts of devotion
such as prayer, fasting, worship, and the spiritual disciplines. The “U” is for us; joining others to build
the church through giving, involvement, and evangelism.