Exodus 33

Notes:

There is a distinction between the people of Israel in Chapter 32 and Moses in Chapter 33. The people of Israel were more concerned about getting out of the in between, but Moses’ highest value was the presence of God.

Whatever in between you find yourself in, your ultimate joy and fulfillment is not found on the other side of the in between. Your ultimate joy is found in the presence of God, whenever, wherever, however hard it may be.

The presence of God is what scripture is all about. Its relationship its closeness with his people despite their brokeness and sin.

Whats available to you today is the presence of God.

We never lose the reality of God’s presence, no matter how badly we fail; we never sin so much as to lose our salvation; we never sink so far as to banish the Holy Spirit. We can anger God because of our sin, but true believers never lose the presence of the Holy Spirit. While we will never lose the reality of God’s presence, we might lose the “sense” of His presence.

But he makes his influence more manifestly felt and experienced in particular ways and particular times.

Psalm 100:2: “Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!” Or James 4:8: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” These are invitations into the fuller, more intense, more certain, more joyful, more satisfying, more transforming experience of the reality of God. That is my first half of the metaphor.

The promises of God are often found in his presence

God is always omniscient, but we don’t always sense that presence.

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Whats going on yall, so last week was our first week in this new series entitled Exiles. And in this series we are walking through some key stories in the book of Exodus.

And as we talked about last week the book of exodus has some really great lessons for us as we go throughout life.

Last week I talked about this idea of us as humans and as Christians we are always caught between two things, one season and the next season, where we are and where we want to be, often times we are living in this place of I dont like where I am and I cant wait for things to be different, to be out of the in between.

And the book of Exodus we find the people of God caught between slavery in Egypt and the promise land and for 40 years they are in the desert caught in between. And so as we look at the book of exodus we get insight on how we as people of God can live in the in between.

Last week we talked about the manna from heaven and how God provided everything they needed for today. Jesus promises us today and eternity not tomorrow and so we get to focus on today and accept the gift that is today trusting like God showed up today, he will show up tomorrow.

This week we are going to be jumping forward in Exodus to chapters 32 and 33 so turn there in your Bibles and I am going to pray for us.

Exodus 32:1–6 ESV

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

Summarize what happens next:

God tells moses to go down to his people

They have corrupted themselves

Turned from the way the Lord commanded them

The Lord wants to consume them, moses is like God please don’t and God is like okay

But he blots out those who sinned from his book, he allows the levites to kill 3000 men, and the Lord sent a plague among them

In this story we see the people of God, caught in the in between and moses on the mountain talking with God for 40 days is too long and the people lose trust in God and they build a Cow to worship.

Why? Why would they do such a thing? See they got tired of being caught in between and instead of trusting in God they turned to their own ways to try and get out of the Desert.

Exodus 33:1–3 ESV

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.’ 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. 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.”

God says I am going to keep my promise to Abraham and Ill bring you to the promise-land, but I am not going to go with you.

And here lies one of the most shocking and beautiful verses in scripture.

Exodus 33:12–15 ESV

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.’ 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.” And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.

God says I am not going to go with you but you can go.

Moses says I would rather stay in the desert than go to the land flowing with milk and honey if your presence is not there.

There is a distinction between the people of Israel in Chapter 32 and Moses in Chapter 33. The people of Israel were more concerned about getting out of the in between, but Moses’ highest value was the presence of God.

Whatever in between you find yourself in, your ultimate joy and fulfillment is not found on the other side of the in between. Your ultimate joy is found in the presence of God, whenever, wherever, however hard it may be.

It is better for you to never leave the in between than to leave the presence of God.

Moses never got to go, but he was able to have peace knowing he had the presence of God

SO the presence of God is the most important thing but how do I pursue the presence of God.

Listen the presence of God is pursuing you

That is the whole point of scripture

if God is calling you to himself his presence in radically pursuing you

There is a sense in which God is everywhere all the time and he sees you and knows you and loves you

and then theres the experience of God presence, those burning bush moments where the presence of God feels so real to you.

Comfort in a passage of scriputre

Joy in worship

Peace in the midst of a storm

A new insight from the word of God

YOu receive an answer from the Lord on somethign youve been raying for

and interation with someone

So there is a sense in which he is always with you and the promises hes given you are always available to you and then there are those moments in which you don’t control when God chooses for reasons we wont understand to make his presence known in a way that is noticeably different.

All we can do is posture ourselves before the Lord being active in prayer and pursuing holiness and drawing near to God through reading his scripture and praying with others.

See in this midst of the in between our temptation can be to fall away from the Lord as we lose trust in him and try to fix things ourselves when what we should be doing is pressing into his presence.

Romans 8:28 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

God is doing something in every in between you find yourself in. You dont need to fall away and fix on your own. You can lean into his presence and find his promises there.

Personal expirience.