Sermon for October 18, 2020 19 Minutes

This morning I'll be reading Exodus chapter 33 verses 12 through 23.

And I'll be reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

Exodus 33:12-23

In the previous verses the Israelites have learned that God will not go with them to the promised land and were mourning in response to this news. In these verses Moses intercedes on their behalf and convinces God not only to go with them,,, but also to reveal more of Himself to Moses.

Exodus 33:12–23

12 Moses said to the LORD, “Look, You have told me, ‘Lead this people up,’ but You have not let me know whom You will send with me. You said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.’ 13 Now if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, please teach me Your ways, and I will know You and find favor in Your sight. Now consider that this nation is Your people.” 14 Then He replied, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 “If Your presence does not go,” Moses responded to Him, “don’t make us go up from here. 16 How will it be known that I and Your people have found favor in Your sight unless You go with us? I and Your people will be distinguished by this from all the other people on the face of the earth.” 17 The LORD answered Moses, “I will do this very thing you have asked, for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.” 18 Then Moses said, “Please, let me see Your glory.” 19 He said, “I will cause all My goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name Yahweh before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 20 But He answered, “You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live.” 21 The LORD said, “Here is a place near Me. You are to stand on the rock, 22 and when My glory passes by, I will put you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take My hand away, and you will see My back, but My face will not be seen.”

God bless the reading and the hearing of your word this morning.

Let us pray:

Dear Lord,,, as we begin this morning,,, with everyone here today and all that are listening and watching by video,,, we ask that you open our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to receive the message that you have for us today,,, In Jesus' name I pray,,, Amen.

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This should be a story that is familiar to you.

Of course these scriptures come after Moses has come back down the mountain and seen the celebration of the Israelites after they had made the golden calf.

If you remember at that time Moses became angry and smashed the tablets,,, and several other things went on in these scriptures leading up to today's reading that led to God saying that He would not accompany the Israelites to the promised land.

Of course Moses intercedes for the people immediately.

And this is where our reading starts,,, and it's an example of ways that show how we can successfully intercede for others in our prayers if we are willing to put forth the effort like Moses.

Lets begin,,, as we look at the ways that these scriptures can help us with our walk with God this week.

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Verses 12 and 13 say: 12 Moses said to the LORD, “Look, You have told me, ‘Lead this people up,’ but You have not let me know whom You will send with me. You said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.’ 13 Now if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, please teach me Your ways, and I will know You and find favor in Your sight. Now consider that this nation is Your people.”

Moses has began his plea to God to lead them to the promised land,,, even though God has said that He will not lead them.

God had said earlier in verse 2 of this chapter,,, that an angel would lead them.

In these verses Moses appeals to God by mentioning to God that God has found favor in "him" and if that is so,,, then He should lead them if Moses ask Him to.

And he also appeals to God by reminding God that these are "Your people.”

If you will notice in these two verses,,, even though Moses has mentioned that he has received favor in God's sight already,,, he also ask God to teach him His ways,,, and then he will know Him and then find favor in His sight.

Here,,, Moses is wanting God,,, to teach him more,,, show him what's important,,, things that he needs to know,,, so that Moses will be able to know God's will and be able to interpret that information easier and quicker than before.

This is something that we fail to do.

We don't ask God to teach us His ways,,, possibly because we don't want to know what God "really" has for us.

We go through the motions of "wanting" on Sunday during worship,,, but we ignore it after the service is over until next week and we have a repeat of the week before.

I see myself here as I write these words.

I know from experience that I didn't want to explore God's ways too much in the past,,, because if I did,,, then I would have to contend with the fact that I wasn't truly obeying God like I should.

I wanted to be close to God,,, but not close enough that I felt like I had given up my control of my life.

I would give Him a little control on Sunday during worship,,, then as I left church,,, I would take it back until next week when I repeated my performance again!

I can't stress enough how much of a problem this is because it robs us of the joy of truly knowing God's will for our life and the peace that comes with it.

I can say that because I'm up here speaking to all of you every Sunday,,, and I was scared to death of even speaking to children about God once before.

Now I'm doing something that I was terrified of and today,,, I can honestly say,,, that I love it!

I wouldn't want to do anything else but this,,, unless God has a different direction for me in the future.

The point that I'm trying to make here,,, is that we should want what Moses was wanting.

The chance to truly know what God has for us,,, so that we will know for sure,,, and we won't have to ask or wonder.

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Verse 14 says: 14 Then He replied, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

In verses 12 and 13 Moses had been trying to convince God to lead them instead of an angel that He was threatening to send with them.

And here in this verse,,, God answers Moses plea and tells him that He will go with them.

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Verses 15 and 16 say: 15 “If Your presence does not go,” Moses responded to Him, “don’t make us go up from here. 16 How will it be known that I and Your people have found favor in Your sight unless You go with us? I and Your people will be distinguished by this from all the other people on the face of the earth.”

In these two verses it almost seems like either Moses didn't hear or understand God,,, or,,, he just wanted to hear God say it again.

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Verse 17 says: 17 The LORD answered Moses, “I will do this very thing you have asked, for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.”

God tells Moses that He will go with them because he has asked.

He also tells him that he has favor in Gods sight and that He knows him by name.

These are the things that we should be trying to receive from God,,, and we do this by a relationship with Him.

There is no other way to be recognized by God and find favor in His sight and have Him know us by name.

Moses has accomplished this,,, and the information in this verse,,, gives Moses the courage to ask God the next question.

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Verses 18 and 19 say: 18 Then Moses said, “Please, let me see Your glory.” 19 He said, “I will cause all My goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name Yahweh before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

Maybe,,, Moses thinks that since God does think so highly of him,,, then he can ask to see God's glory.

But then,,, in the next verse,,, God tells him something that troubled me for many years.

Maybe it has troubled you,,, as well.

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Verse 20 says: 20 But He answered, “You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live.”

In this verse,,, God says that “You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live.”

Now,,, we know that in previous verses,,, Like Exodus 33:11,,, it said that Moses spoke to God face to face so how can this be true now.

First thing to remember about anything that you don't understand is that,,, just because it seems like a contradiction,,, it doesn't mean that it is a contradiction.

It just means that we don't have all of the information that we need to understand it.

It's probably a matter of understanding exactly what is going on at the time or simply having more or better information.

And what we must understand in the verses where it talks about Moses talking face to face with God,,, is that it was speaking figuratively.

It means that God spoke directly and openly to Moses,,, not that He literally stood eyeball to eyeball with him.

If we didn't believe that the Bible used figurative language,,, we would have to believe that God has wings and feathers,,, you can look at Psalm 91:4 where it says that God will cover thee with His feathers and under His wings shalt thou trust,,, and that Jesus is made up of flour,,, where Jesus says that He is the bread of life in John 6:35,,, and wood in John 10:9 where Jesus says "I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.

Also,,, God the Father is spirit and is therefore invisible (John 1:18; 1Timothy 1:17).

Yet God sometimes presented Himself as if He had a body,,, e.g., Genesis 3:8,,, and many scholars believe that Jesus personally appeared to some people in the Old Testament as the pre-incarnate angel of the Lord (Genesis 22:11–18).

In any event,,, the point is,,, that no one can gaze at God in his full essence,,, which is the point this verse is making..

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Verses 21 through 23 say: 21 The LORD said, “Here is a place near Me. You are to stand on the rock, 22 and when My glory passes by, I will put you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take My hand away, and you will see My back, but My face will not be seen.”

John Wesley said that even though Moses has spent forty days and nights speaking to God,,, and had been closer to Him than any man had ever been,,, he still wanted to see God's glory.

God allowed him to see His glory,,, at least as much as he was able to see.

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As we end with these verses,,, I want you to remember that Moses intercedes for the people and God relents and will lead the people into the promised land.

Also remember,,, that God doesn't change His mind,,, but that the Israelite people change their ways and this allows God to continue to lead the people on.

This is another way that God shows us the way that He is gracious and loving to us.

His ways do "not" change,,, but our change in our way of living,,, can change the effects of what happens to us!

Moses spent time in communication to God about the Israelite people and prayed for them over and over.

His prayers enabled God to bless them when He might have abandoned them without Moses' intercession.

That's why we need to remember that we continue to pray for everyone,,, mainly because Jesus told us to,,, it also indicates our love for others,,, it's useful in spiritual warfare,,, medicine if someone is sick,,, and on and on.

The best thing that we can remember is that prayer is our way of having a conversation with God,,, and just like we would tell a close friend today about our troubles,,, what closer friend can you have,,, than Jesus Christ!

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