I Will Be With You (Ex. 33)

Introduction

· Please open your Bibles to Exodus 33.

· This morning I would like to look at an important Old Testament passage in a sermon I’ve entitled, “I Will Be With You.”

· A Sunday School teacher once taught a lesson of how God had rescued his people out of Egypt and led them into a land “flowing with milk and honey.” At the end of class, she turned to one student and asked, “Eric, What do you think a land flowing with milk and honey would be like?” He replied, “I think it would be pretty sticky.” (Nelson’s Big Book of Laughter)

· Well, “a land flowing with milk and honey” may seem like a funny expression to us, and may even sound pretty sticky, but I assure you, it was something wonderful. It was a good and bountiful land, so rich with orchards and livestock that it could be described as “flowing with milk and honey.”

· In Deuteronomy 6:10–11, God further describes the land. “with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full. It is though God is handing the keys to Israel to a brand new house, fully furnished, with all the closets filled and the pantry stocked. It is truly move-in ready.

· And finally, the time has come! After centuries of captivity in Egypt, they finally get to inherit the Promised Land.

· Read 33:1-3a.

· God has provided everything that they need. I promised this land. I will send an angel to lead you. I will drive out and destroy its residents.

· But wait… something is not right here…

I Will Not Go With You

· Read 33:3b. “I will not go up among you…”

· Although God still promises to send an angel to keep them company and lead the way and make sure they arrive safely, God will no longer personally go with them.

· Previously, God had said he would go up with them. He said he would send the Angel of the Lord to accompany them. This Angel (with a capital “A” so to speak) was a personal representative of God so closely connected to God himself that we could call him a Theophany, or a physical manifestation of God. Many believe the Angel of the Lord was the pre-incarnate Christ, the Second person of the Trinity. The LORD and his Angel are often used interchangeably, as in the burning bush in Ex. 3. One verse says, “the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame.” Then later the angel says, “I am the God of your father” (v. 6).

· At one time, God had promised that Angel, the Angel of the Lord, would accompany the Israelites. Exodus 23:20–21 “Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.

· But that is no longer the case. Why? What had changed? What happened between Chapter 23 and Chapter 33? The answer is Exodus 32. The Golden Calf.

· While Moses was up on the mountain receiving the 10 Commandments, the people below grew restless. Why was Moses taking so long? Had God forgotten about them? So they begged Moses’ brother Aaron to “Rise up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for Moses…we don’t know what has become of him.” Aaron instructs them to take off their gold rings and jewelry and give it to him. He then melts it down and fashions it into an idol in the shape of a golden calf, a sign of strength and fertility. He declares a feast in the name of the Lord, and the people sing and dance and offer sacrifices and bow down before their new god. When Moses hears the news, he comes down off the mountain. The text says his “anger burned hot” (32:19), and he threw down the stone tablets and shattered them, symbolizing that the people had just broken their vows to the Lord. They has just committed spiritual adultery. The very first commandment was to “have no other gods before me.” The second commandment was “to not make for yourself a cared image” (Ex. 20:3-4). Yet here they were, singing, and dancing, and making fools of themselves before a statue.

· So God says he will no longer go with them. It is actually a form of his mercy. He is so holy, and the people are so wicked, that they are bound to be destroyed before long by his righteous anger. A God who is so pure that he cannot even look upon evil (Hab. 1:13) cannot long endure a people characterized by wickedness. His holy character requires him to judge. “Lest I consume you on the way.” God had already done this in ch. 32 by sending a plague (v. 35). Thousands were dead because of the golden calf incident. And hundreds of thousands more might die if God stays with them any longer.

· The reason – for you are a “stiff-necked people.” The same word is used of Nabal, the foolish husband of Abigail in 1 Sam. 25:3, who was “harsh and badly behaved.” It means to be harsh, severe, obstinate, like a stubborn animal or a strong willed child. God says of Israel in Isaiah 48:4 Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass. The hearts of Israel were as hard as a rock, and their necks stiff and stubborn than iron.

· How the people respond: Read 33:4-6. They rightly mourn. It is beginning to sink in the terrible mistake they have made.

· Moses is going to plead with God to reconsider. He will appeal in respect for God to reconsider. But first we have something of a parenthetical here in vv. 7-11 that explain how Moses communicated with God.

The Tent of Meeting

· Read 33:7-11.

· This passage says that Moses would often go out to a special tent outside the Israelite encampment. The sole purpose of this tent was for Moses to fellowship with God and seek his counsel. And so it was called the tent of meeting.

· Whenever Moses would enter the tent, and God would meet him there, the pillar of cloud that had led Israel out of Egypt would rest over the place.

· Above the Capitol Building in Washington DC is a flag pole. There is actually a flag pole over each chamber – both the House and the Senate. But the only time that a flag waves overhead is when the chamber is in session. And when a session goes late into the night, a lantern over the Capitol dome is lit. The waving of the flag and the flickering of the lantern are signs that the representatives are in session, and democracy is at work. We have something similar here.

· And what a privilege that Moses could talk with God “face to face” (v. 11)! Moses has grown close to God, like Enoch, who walked with God. I wonder, where is your “tent of meeting?” In the NT, Jesus calls it a “prayer closet.” Matthew 6:6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. You may say, “But I am not a holy man like Moses. I wouldn’t dare go into his presence.” And yet God invites us close. Maybe it’s during your morning commute. Maybe it’s by closing the bedroom door and having a few minutes of silence. Maybe it’s while walking the dog, or kneeling by your beside. But all of us need to have a place where we can talk with God, meditate on his word, and think his thoughts after him.

· >>Moses spoke face to face to God. They had an intimate relationship. And one day, he came to the Lord with a special request…

Show Me Your Ways

· Read vv. 17-23.

· Moses could have relied on many things to bring him into the Promised Land – his rod, his past victories, or the religious externals of Jewish worship (as Israel would do later with the ark). But Moses begs the Lord, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here” (v. 15).

· This passage is a good reminder for all of us that whenever we embark upon some new venture, or begin some new enterprise, that the most important thing is to be in the will of God, and for his blessing to go with us. We dare not go anywhere his presence is not with us.

· David Livingstone, the British Missionary to Africa, made many sacrifices to get the gospel to those who had never heard. In his diary, he prayed, “Send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. Sever me from any tie but the tie that binds me to Your service and to Your heart.”

· God relents, and he does show his glory in. Exodus 34:5–8 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.

· This conversation between God and Moses is very similar to another one held between Philip and Jesus in the Upper Room. John 14:8–9 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

· For us, this side of the cross, intimacy with God is now found in Christ. Only in Jesus do we fully know who God is. Will you believe in him today?