Pressing Into the Presence

Exodus 33

Presence Envy

Did your parents’ have a favorite child?

Every night at dinner, we would all sit around the dinner table, it was the five of us then. My Mom and Dad would hold hands and look around the table at each of us: my older sister, my little brother and me. Then they would look at each other.

Then, together in unison, every night, they would look at me and say “You are, by far, our favorite child.”

Okay, that didn’t actually happen… but you can imagine if it did! I remember my Dad swinging my brother from his foot and being jealous… because I was too big for him to do that anymore. I envied the moment. It was envy, but specific to spending time with someone I wanted to spend time with. It was Presence Envy.

Not just with parents. My sister would go out with her friends… and I wish I could be part of that fun, I wish I was invited to the party.

I had started flirting with a girl from Thornton, Colorado; and she later told me that she considered inviting me to her Senior Prom… but she didn’t. And so I never went to Prom.

Presence envy. I see someone else experiencing something amazing with someone I love… and I want that experience. I want to be part of it.

Do you ever feel jealous of the ways other people seem to experience God?

I have heard testimonies all my life of these incredible experiences of God: literally incredible, as in, I have trouble believing them! Of God speaking in a way he has never spoken to me. Of visions that I have never seen. Of miracles that I have never witnessed. Of prophecy, of healing, of raising people from the dead in South America.

And I confess to you a Presence Envy. I envy the way God speaks and moves in others lives… even as I know that He speaks and moves in my own life in different ways.

We have reached Exodus 33 in our series in Exodus. And this is our second to last sermon in the book of Exodus. And this is an absolutely incredible moment. It is beautiful, it is such a God moment in history, and I have had this Presence Envy all week.

The way that Moses Presses into the Presence of God is fantastic. The way that God responds to it… let’s read it.

Moses – Pressing into the Presence

God is Not With Them

Remember the people have betrayed God, they have fallen back on their Egyptian roots and setup a Golden Calf, idols, and called on them as their gods, trying to include Yahweh as one of the pack.

God burns in anger, Moses intercedes, and God relents and does not immediately destroy them.

Moses comes down the mountain, Moses burns with anger (melts the idol, makes them drink it, kills 3000 men, this was life and death!) But even after that, he intercedes with God that God might forgive the people.

But God says no.

And as an ongoing punishment, and an act of mercy that God might not destroy them because of their “stiff-necks”, their repeated refusal or inability to bow their heads, God says I am not going with you.

Exodus 33:1-3

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.”

This is good and bad news. The people are going to get their Promised Land. The plan is going forward! And God has taken steps to make the destruction of the people along the way less likely! That is good.

But the people are “distressed” and mourn the loss of God with them. They strip off all their ornaments, all their jewelry, the finery they got from Egypt which happened to be the source of the gold for the golden calf and was intended as the source of the gold for the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle and all that good stuff. From then on, presumably then throughout the wanderings in the desert, as a consequence and reminder of this mourning, the people do not wear their fancy stuff.

Remember all God’s plans for moving in? Canceled.

The Tent of Meeting

You remember the Tabernacle that was going to be setup in the middle of camp, with the Ark of the Covenant in the inner room, all of it filled with symbols of the Presence of God with them? All of that is canceled.

Now there is a little tent, called the Tent of Meeting, and it is “some distance away” from the camp. And everybody can see Moses go out to this little tent, separated from the camp, and when he did the pillar of cloud that represented God’s presence would descend on the tent.

God is going to continue to talk with Moses, it says face-to-face, like a friend… but He will make it absolutely clear that He is not with the people. The people would stand and worship from in front of their own tents back in camp.

Ask Once

Moses is not content with this new state of affairs. He has all God’s moving in plans. He has known God’s Presence… and he wants that presence to continue. So, and my impression of this text, it sounds like this is a constant, ongoing prayer; Moses asks for God’s present to return.

12-13

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.”

Teach me your ways. If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways… What a prayer. I love it.

And maybe this is the first time Moses asked, but this “you have been telling me” makes it sound like this isn’t the first prayer. But this one is remarkable because God answers:

14

14 The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Huzzah! Victory! Yahweh has relented again… and His Presence will go with the people. Success. So Moses then left having obtained the answer he wanted.

Actually no. Moses presses further into the Presence. He asks for more:

Ask Twice

15-16

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?”

I love this prayer too. The first “teach me your ways…” Here, Moses refuses to move until God is with Him. This could be a definition of Waiting on the Lord.

Moses refuses to move until God is with Him.

“If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.”

But didn’t God just say His Presence would go with them? Didn’t He already answer?

I tell my kids “Over and over is always annoying.” I assume that Moses had been asking this for awhile, but at least twice now he has pressed for the Presence of God.

Moses refused to move unless He knew God was with Him. Until he knew absolutely for sure. Pressing for the Presence. Asking over and over, and God responds again:

17

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.”

What a beautiful thing to hear from the Creator of the Universe!

But Moses is going to Press for more! Even more!

Ask Thrice

18

18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”

In the original Hebrew, you are legally obligated to shout the word “glory.” Moses presses in, he asks for more, he asks for more:

Moses pressed into the Presence, persistently seeking More. Teach me your ways. Go with me. Show me Your GLORY!

And in response, Moses got this beautiful, incredible, unique revelation of the Presence of God.

The Passing Presence of God

19-20

19 And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

God is going to reveal himself to Moses, to show Him His glory, to the very limit that he can survive. Not the face, for none can see the face, as it says elsewhere “God dwells in inapproachable light.” But God is going to set things up for Moses, to protect Him and show Him something that will uniquely communicate His presence and glory:

21-23

21 Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”

Beautiful! Precious. Kind of tender, with the hand of God protecting Moses from too much glory, then letting him see everything it is possible for a human to see.

We are going to see more of this divine revelation to Moses next week, what God does, what He chooses to say to Moses, fantastic. But just at the outset: I have Presence Envy. This whole encounter.

The way Moses presses into the Presence. And the beautiful way God responds:

Whom will go with me? If I am so special to you, teach me your ways… that I may know You

My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.

We won’t go without you. Who are we without you?

I will go with you because I am pleased with you, I know you by name

Now, show me your glory!

And God does.

Be Like Moses?

And ever since then, if any believer climbs Mount Horeb and prays these three prayers in succession, God hides that person in the cleft of the rock and passes before them.

God is infinitely Creative in the ways He reveals Himself.

His Presence in the Same. His character is the same. His ways are the same. His glory is the same.

But He reveals that glory, He teaches those ways, He communicates His Presence as appropriate to the Mission, to the Person, to the Moment, to you and I. That just makes sense. I do the same with my kids. I wrestle Logan, dance with Arabelle and steamroll Dylan. I play a computer game with Logan, I scratch Arabelle’s back, and let Dylan sit on my lap and watch a cartoon. I communicate my Presence, my Love, my Character, my Ways to each of them.

I am Creative, I individualize my approach to my children, how much more will the Creator God be Creative in His approach to us.

That isn’t to say I am not jealous of Moses. I am! I want to see the light show, I want to hear the voice, I want to hide in the cleft of the rock, covered by the hand of God, and see His glory!

But I have been pondering the ways I can echo Moses’ three prayers. And the ways God has answered me.

Teach me Your ways? Moses had some oral tradition, but by tradition, he was living out and writing the first books of God’s ways. We have a library here: this is a catalogue of God’s ways. Teach me your ways? Okay, through the lives of hundreds, and through your own life, God is teaching you His ways. Through the lives in Scripture, through the lives of my mentors and friends here, through my own life, God is teaching me His ways.

We won’t go without you? God is with us in that special way He never was with Moses and the people of Israel. His Spirit resides within us. That swirling vortex of cloud and fire? Within us. The Ark of the Covenant, God’s footstool on earth that Moses has heard about but doesn’t exist yet? We are God’s footstool on earth, He is Present within us. So be careful when you look at me!

We are a holy priesthood serving the great high-priest. We are being built into His holy temple. All of those external shadows, those symbols of God’s presence, are gifted to us in a new and better way: tongues of fire descending from heaven, and the Holy Spirit taking up residence in all those who put their faith in the name of Jesus.

God goes with us. There is the Kingdom.

Now, Moses prays, show me your glory!

We don’t know what Moses saw. Some physical, visible, auditory feedback that communicated to Moses the astounding Presence of God. God threw in some radiation effect that caused Moses face to glow. We don’t know what it was, but we know it confirmed Moses’ confidence that God was indeed with Him through 40 years of wandering in the desert. That’s pretty good.

We do have ideas about what God’s glory is. God’s fame. God’s reknown. It is the weight, the heaviness, the brightness, the majesty of God before all of Creation.

And we get to see it grow, get to see it revealed in our world. Moses, in the end, sees some representation of God’s glory, but really on quite a small scale. He saw some small scale magic tricks, some well-timed local plagues, and a little light and sound show on Mount Sinai. Maybe some lava too. Relatively few people saw any of this, and the very best stuff: just Moses.

We get to see God’s glory fulfilled in Christ Jesus… and then exploding out across the world. We get to see, right now, God’s glory being made known in Thornton and Northglenn… and in Uganda and Cambodia… and we are invited to be a part of that! God, show me your glory! And all over the world, God says “Ok, watch this!” Watch me lift people from poverty, watch me mend broken spirits, watch me heal shattered hearts, watch me redeem lives… and watch me do it through you!

Pressing into the Presence

So should we still feel Presence Envy of Moses? I think perhaps not. I think Moses would be blown away by the glory we get to see.

But we can echo Moses in this: not that we experience God in the same way, but in the way that we ask for God to be with us, to teach us His ways, and to show us His glory.

And we press into the Presence. Give me more. Give me more. I want more!

Teach me Your ways. I’m not going unless you are with me. Show me your glory.