Exodus 33:1-23 – “Presents Without Presence?”
Outline:
- Intro.
- Vs. 1-11: A Promise Without His Presence
- Vs. 12-17: The Presence of His Grace
- Vs. 18-23: The Glory of His Goodness
Intro.
I have had one of those weeks that we all get from time to time. It was not just one overwhelming incident, but the culmination of many. By Thursday, my attitude had gotten to an all-time low, and I began to think of things that would brighten my day. Interestingly, I was looking for something to give me a better perspective rather than Someone! As I started to think about this phenomenon, I realized that we all do this. We all seek to hide our frustrations and disappointments in things. Simply put, we substitute presents for presence!
When I was a kid and I got in trouble, I was always concerned with what the consequences of my actions were going to be. How many weeks without seeing my friends or not watching TV was it going to cost me? Now, there were times when I had done something really bad, and I was expecting not to see daylight for months, but I got off rather lightly. We are prone to think of the consequences of our actions in terms of what they cost us outwardly—the loss of pleasure, possessions, etc. Here, we shall see that the worship of the golden calf did not cost the Israelites much outwardly, but inwardly, they were going to pay a far greater price!
II.) Vs. 1-11: A Promise Without His Presence
Vs. 1-3: You have probably faced a scene like this in your life if you have siblings. You were horsing around, doing something that you were told you weren’t supposed to do, warned repeatedly, but you went ahead anyway. You’ve been caught red-handed and hauled off into a back room. Time goes by, and when you come out, everyone wants to know, “What happened?” How much trouble are you in for disobedience? Now, in my background, there are few times that I can remember when I didn’t get what was coming to me, but that’s not the case with Israel.
Remember the scene before us: Israel has fashioned an idol and begun to worship it like the heathens do, and God caught them in the act. Three thousand of their countrymen were into it so much that they refused to stop and rioted, costing them their lives. They were all forced to drink their god, and there was some sort of plague, but still, that seems like an awfully light punishment. Now, we know that God is angry with them because of their sin, for we are told in 32:10 that He says, “Let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you (Moses) a great nation.” Furthermore, even after Moses’ intercession, God says, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.” And again He says, “In the day when I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin.” Boy, are they ever in trouble now! Yet, even before this chapter, we read, “Go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you.” Does this action not seem inconsistent with His anger toward their sin? If I were God, I would say, “You know what? You don’t want Me, then I’m not going to bless you like I was!”
We are told here in these three verses what their punishment was NOT going to include:
- Vs. 1: I’m still going to keep My promise that I made to your forefathers. These guys had proven to be unworthy of God’s blessings by their actions, but God says here that He is still going to do what He promised. Folks, do you get that? God keeps His promises not based upon our faithfulness, but rather on the basis of His! Their disobedience and rebellion had no effect on God’s promise. That’s grace, is it not?
- Vs. 2a: “And I will send My Angel before you.” I’m still going to make sure that My power and strength will lead you. God is going to keep His promise and even do so by His power and strength. The Messenger of the Lord is still going to guide them to the Promised Land. It’s not as if I would say to my child, “Yeah, we’re still going to the park, but you’re going to have to get there by yourself and pay your own way!” No, God says, “We’re still going, and I’m taking you and paying for it Myself!”
- Vs. 2b-3a: I’m still going to protect you and make sure that you have a great time once you’re there. God says that He is still going to protect them, and the land of promise is still going to be the greatest earthly blessing they could have ever imagined.
So far, it doesn’t look like their actions have changed any of the benefits of their relationship with God. But then we read the words, “I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” Do you see what the Lord is saying here? “You are going as I promised, and I’ll make sure you get there and have a great time, but I’m not going to hang out with you on the way or once we get there!”
God does not take away His promise, power, or protection, but He does say that His presence won’t be with them. How would you respond if God said, “I will give you all the benefits of a relationship, but I won’t be around”? This is like some divorces I’ve heard about—where someone is willing to give all the material things but won’t stay present in the relationship. The Israelites had wanted the benefits of a relationship with God without His presence, so now God gives them exactly what they asked for.
Vs. 4-7: How do the Israelites respond to this? They mourned. They understood that God’s promises were meaningless without His presence. They repented, taking off their ornaments that they had used in idol worship, and sought the Lord. The tabernacle, originally meant to be in the midst of the camp, was now moved outside the camp. The people understood that intimacy with God was what they had thrown away, and they mourned for it. This shows us that they began to value His presence more than His presents.
Vs. 8-11: Every day, the Israelites would watch Moses go into the tent of meeting to fellowship with the Lord. They stood at their tent doors, witnessing the visible presence of God on the tent where Moses was. Moses had a relationship with the Lord that was free and open, like that of best friends. This intimacy with God encouraged the people to worship Him as they saw Moses interact with Him. How about us? Does our relationship with God encourage others to seek Him?
Look at Joshua. He did not depart from the tent where Moses met with God. Oh, to be like Joshua, to be so into hanging out with God that we don’t want to go anywhere else! I’ve realized that my maturity in my walk with the Lord is best measured by how much I love Him, not by how long I’ve been a Christian. And on that basis, I have a lot of growing up to do!
III.) Vs. 12-17: The Presence of His Grace
Vs. 12-13: I love this prayer of Moses on behalf of the people. Moses had already been assured that God was going to keep His promises to the nation, but Moses wanted more than just the promises—he wanted the people to have a relationship with the Lord. He pleaded with God, “Don’t just bless them, come and dwell among them.”
Vs. 14-15: God says, “My presence will go with YOU, and I will give YOU rest.” It’s based on grace, and God honors His relationship with Moses. But notice that in verse 15, Moses uses the word “us” instead of the “you” that God used. Moses says, “Unless you’re with us, I don’t want to go at all!” Moses didn’t care about all the stuff; he wanted God’s presence. He recognized that all of the blessings were worthless without the One who gives them.
Vs. 16-17: Moses says, “How will the world know that You love us unless You are with us?” It’s not what God blesses us with that reveals His presence in our lives, but the fact that we are in constant contact with Him. God restores the relationship with Israel based on His relationship with Moses. Indirectly, God shows us that what separates us from the world is His grace and presence in our lives!
So, how about it? Do you want to go anywhere without God’s presence? What if you could go there and still have everything you want, but without Him? Our prayer should be, “Lord, I only want to go where You are, where I can experience more of You.”
IV.) Vs. 18-23: The Glory of His Goodness
Vs. 18-20: As deep as Moses’ relationship with God was, he still wanted more! He asked to see God’s glory. In these verses, God reveals three things about His glory:
- Goodness: God says, “I will make all My goodness pass before you.” God is good all the time, and His goodness is part of His very nature. The Israelites had struggled because they didn’t trust in God’s goodness, which led them to make the golden calf. To see God’s glory, we must first recognize that He is good, even when things don’t go our way.
- Character: God says He will proclaim His name before Moses. In biblical times, a name represented a person’s character. So, God is saying that to see His glory, we must grow in our understanding of His character. As we grow in our knowledge of who God is, we will see more of His glory.
- Sovereign Will: Lastly, God says, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” To see God’s glory, we must recognize that He is sovereign, and His purposes and plans will never be altered.
Vs. 21-23: God hides Moses in the cleft of a rock and reveals the “afterglow” of His glory, for that is all Moses could handle. We, too, are hidden in the Rock, which is Christ, and it is in Him that we see God’s glory, “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). When the world sees God’s goodness toward us, His character in us, and His will guiding us, they will see His glory upon us.
As we ready ourselves for communion this morning, let us ask ourselves about our own relationship with the Lord. Do we desire His presence more than His presents?