Exodus 33-34

Pleading for God’s presence

We continuing with the book of Exodus. And we busy looking at this little section

that’s teaching us about intercession.

If you missed it last week, to intercede means to use your influence to persuade

someone in authority to forgive another person.

And so we looking at Moses’ intercession. And we learning: What does it mean

for us to intercede for one another? And more importantly What does it mean to

have someone who intercedes for us.

Now if you remember last week we saw the major breakdown in God’s

relationship with His people. They commit a great sin. And it threatens to

terminate God’s plans for His people. But Moses intercedes and by the end of

chapter 34, things are back on track. The two stone tablets are remade. The laws

are rewritten. The plans to build the tabernacle and for God to come and live

amongst His people are recommenced.

And so this is a wonderful message: our relationship with God can be restored.

Although we commit great sin, there is hope of forgiveness through the One Who

intercedes.

And so that’s what we looking at: the intercession of Moses. And we pick up the

story again in chapter 33 verse 1.

God’s agreed: He won’t wipe out the Israelite nation. That’s what He threatened

to do. But Moses interceded. Please God Remember Your people. Remember

Your promise. Don’t change Your plans for Your people. And so God relents. And

in chapter 33 verse 1 He reaffirms His promise. Look at verse 1.

‘The LORD said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up

out of Egypt, and go to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,

saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants’. I will send an angel before you and

drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go

up to the land flowing with milk and honey.”

God’s gona give His people the promised-land.

But you can see the problem at the end of verse 3. They might get the promised

land, but they don’t get God’s presence.

Verse 3. Go up to the land, but I will not go with you,” (Why?) “because you are a

stiff necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”

And so this raises the great problem throughout the Bible. How can a God of

awesome holiness live amongst a people of awful sinfulness? He cannot. Even one

moment in His presence will destroy us. Verse 5. God tells the Israelites: You are a

stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy

you.”

It’s a dangerous thing to live with God.

And so look at the people’s response in verse 4. It’s a good response. They mourn.

Verse 4. “when the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn.”

And that’s a challenge for us, because I’m not sure we would all be devastated in

this way.

The word for distressing in verse 4 is literally disastrous.

I’m not sure we would consider this a disaster.

Yes, maybe an inconvenience. Maybe a bump in the road. But hey, the future still

looks bright. An angel to lead us. Our enemies destroyed. The promise of a

beautiful land flowing with milk and honey. God might not be joining us, but hey,

there’s still lots to be excited about.

And so it raises that question Solanga asked a couple of weeks ago? What is it

that we looking forward to about heaven? Heaven’s our promised land. If we

could receive heaven, with all the blessings that are promised: pure happiness,

perfect health, fabulous foods, stunning sunsets, re-united with friends and

family. These are great blessings of heaven, but would we be satisfied with that?

Would that still be heaven for us if God isn’t there?

It’s a provocative question: would we consider the absence of God to be a

disaster? Would we be devastated like the Israelites

You see one of our problems as Christians is we far too easily satisfied. We don’t

set our goals high enough. We seek God’s provision rather than His presence. We

seek after fulfilment and happiness and prosperity and health. And we settle for

these gifts of the Giver rather than desperately pursuing the Giver of those gifts.

And we miss out big time! We miss out on the biggest prize! The personal

experience of God: Nothing compares to that.

Here’s an illustration from Tim Keller:

Imagine a little boy comes to his mom and asks her about a nuclear bomb.

Mommy if a nuclear bomb explodes and goes off right next to you: will that make

you hot? And the mom replies: Well I suppose you could put it that way. There

will be heat, But the result is so much beyond just being hot, I actually don’t even

think you wanna talk that way.

Or imagine an athlete. He’s spent years and years training and striving to win an

Olympic gold. And along comes the event. And he succeeds. He wins the gold

medal. And as he stands on the podium, with the medal around his neck and the

anthem playing, he just loses it. He breaks down and he sobs. And a little child

comes up and says: “are you having fun?”

What does the athlete say: Well I suppose you could put it that way. Its definitely

not less than that. But its so much more than that. I wouldn’t even wanna talk

that way. It’s so much more than fun.

And the experience of God is like that. If you someone here who’s investigating

Christianity and a relationship with God. And you asking: I wonder if this could

fulfil me? Or I wonder if this could give me joy? Or I wonder if this could make me

happy?

Happy?

It’s so much beyond just being happy.

As Tim Keller puts it: ‘the presence of God is so great it utterly transforms the

question. You don’t ask that question anymore. “Will this make me happy?" Its so

far beyond being happy. Happiness in there, but you wouldn’t put it that way. In

fact, as soon as you ask that question it shows: you don’t really know what it is.’

And so the Israelites are devastated. The angel to go with them. The enemies

destroyed. The promised land. It’s just not good enough. It’s nothing if they don’t

have God.

And so this is my question for you this morning: Is this your desire? do you really

want God’s presence?

If you do then I wanna show you how you can seek it. In this passage Moses

pleads for God’s presence.

And there two main arguments he uses: And on the basis of these arguments,

God agrees to go with them. And so this teaches us how we can also seek and

experience God’s presence.

Number 1: seek God’s presence on the basis of His intimacy with Jesus

In verse 7 there’s a glimmer of hope for the Israelites. Moses sets up a tent. He

calls it the “tent of meeting”. And notice what happens every time Moses enters

this tent. Verse 9. The pillar of cloud comes down and the LORD speaks with

Moses. And just notice how intimate it is in verse 11. “The LORD would speak to

Moses face to face, (if you really wanna encounter someone you don’t just speak

to them on the phone, you meet with them and you look into their face. And you

experience their personal presence right there with you, looking at you. That’s

what Moses experiences here. And he does it on friendly terms. God speaks to

him as a man would speak to a friend)

Can you imagine? This is the possibility being held out in this passage that

although God’s transcendant in His holiness, removed from sinners, yet He’s also

immanent. He’s a personal God. And somehow, in spite of His awesome holiness

and our awful sinfulness there’s this possibility of personal intimate friendship.

And so that’s a glimmer of hope. This tent of meeting reminds us of the

tabernacle. Maybe God still intends to have a tent where He lives amongst His

people.

But if we look carefully we see this tent of meeting isn’t the real tabernacle. The

tabernacle was meant to be in the camp amongst the people. But according to

verse 7 this tent of meeting’s outside the camp some distance away. And so

whenever Moses wants to meet with God, he must go away from the people. And

in verse 10 the people watch from a distance. They stand at the entrance to their

tents as Moses goes out to meet with God. You see, Moses has access to God’s

presence, but the people are still removed.

And so that’s what Moses prays about in verse 12.

Its almost like we’ve got a hidden microphone in the tent of meeting and we can

eavesdrop on Moses conversation with God. This is what he prays: Verse 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.”

In other words, God if you want me to lead these people, then don’t let me go

alone. I need you to come with.

And in verse 14 The LORD grants him his requests: “My presence will go with you

and I will give you rest.”

But it’s interesting, the English word “you” doesn’t specify whether its referring to

one person or to a group of people. So God says: my presence will go with you. Is

He just talking about Moses or is He talking about all the Israelites?

And we can’t tell from the English. But this is where its helpful to know the

Hebrew. You see Hebrew is like Xhosa or Afrikaans where you’ll use a different

word if you speaking to a group of people compared to if you speaking to one

person. Hebrew’s like that.

And if we look at the Hebrew we see that the word for “you” here in the singular.

And so God is speaking individually to Moses. My presence will go with you

Moses and I will give you rest.

And so look at how Moses responds. He immediately switches to the plural. He

wants all the people to be included. Verse 15.

“Then Moses said to Him, “If your presence doesn’t go with us (plural) do not

send us (plural) up from here. How will anyone know that you pleased with me

and with your people unless you go with us?

You see, Moses is pleading on behalf of his people.

And by the way: what a beautiful prayer this is? It’s a prayer we should imitate for

our church.

“If your Presence doesn’t go with us then don’t send us up from here.”

There’s no point continuing in our journey as a church unless we have God’s

presence.

“How will anyone know that you pleased with us unless you go with us? What

else will distinguish us from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

You see we can have all kinds of church meetings: Bible studies and prayer

meetings and evangelistic events

But if God isn’t with us… then its all for nothing.

Then we no different from the muslims who meet in the mosque

or the Jews who meet in the synagogue

or the unbelievers who gather for Sunday morning cycles

If God’s presence isn’t with us, then we just going through the motions. There’s

no distinguishing mark that we the people of God.

And it doesn’t matter how successful we might seem in terms bums on the seats,

in terms of righteous living, in terms of evangelistic efforts, in terms of knowledge

and understanding. Those are all good things, but if God’s presence isn’t with us,

then what will distinguish us from other “successful” society?

And so let me ask you: will you pray this prayer for St James?

“Father we desperate for Your presence. If we don’t have Your presence, then

please stop us in our tracks. Don’t allow us to just go through the motions of dead

religious activity. Please may we be a people unmistakably marked by your

Presence. May people see that You pleased with us and may we be distinguished

from others by Your presence? In Jesus Name Amen”

And so Moses prays for God’s presence, not just for himself, but for all the

people.

And in verse 17 God grants him his request.

“And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked (in other

words, I will go with these people)

But I want you to notice the reason why. Why does God agree to go with?

Verse 17. “I will do the very thing you have asked” (why?) “because I am pleased

with you and I know you by name.

Again that “you” is singular. Its talking about Moses.

Moses has a close relationship with God. God is pleased with Moses. And that’s

why He goes with the people.

And you know the same is still true for us.

There’s another man in the Bible who enjoys an even closer relationship with

God. God refers to Him as “My Son Whom I love”. And on the basis of that

intimacy He intercedes for us.

In John 17 Jesus prays for those who will believe in Him. And we allowed to

eavesdrop on that prayer. Just look at verse 21 on the screen: Notice how we get

included in verse 21. Jesus prays: “Father, just as you are in me and I am in You,

May they also be in us?”

You see God’s relationship with Jesus is so tight that He is in Jesus. And Jesus is in

Him.

They completely united. And now Jesus prays: May they also be in us? We get

drawn into the unity of God.

Its amazing!

Look at verse 25 Father I want those You have given me to be with me where I

am, and to see my glory, the glory You have given me…”

You see Jesus has access to the full glory of God. And now He wants us to be with

Him and to behold His glory.

And then finally look at verse 26 He says: I have made You known to them and will

continue to make You known in order that the love You have for Me might be in

them.”

What a glorious thought! Can you believe it? That love that God has for His Son

That same love might be in us? He might love us in the same way?

Its incredible.

And so this is the first way we can seek God’s presence. We can’t do it on the

basis of our own rightesouness or intimacy with God.

We can’t do it on the basis of an earthly pastor or priest

Please don’t think that as pastors we enjoy some special access to God that other

Christians don’t have.

No! The only way to experience the presence God is on the basis of His intimacy

with His Son.

And so this is another prayer we can imitate.

“Father may that same love that You have for Your Son be given to us. May the

same glory that You’ve revealed to Your Son be made known to us? May Your

presence be as evident amongst us as it is with your Son. In Jesus’ Name Amen.”

And so lets move on to the 2nd way we can seek God’s presence. We do it on the

basis of His intimacy with Jesus.

But secondly, we also do it on the basis of His merciful Name

In verse 18 Moses asks God to show him His glory. And He’s not allowed to see

the full face of God. He can’t see God’s full undisclosed glory. That would kill him.

But he is allowed to hide in a rock and God shows him the back parts of His glory.

And I want you to notice the way that God does that.

How would you expect God to reveal His glory? Maybe through a loud

thunderous noise. Maybe through a bright blinding light? Maybe through an

electric emotional atmosphere?

Well no. God reveals His glory through the proclamation of His Name. Look at

verse 18.

‘Then Moses said, “Now show me Your glory.” 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”

God reveals His glory by proclaiming His Name. And the Name of God refers to His

character. Its Who He is. Its what He stands for.

As Tim Keller puts it:

“an experience of the presence of God is not an electrical shock. It is always a

communication about the character of God. There’s a content to it.”

And if ur a Christian you’ve had some experience of this: you might be walking

down the road. You might be sitting in your room. And some truth about God

enters Your mind. It might be His goodness or His wisdom or His love. And

suddenly you sense you not alone. God is present with you. And you experience

some sense of God’s glory as you contemplate His character.

God reveals His glory by proclaiming His Name.

And so if you jump down to chapter 34 verse 6 you can see the proclamation of

God’s Name. God calls Moses up the mountain. He comes down in a cloud. And in

verse 6 notice what lies at the heart of God’s Name. Verse 6

“He passed in front of Moses proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the

compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and

faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion

and sin.

Lets just stop there for now. I’m sure you can catch the main thrust of these

verses. At the heart of God’s Name is His mercy and His love.

And so this is how Ashley Knowle summarizes the glory of God. “At the heart of

God’s glory is His love for the unworthy.”

And so maybe you consider yourself an unworthy person this morning. That’s a

right way to view yourself. But maybe you struggle to believe that you could be

forgiven, that you could experience God’s presence

Well just notice all the words that are piled up here to emphasize God’s grace.

Just let these words wash over your heart.

Compassionate. God takes pity on the weak and vulnerable.

Gracious. God shows love to the undeserving.

Slow to anger. God isn’t angered quickly.

Abounding in love. Love flows out of God’s heart like an overflowing fountain.

Faithful. God sticks with His people.

Maintaining His love to thousands. God keeps on loving.

And the way He does that is by forgiving.

He forgives wickedness. Not just wickedness, he forgives rebellion. Not just

rebellion, He forgives sin.

There three different words here to describe different ways we might offend God

And the point is: all kinds of wickedness can be forgiven.

And so May this comfort our doubting hearts. God is a merciful God. He delights

to forgive.

But of course we didn’t finish. There’s a final sentence in the unfolding of God’s

Name. And it raises a great tension in these verses.

At the end of verse 7 we told: He doesn’t leave the guilty unpunished.”

And so this is the tension: How can God be so merciful to forgive all kinds of

wickedness? But at the same time, so just that no guilty person goes unpunished?

How can we resolve that tension? Well of course that takes us right to the heart

of the message of the gospel.

How can sinful people like us can be forgiven? its not because God overlooks our

sin. Its not because our sins go unpunished. No! It’s because the guilt of our sin

gets placed on Jesus. And He takes the punishment we deserve.

And so don’t be mistaken: all the guilt for all the sin in this world will be punished.

Either we’ll be punished for our own sin. Or else, if we repent and trust in Jesus,

then He is punished in our place.”

Now of course Moses doesn’t understand all this. He doesn’t see its all gona work.

But he hears the main thrust of these verses: God’s Name is merciful. He desires

to forgive. Somehow He will make a way.

And so look at how he responds in verse 9. He grabs hold of those words and he

uses them in his prayer. verse 9. “Oh LORD, if I have found favour in Your eyes,”

he said, “then let the LORD go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people,

forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.

You see, Moses is still praying the same thing. He’s still praying for God’s

presence. But now he bases it on God’s Name.

And so this teaches us how to pray in God’s Name. It’s something we need to

learn to do.

Many people pray in the Name of Jesus? But they view it almost as a magical

formula at the end of their prayers to guarantee what they asking for. Father

please give me a motorbike, in Jesus Name. Please heal my diseases in Jesus’

Name. Please give me fancy house in the Name of Jesus.

Its almost like saying abracadabra to magically get what you want.

But that’s not what it means to pray in Jesus Name.

Jesus Name refers to His character. Its His glory. It’s Who He is.

To pray in Jesus’ Name is to understand His character and to base your prayers

upon Who He is.

And so I wanna encourage you to learn verses 6 and 7 off by heart. There 57

words to describe God’s Name.

Type it out and stick it on your fridge. Stick it on your car. Put it as your

screensaver.

And then use it daily to plead for God’s presence.

Dear friends, we need God’s presence. More than anything else. Let’s not be

satisifed with anything less. Let’s seek after God. Let’s pray for His presence. The

Bible encourages us to pray for many things:

We should pray for those who are sick. We should pray for those in need. We

should pray for financial provision. We should pray for greater righteousness and

understanding of the truth. But more than anything else we should pray for God’s

presence. Let’s do that now.