Welcome!
Passage: Exodus 33 (NIV 84)
Today: Lord, don’t come with us please…(?)
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?” (Ex 33, NIV 84)-emphasis added
Who does these people (Israel) belong to? God, or Moses?
What we see in these chapters (32 & 33) is this: God tells Moses, “your people”, and Moses tells God, “your people”; neither God, nor Moses is saying, “my people”!
In most other places, we see God calling them “my people”, even though Moses never “claimed” them! Sin alienates us from God, and from people also!
Moses insists on God’s presence; “if God is not coming, we are not going”!
But I think this is how many (of us) are saying today: “If God is coming with me/us, we are not going anywhere”!
See the two very important questions Moses is asking God:
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?”
Moses wanted the rest of the world to know that these are a people with whom God is pleased; also, Moses wanted them to be distinguished from others
And, when such people move through the land, everything around will shake!
5 Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until we had crossed over, their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites. (Joshua 5, NIV 84)-emphasis added
When Israel was to enter the promised land, all the people and kings around that land were so scared because God was with the Israelites, clearly!
In the book of Acts, we see a similar thing; the first century church “shook” almost everything around! Jesus “shook” everyone around!
But today, people around us don’t even sense our presence, and we don’t even want them to! and may be, we are going where everybody else is going!
If we are going to a different place, our “walk and talk” will be different!
What kind of “news” about us is filling the media today? Is that news about God’s work among us, or about “our works”?
Some of the news is bad, stinking…..!
When God stays away from us, it stinks; it makes noise and news!
It is time to pray the prayer of Moses-inviting God back into our lives
Have a blessed day!
BG
Prayer: Father God, thank you for your saving grace. We admit that we were not very much looking to please you or desiring for your presence with us; we were trying to be like others, not different. Forgive us Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen
We can’t take the same route as others, if we are going to a different place!