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Exodus 33:1-17

Well, let me invite you to take your Bible and turn with me to Exodus 33. Aside from praise and worship music, today’s country is one of my favorite genres of music. It’s a far cry from the country and Western music of my childhood (Willy Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kenny Rogers, Kris Kristofferson, George Strait, Johnny Cash, and others), but the songwriters still know how to harken back to the values and morals that many of us treasure.

For example, there’s a song by Luke Combs titled Even Though I’m Leaving, and he begins by singing about being a child and not wanting his dad to leave the bedroom at night because there are monsters right outside. And the chorus is his dad’s reassurance that he’s still with him. The second verse sees the little boy grown up and joining the military and he’s leaving for a deployment overseas. Sure enough, his dad reassures him that he’s still there. And the last verse is just before his dad dies and his father tells him again that he’ll be right there. Each time the chorus ends you’re left with the title of the song: “Even though I’m leavin’, I ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

How do you move forward in your faith journey when there’s been a transition? Maybe you’ve encountered a significant loss. Maybe you’re getting ready to relocate, or you’ve just relocated here. Many kids have just graduated and moved to new towns and campuses. Some of you are planning trips overseas. Like the chorus of the song says, “Just ‘cause you’re leavin’ it don’t mean that I won’t be right by your side… This morning we’re going to be reminded that the presence of God gives us great hope as we continue on life’s journey.

Follow along with me as we read verses 1-17:

1 The LORD said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ 2 I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”

4 When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. 5 For the LORD had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” 6 Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

7 Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. 8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. 9 When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the LORD would speak with Moses. 10 And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. 11 Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

12 Moses said to the LORD, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in Your sight, please show me now Your ways, that I may know You in order to find favor in Your sight. Consider too that this nation is Your people.” 14 And He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 And he said to Him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not in Your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and Your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

17 And the LORD said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.”

“Father, with our Bibles open before You, we ask for the enabling of the Holy Spirit to both speak and to hear, to understand and to believe, to obey and to walk in the pathway of Your choosing. So, accomplish Your purposes in us, we pray. In Christ’s name. Amen.”

In the previous chapter, we saw that the Israelites fell into the sin of idolatry despite the fact they had said they would do everything that God had told them. So, when we flip the page to chapter 33 and God tells them to go up to the land that He swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – a land flowing with milk and honey – it seems like it’s good news. God’s anger and wrath have been turned away, but there’s a problem. God’s not going with them. Why? Look at the end of verse 3; because they’re stiff-necked people.

They were stubborn. They were obstinate. They were stiff-necked, like oxen that refuse to be moved. Have you ever tried to move a 3,000 bull that didn’t want to move? I have. You can slap that boy and lean into him and grab his ears, but if he doesn’t want to move, then you might as well be trying to move a concrete wall. Now, I know that none of you are stubborn. It’s just the person sitting next to you. (Look at the person next to you and say, “Stop being stubborn.” Some of you are sitting next to your spouse. It’s nice having the pastor’s permission to say that, isn’t it.) I know you don’t think the Old Testament has much to say to you, but you’re right there in verse 3.

And because of our stubbornness, notice the subtle changes beginning in verse 1. No longer does God refer to Israel as “My people,” but just “the people.” And in verse 2 it’s not “My angel,” but just a regular old “angel.” See, a distance was created when they worshipped the golden calf. God would still give them gifts, and a promised land, but He wasn’t going to go with them.

Thankfully, to Israel’s credit, they responded appropriately in the following verses by removing their ornamentation. These were the jewels and other items that God had allowed them to plunder from Egypt when they left. And God was testing them to see if they were truly sad about what they had done, or if they would just rebel again by continuing to wear them. This time they obeyed and, in fact, they left the jewelry off from Mount Horeb onward. (Mount Horeb is just another name for Mount Sinai.) Israel wanted to be right with God. They were desperate for God’s presence. And that leads me to the first point this morning.

We Have A Need We Cannot Overlook

The moment that Israel learned God wasn’t going with them, they realized that their greatest need was God (Himself). If you think about it, what God said to them when He said He wasn’t going is what a lot of people want. They want the benefits of God but they don’t care about having a relationship with Him. They want the blessings but not the Blesser. They want to go to heaven. They want to go to the promised land, but it doesn’t really matter if God is there. There are tremendous benefits in receiving the gospel, but may we never forget that the greatest gift we receive when we become Christians is God Himself.

Knowing God, having a relationship with our heavenly Father, and being in communion with our Creator is better than anything else. People that have a vibrant and growing relationship with Jesus are naturally joyful, peaceful, kind, gentle, and gracious. No, not all the time. After all, we live in a fallen world; but the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control) is part of what comes when you know the Lord Jesus. The psalmist asked, “Who do I have in heaven but You?” (Psalm 73:25).

Let me ask you: do you want the benefits, do you want the blessings, do you want the promises of heaven without a personal relationship with God? “Do not be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:16-17, NIV). None of those things exist for you apart from knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a need that we can’t overlook – a need to know God and be known by God. Do you know Him? Are you walking with Him?

We Have A Privilege We Must Not Neglect

When we get to verses 7-11, we’re introduced to this scene where Moses would leave the camp and go to his tent. Now, don’t confuse this tent with the Tabernacle. In terms of the narrative, in terms of the chronology, the Tabernacle hasn’t been constructed yet. See, we’ve already covered the instruction and building of the tabernacle in previous sermons, but as far as where we are in the story, the tabernacle doesn’t exist yet. So, this tent is Moses’ personal tent and he calls it the “tent of meeting” (v. 7).

Catch the scene: Moses would leave the camp and go to his tent. When he did this the people would stand. They would watch Moses go inside the tent and meet with God. When he went in, the cloud would come down and hover over the entrance. And Moses talked with God. Look at verse 11, “Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” This doesn’t mean that Moses could see God. Later on, in verse 20, which we’ll read next week, we’ll learn that “no one can see [God] and live.” So, what gives, pastor?

Well, John 4:24 tells us that “God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” So, this is a case of metaphorical language. It’s anthropomorphic. Talking face to face is another way of saying they talked intimately. Moses and God talked like friends. Jesus said the same thing to the disciples in John 15:15, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” While God said He wouldn’t go with Israel, at least God is talking to Moses. God is talking to their mediator, to their representative. There was hope for Israel, and there’s hope for you and me.

Think about the marvelous privilege we share today. How can we meet with God? We don’t have to go somewhere special. We don’t have to pitch a tent. In fact, the Bible tells us that our bodies, our very selves, are an earthly tent (2 Corinthians 5:1-5). Ephesians 2:18 says, “For through [Jesus] we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.” If you’re a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you take your tent everywhere you go because God’s presence is in you as His child. In a spiritual sense, you’re the tent. We can talk intimately to God face to face, as it were.

In his book Lion and Lamb: The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus, author Brennan Manning recounts the following true story of a man dying of cancer:

The old man’s daughter had asked the local priest to come and pray with her father. When the priest arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows and an empty chair beside his bed. The priest assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit.

“I guess you were expecting me,” he said.

“No, who are you?”

“I’m the new associate at your parish,” the priest replied. “When I saw the empty chair, I figured you knew I was going to show up.”

“Oh yeah, the chair,” said the bedridden man. “Would you mind closing the door?”

Puzzled, the priest shut the door.

“I’ve never told anyone this, not even my daughter,” said the man, “but all my life I have never known how to pray. At the Sunday Mass, I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it always went right over my head. Finally, I said to him one day in sheer frustration, ‘I get nothing out of your homilies on prayer.’ “‘Here,’ says my pastor, reaching into the bottom drawer of his desk. ‘Read this book by Hans Urs von Balthasar. He’s a Swiss theologian. It’s the best book on contemplative prayer in the twentieth century.’

“Well, Father,” says the man, “I took the book home and tried to read it. But in the first three pages I had to look up twelve words in the dictionary. I gave the book back to my pastor, thanked him, and under my breath whispered, ‘for nothin.’ “I abandoned any attempt at prayer,” he continued, “until one day about four years ago my best friend said to me, ‘Joe, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here’s what I suggest. Sit down on a chair, place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It’s not spooky because He promised, “I’ll be with you always.” Then just speak to Him and listen in the same way you’re doing with me right now.’

“So, Padre, I tried it, and I’ve liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I’m careful, though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she’d either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm.”

The priest was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old guy to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with him, anointed him with oil, and returned to the rectory. Two nights later the daughter called to tell the priest that her daddy had died that afternoon.

“Did he seem to die in peace?” he asked.

“Yes, when I left the house around two o’clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me one of his corny jokes, and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him dead. But there was something strange, Father. In fact, beyond strange – kinda weird. Apparently just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on a chair beside his bed.”

We have the privilege of speaking with our heavenly Father as a man speaks to his friend, and we must not neglect it. Let’s nourish our relationship with God so that we might talk intimately with Him.

We Have An Assignment We Cannot Complete

Finally, in verses 12-13, Moses asks God for help in leading the people. Basically, what Moses said was, “We don’t have the resources to fulfill this mission.” Moses wanted to know God and His ways. Look at verse 13, “…please show me now Your ways, that I may know You…” Jesus would say, essentially, the same thing to His disciples in John 15:5 when He was talking about the vine and the branches, “…apart from Me you can do nothing.” And God answered Moses’ bold request in verse 14, “My presence will go with you.”

In our journey of faith, there will be times in which all of us say, “Lord, You are all I have.” It might be a difficult child. It might be a strained marriage. It might be the loss of a job or the diagnosis of a terminal disease or the death of a loved one. Whatever it is, in those moments, we realize that not only is He all we have, but He’s all we ever really needed. We have to have God’s presence in order to fulfill His mission. Think about it.

What distinguished Israel was not their land (they didn’t have it yet). What distinguished Israel was not their wealth (they had been slaves). What distinguished Israel was not their culture (it wasn’t fully developed yet). What distinguished Israel was not their righteousness (they had just bowed down to a golden calf, for crying out loud). What distinguished Israel was their relationship with God. They were His people. And the same is true for those who know Jesus, personally.

We don’t rely on methods and money and marketing (although we might utilize them), instead, we rely on God’s mighty presence. Mountain Hill has always relied on God’s presence to reach other nations, plant, and partner with other churches, care for widows and orphans and the unborn, parent our kids, live as godly husbands/wives, and everything else. We have to have God or these things will simply not happen. Tony Merida, in his commentary on Exodus, writes, “Perhaps the greatest problem with the church today is the attempt to do the work of God apart from the presence and power of God. We can get so good at ‘doing church’ that the ministry becomes mechanical and mundane.”

We have to join Moses and the Israelites and say, “Lord, we don’t want to go another step without You. In fact, we can’t go another step without You.” The Spirit of God working in and through people committed to Jesus was what made the early church so powerful. Let it be true of us as well.

Let me close with verse 17. God decided to be with Israel. Why? Because of their mediator. Israel was blessed because of Moses. And God has decided to be with us because of our mediator – the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father was pleased with His Son, and He confirmed His pleasure in Jesus by raising Him from the dead. If you’re not a believer in Jesus, may you turn to Him in faith today. You can, indeed, experience a relationship with God.

From valley to valley out over the hilltops,
From sunshine to fog like the darkest of night;
So, we follow the Lord down life’s winding pathway,
And walk much by faith and little by sight.

It would be easy to see were His presence like lightning,
And easy to hear if like thunder His voice;
But He leads in the quiet by the voice of the Spirit,
And we follow in love for we’ve made Him our choice.

The path that we tread by the cross is o’er shadowed,
And the glory at times by pain is made dim;
Temptations assail and the spirit grows weary,
Yet we’re ever sustained by the vision of Him.

The years of our lives be they few or be many,
Will soon pass away as dreams of the night;
Then we’ll step through the portals on eternity’s morning,
And greet Him in glory as faith turns to sight.

The Path We Tread (by Richard L. Baxter)

We have a need we can’t overlook. We have a privilege we must not neglect. And we have an assignment we can’t complete without the presence of God giving us great hope as we continue on life’s journey.