God in our midst - Exodus chapters 33 & 34
1st June 2016
One of the wonders of the God of the Bible is that he dwells with his people. In fact this is one of the uniquenesses of Christianity and the life of Israel in the Old Testament.
While Moses was up Mt Sinai receiving the 10 commandments and instructions to build the tabernacle – the tabernacle being the symbolic means by which God would live with his people Israel - while Moses was up the mountain, Israel had sinned by worshipping the golden calf and indulging in immorality. As a result of this disobedience, in Ex ch33, God told Moses, and Moses told the people that although they would still enter the Promised Land and be successful, he would no longer be going with them, but an angel would go before them instead. If God went with the Israelites it would have been too dangerous for Israel because of their rebellion.
33:1 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.
The Israelites rightly regarded this news as disastrous – not because he might consume them but because they knew it would make them ordinary – just like every other people. They were still promised milk and honey in the Promised Land but they had had plenty enough food in Egypt and grumbled about leaving that. Why go through all this for another menu? No, having God among them on the journey and in the Promised Land and on his holy mountain was what was going to make Israel special. It was too important a privilege for them to lose. They would just be one more tribe. They wanted to be special with their God living among them in a visible way.
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 favour 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?”
In the next chapter [34] Moses went up the mountain again.
5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.”
You see, being forgiving is part of the “Name of the Lord’, part of his character. And in verses 8 & 9 Moses quickly picked up on this quality of God and he knew – he knew God could and would go on with Israel and be among them after all, and not just send an angel. Because God is a forgiving God.
8 And Moses quickly bowed his head towards the earth and worshipped. 9 And he said, “If now I have found favour in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
And of course God did go up to the Promised Land with Israel. But what does this story speak to us about today? Yes - rejoicing in the forgiveness of God. Yes - rejoicing that God is with us. But more still I believe …
What went wrong at the golden calf? – False worship. I understand that some of you were looking at changing bad human behaviour in the 1st year Spiritual Formation class yesterday morning. Trace, Face and Replace. The Lord got there a long time ago. False worship of the golden calf had to be traced, faced and replaced.
… because immediately afterward Moses prays and believes God will go with Israel after all, God gives him seemingly random instructions about destroying the religious objects they find in the land they will conquer. Thus the commands about the need to keep the Sabbath and the three great feasts of the Jewish religious year, Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles – which for us are all fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The false worship that got them into so much trouble was traced, it was faced up to with judgement, but it had to be replaced by right worship as Dolly talked about yesterday.
True worship is so important. It’s not about imposing lots of rules on yourself, which you will break, as you grit your teeth to keep them and fail to do so. It’s the truth that will set you free. We are what we worship. Right and true worship of God through Jesus Christ will help us to trace, face and replace the false worship that gets us into so much trouble. The false worship of the idols of money, false security, popularity, lust and so much more – all the things that went on around the golden calf at the foot of Mt Sinai 3,500 years ago. We need Christ centred Christianity. No more of the golden calf. Let Christ be in the midst of us.