Drawing Closer to God

(The example of Moses, continued from June 9)

 

When the people withdrew from God, Moses went up on the mountain and spent 40 days with God who gave him stone tablets on which God had written the entire law. While Moses was with God, the people ran amuck, decided that Moses was not coming back and asked Aaron to make a new god for them.

 

Exo 32:7-14 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'"   And the LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. :10  Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you." But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, "O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, 'With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.  Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.'"  And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but Moses and God sound like frustrated parents here.

God says, “Moses, your people, whom you brought out of Egypt”…then God says, stand aside while I take care of this. I will destroy these people and start over with you.

That reminds me of an upset mother who meets her husband at the door to tell him, look what your son did today! She doesn’t even want to claim ownership. Moses says, "Wait a minute, these are YOUR people!" 

Moses pleas with God to have mercy. HIs request is based on three things: 

1. God's Relationship
Moses said, “Your people, whom YOU brought out of Egypt. With great power and a mighty hand.”
Moses reminded God that these are His people, people he redeemed. God would stand with them because they were His people.

2.     God’s glory and reputation
What will the Egyptians say if you kill the people now. They will say that you had an evil intent. They will think that you are not good. Moses implores God based on God’s character, because He knows that God is not evil.

3.     God’s promises
Remember you swore to Abraham to make him a great nation. Moses knows that God will not forget  his promises.

The Lord relented from destroying the people because of Moses prayer.
He told Moses that he would keep his promises, that an angel would lead the Israelites into the promised land, but that God himself would not go with them because he would kill them along the way.

Moses would not accept that. He said that he would not go on if God would not go with them. Moses cared more for God’s presence that the promised land.  

Exo 33:13  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." And he said, "My presence

will go with you, and I will give you rest."  And he said to him, "If your presence will not go with me, do not bring

us up from here.  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?"  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."   Moses said, "Please show me your glory."

To Moses, it was no longer about getting to the promised land, He had to have God’s presence…not his provision, not his promises, his presence. God agrees, because Moses had found favor in his sight.        
And, not only that, Moses asked for more. Show me your glory, and God agreed. He put Moses in the cleft of a rock and covered him so that Moses could not see God until He had passed by, then God removed his hand so that Moses could see his back.

Exo 34:5-8 The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the

LORD. 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, keeping steadfast love for thousands,

forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the

fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation." And Moses quickly

bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.

 God revealed himself to Moses. From his first encounter when the Lord told Moses, tell them “I Am sent you.” Time and again, God told Moses another name or showed Moses new power, ability, and mercy. And here, we have a unique speaking of God, where God describes himself. The first quality that God reveals about himself is that he is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Surely this did not surprise Moses. The words that God spoke supported the experiences that Moses had already had.
 
Moses was humble. Moses feared God, but Moses was not afraid to be honest with God, and Moses was not afraid to ask God for more…more of His presence, more of his glory, more of his speaking. Moses had a heart that wanted more.