Exodus 33:12-16
THE SIGHT of Moses here pleading so touchingly with God on behalf of the people is very fine, and beyond anything that has gone bore. Moses says, “See, Thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and Thou hast not let me know whom Thou wilt send with me.” God had said, “I will send an angel before thee"; but this does not satisfy Moses. He would know more, and so he says: “Yet Thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in My sight.” How lovely this is! All the personal confidence that God had in him he uses on behalf of the people. He presents his own cause first, and then he brings in the people.
“If I have found grace in Thy sight,” he pleads, “show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee, that I may find grace in Thy sight: and consider that this nation is Thy people.” He will not give up his love and desire for Israel. God might treat them as the people of Moses and say, “They are the people you have brought up; they are your people.” But Moses says, as it were, “Oh, no, they are Thine; and Thou art their only hope.” He will not be put off. And, speaking reverently, the Lord delighted to give in to Moses as He had to Jacob long before (Gen. 32:24-30).
How wonderful this all is! In Moses we see faith, hope and love in abundant measure. If the people were to be blessed, then those springs of blessing could only come from God.
Furthermore, Moses was not satisfied to be appointed of God to lead Israel, with an angel to go before; he wanted to know God’s way, not his, through the wilderness, that he might know Him. And as children of God, journeying through this wilderness world on our way to our heavenly Home, we too will want to know God’s way — there is none other for the Christian. We are called to follow in the path of the Lord Jesus, marked out for us in His Word.
How precious the Lord’s answer to Moses: “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” Comforted and encouraged by the Lord’s gracious condescension, Moses says, “If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.” Moses wand nothing apart from the people. In going out of the camp, it was that he might gather so much more of the blessing for the people that he had left behind.
Moses not only links the people with himself in the favor in which he stood before the Lord, but he goes further — he links them with God Himself. He say, “For wherein shall it be known here that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? is it not in that Thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.”
The presence of the Lord is that which separates His people from all others. There are many of other nations who traveled the route from Egypt to Palestine, but what marked the children of Israel off from all the rest was the presence of the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night — Jehovah journeyed with His people.
And so it is with us, dear young believer, though in a much more blessed way. The Lord is journeying with His people across this desert world. May we enjoy His blessed presence more and more as we travel on day by day to our heavenly rest.
ML-03/14/1971