Exodus 33: 12 – 17 “Moses said to the LORD, “Look, You have been telling me, ‘Lead this people up,’ 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 found favor in My sight.’ Now if indeed I have found favor in Your sight, please let me know Your ways, that I may know You and find favor in Your sight. Remember that this nation is Your people.”
And the LORD answered, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
“If Your Presence does not go with us,” Moses replied, “do not lead us up from here. For how then can it be known that Your people and I have found favor in Your sight, unless You go with us? How else will we be distinguished from all the other people on the face of the earth?” And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do this very thing you have asked, for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.”
Moses is really worried! God has already informed him that God is going to send an angel to guide Moses and the Israelites but that God Himself is not going to accompany them. This is why Moses is telling God, “You have not let me know whom You will send with me.”
God has threatened to withdraw His Presence and God also has stopped referring to the Israelites as His people and has begun referring to them as Moses’ people instead. But Moses is humble enough and smart enough to realize that he personally cannot handle the situation by himself. Only God can handle the Israelites!
What follows in this dialogue is a fascinating record of the negotiations between God and Moses. Moses reminds God that the Israelites ARE God’s people. Moses begs God to help him to know God’s ways and to find favor with God. God promises to send His Presence with Moses and the Israelites and to give Moses rest.
Moses replies that if God does not go with them and guide them, they cannot move anywhere. While this statement sounds a bit like a threat, it is not; Moses is speaking the literal truth. God has been guiding the Israelites through the wilderness, going before them as a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. If God doesn’t continue to guide them, Moses has no idea where they are to go.
APPLICATION: “For how then can it be known that Your people and I have found favor in Your sight, unless You go with us? How else will we be distinguished from all the other people on the face of the earth?” Dennis Prager makes the point that throughout Jewish history, it is the presence of God that has distinguished the Jews from all other peoples. “When Jews have abandoned God and the Torah, little or nothing has remained distinctive about them, and they simply assimilated into their host societies… Only their religious essence has, as the verse says, “distinguished” Jews and thereby sustained them.” (Dennis Prager The Rational Bible: Exodus)
What distinguishes those who are believers in the One True Living God from those who are not? If there is nothing that distinguishes us, are we really believers or merely camp followers, hanging on to see how many goodies we can get?
This passage raises the question of whether or not a human being can change God’s mind. Again, Prager gives us an excellent answer: “God is indeed infallible. But the human ability to change God’s mind or behavior does not mean God makes mistakes; it means God is affected by human beings. The notion that God is open to human influence is , of course, what animates prayer in all religious that believe in the God of the Torah…He (God) is a “movable mover.” In other words, God takes human beings very seriously.”
Prayer does change things and people and events. During World War II there were several critical moments when the Germans might have overrun England; yet, they did not. At the last instant, German leaders either blundered or changed their minds. It is a matter of record that there were thousands of British prayer warriors interceding for their country at all times. The evacuation of the British troops from Dunkirk is a perfect example. Weather in the English Channel can turn bad without warning; yet, the seas remained calm while hundreds of small boats, including pleasure craft, carried British soldiers safely back to England. The fact that people in London are still speaking English and not German is a tribute to answered prayer!
God continues to speak to us and God also continues to listen to us. Go someplace where you can be quiet and then talk to God, telling Him your problems. Then wait. You are unlikely to hear an audible voice, but God has ways of gently directing you if you will look for them.
PRAYER: Father God, please help those who read this devotional to get quiet before You and to listen for Your still small Voice. Thank You that You are a prayer – answering God and that You can communicate with us in all kinds of ways. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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