The Promise of His presence

 

COLERAINE INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SUNDAY 8 SEPTEMBER 2024 – PASTOR DENIS LYLE

Exodus 33 verses 12 – 23

The Promise of His Presence

Years ago in the deep south in the United States of America a Baptist church was struggling with whether to allow an African man to become part of their congregation.  This brother had been the church caretaker for a number of years and he decided he wanted to be part of the church family.  There was a special vote of the congregation was called for.  Finally the decision was made and he lost his bid to become a member of that congregation.  Thinking on this fact of being rejected by the membership of the church he talked to God “I don’t understand those folks in that church, I wanted to join their family and they voted against me.”  The Lord seemed to speak to him and say “Don’t worry about it my child, I have been trying to get into that church for years, they won’t let me either.”  “The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of the God and the church is famishing for the want of his presence.” A W Tozer said.  Nothing is scarier in church in churches today that the absence of the presence of God.”  Yet is that not the thing Moses longed for.  The children of Israel were making their way to the Promised Land.  Sin had entered into the camp.  The Lord had indicating the loss of his presence – chapter 33 verse 3.  “I will not go up in the midst of thee.”  The loss of God’s presence.  What a sad state they were in.  A time of indifference to their leader.  "As for this man Moses we don’t know what has become of him.”  We don’t know where he is or what he is doing.  The implication is we don’t care.  You can tell a lot about a local church by their attitude towards the Lord’s man.  They were indifferent towards their leader, towards to God. They proposed that Aaron to make new gods to follow.  A time of idolatry -Aaron made a calf.  God was degraded to being a cow.  Whenever we give to anything the allegiance and devotion that belongs to God alone then we are guilty of idolatry.  A time of indulgence - naked Israelites dancing before a golden calf.  No much wonder God said “I will send an angel before thee.”  Are there many believers who really grieve over the loss of God’s presence and power today in the church?  As long as the church machinery keeps running.  Leaders are willing to overlook the absence of any spiritual power.  As long as our lives are comfortable, individual Christians are the same. A business as usual attitude will never bring the revival we need.  Moses understood this - do we?  In this passage we see great things in not great times.  In chapter 33 verses 7 – 11 we see a great preparation. In chapter 33 verses 12 – 13 we see a great prayer.  In chapter 33 verse 14 we see a great promise.  God knew what Moses was after – not the presence of angels but the presence of God for which Moses was pleading.  The Lord responds in verse 14 “My presence shall go with thee and I will give you rest.”  Notice 3 things about this promise.

The timing of it in the life of Moses.  When did this promise come?  The nation of Israel has sinned.  Moses is on the mountain receiving the commandments, the pattern for the tabernacle.  While he is on the mountain the people have turned aside quickly to idolatry.  They are dancing naked before the golden calf.  Moses comes back to the camp.  He sees the idol worship in progress, the tablets of God dropped from his trembling hands.  He sees the wretched image, he burns it in the fire, he grinds it to powder.  Moses is angry.   He is broken hearted.  It was in lovingkindness toward his heart broken servant that God gave this assurance.  Here was a promise given to a man with little help.  A lonely man – perhaps he was more lonely in the desert with 2 and a half million people than when he was with the flock at the backside of the desert.  Even Aaron his brother had let him down.  He was disillusioned.  The people on whom such high hopes had been set had proved faithless.  Tablets of law were broken.  The wrath of God burned against this stiff-necked people.  His disappointment was great.  Yet it was to this man God gave this comforting word.  “My presence shall go with you and I will give you rest.”  Am I speaking to some disappointed Christian? You started out with godly intentions and high hopes but experience has brought disillusionment.  Now you are disappointed with life.  There is perhaps an incurable dull ache in your heart.  Disappointed with the way things have turned out.  Perhaps you are disappointed with yourself, disappointed with Christian friends, disappointed with the circumstances of life, disappointed with other believers.  This promise is specifically for you “my presence shall go with you and I will give you rest.”  The Lord is really with you.  He is wanting to become so real to you.  Your disappointment will be transformed into triumph by his realised presence.  This promise was given to a man with little help, but also to a man with little heart.  A man whose great work for God seemed to be falling to pieces.  How discouraged and dispirited Moses must have been.  Not only have the people proved utterly independent and utterly perverted, 3000 Israelites has been slain by the sword, the tabernacle had been removed from the corrupted camp but God has indicated the withdrawal of his presence.  It was true that God had said an angel would lead the host but an angels presence without God himself means guidance without fellowship.  Dispirited, despondent, Moses comes before the Lord - verses 12 and 13.  Are you a discouraged servant today?  Why those falling tears? Maybe you are here and you have been jealous for the honour of your master and it seems that there is nothing but misunderstanding.  Maybe you have been faithfully witnessing for Christ and you have seen no souls come to the Saviour.  Maybe you have been seeking to win children for the master and they have been so unresponsive.  Maybe you have been seeking a deeper spiritual life and it hasn’t come.  Depression has taken hold of you.  Discouraged believer this promise is for you “my presence shall go with you and I shall give you rest.”  He wants to make his living presence a reality.  What a difference it makes if we travel in the conscious realisation of his presence.  Here was a promise given to a man with little hope, a man bending with the weight of great responsibility. He felt that his burden was greater than he could bear.  He was apprehensive about the future.  Did ever a man carry a heavier load than Moses? Imagine being responsible for 2½ million people to bring them out of the land of Egypt, to guide them through the wilderness and bring them into the promised land.  Is it any wonder Moses longed for the personal presence of God himself?  When God calls a man out for his service there is always a sense of responsibility but also a sense of loneliness.  He longed for the Lord’s personal presence with him.  Has God ever failed us?  To those who carry heavy burdens, to those who are lonely because of your ministry for Christ, here’s a promise for you.  Is this promise for you specifically.  You are here with little help, little heart, little hope because of your burden for the master – “my presence shall go with thee.”

The telling of it – what did this promise mean?  The Lord did relate to Moses in spoken words – verse 14 “and he said”.  What did God say? “My presence will go with you and I will give you rest.”  John Wesley’s death bed exaltation “the best of all that God is with us.”  What is this promise all about?  It is all about companionship.  The Lord is promising Moses, the Lord is promising us certain companionship.  “My presence shall go with thee.”  Dr Sydney Baxter said of this text“The divine assurances are never weakened by any suggestion of falteringness.  They are all yes and in him Amen.  They are doubly sure. He means without any perhaps, or peradventure he will be with you right through to the end.”  Certain companionship.  It is also about close companionship.  The word “my” pronoun gives the emphasis.  God’s promise to send an angel far from satisfying Moses, but now God tenderly yields to his servant.  The Greek translation of the Old Testament says “I myself will go with thee.” The pledge is the step-by-step, side by side, heart to heart fellowship with God through all our way.  This meant more than God guiding Moses from a distant heaven but ever close companionship of one sufficient to meet Moses’ need for guidance, for sustenance, for strength.  An unchanging friend who will sit with him in the tent, go with him in the fields of battle, stand with him in the counsels.  How can we be lonely with this everlasting friend has promised to travel with us down the desert road? Literally translated “my face shall go with thee.”  Suggests intimacy of fellowship.  God indicates his gracious favour.  The face of God, the smile of God, company of God. Certain companionship, close companionship, calm companionship.  “My presence shall go with you and give you rest.”  Many think this rest is rest in Canaan after battle.  There are 2 sorts of rest.  Rest after toil, the lying down of weary after the march.  The other is rest in toil, the liberty of rest while the battle is going on today.  God was promising this to Moses – rest in the battle.  The kind we need today.  Did you ever think you would live in a day of so much restlessness among believers?  How we need that soothing inner quiet that only God.  His rest grows out of the consciousness of God’s presence.  A rest, a peace that nothing else can give.  Rest from doubt, a rest fear for if God be with us who can be against us.  Rest from anxiety, rest about fear about the future.  “My presence shall go with thee and I will give you rest.”  Do you know this rest?  Do you need this rest?

The testing of it - where did this promise apply?  Can we doubt that Moses did not put this promise to the test.  He took it.  He discovered God was able to perform.  Imagine the comfort and assurance Moses experienced when Israel were brought out of Egypt came to the Red Sea they were in a cul-de-sac no way out.  The Egyptians were behind them.  The mountains around them.  The enemy couldn’t touch them because the angel of God protected them.  Angel of God stood between Pharaoh and the camp of Israelites.  In chapter 18 we read that the presence of God stood between Israel and Egypt.  Do we not need his protecting presence every day?  Do you not need his presence as you wrestle with the world, the flesh and the devil?  Here’s Moses the man of God taking this promise working it out in the warfare of God.  He is also working it out in the work of God.  God told him “my presence shall go with thee.”  David Livingstone said on his announcement of his return to Africa “Would you like me to tell you what supported me through all the years of exile, among a people whose language I could not understand, whose attitude towards me was always uncertain and often hostile?  It was ‘Lo I will be with you always even unto the end of the age.’  On those words I stake everything and they never fail.”  Will you prove this promise in the will of the Lord? God’s will is always blessing but is often baffling.  It seemed there was always a crisis when Moses was leading the Children of Israel.  There was a water crisis, a food crisis, crowd crisis.  He must have felt like he was stumbling from one crisis to the next.  Maybe that is what you are feeling today – like Jacob facing a family crisis?  Esau wanted to kill Jacob then God met Jacob at Bethel.  When he fled from Esau’s presence he saw the ladder going up to heaven and God promised him his presence.  Maybe you are facing a fiery crisis.  Nebuchadnezzar was trying to consolidate his empire, he knew the best way to unite people politically was to unite them religiously.  Have a common religion.  There are at least 3 attempts to instigate a world religion.  One was in the Tower of Babel.  Days of Daniel in the plain of Dura.  The final event will take place in the last days.  The image of Antichrist will be set up it the temple in Jerusalem.  There will be one world religion – ecumenism.  Here were 3 Hebrew children facing fiery crisis.  They wouldn’t bow and when they were threatened they wouldn’t budge.  Because of their faithfulness to God they were thrown in the fire.  They wouldn’t burn.  They would not alone in the fire, the Lord was with them. Are you facing a family crisis like Jacob, a fiery crisis like the 3 Hebrew children.  Like Paul maybe facing a friendship crisis in the Roman courtroom.  He could see no friendly face.  No man would stand with him.  “No man stood with me, all men forsake me” he wrote to Timothy.  “Not worth standing the Lord stood with me and strengthened me.”  Maybe you are facing a family crisis, or a fiery crisis or a friendship crisis.  Maybe you are here today and you are getting on a bit in life and you are anticipating the final crisis.  Somehow you feel that soon the Lord will take you home.  Don’t fear.  The Lord will never forsake you in death.  “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil.  Why? The ultimate is my intimate as I go through the valley of the shadow of death.”  Times of walking away come to all of us.  We may find a loved one walk away in death, a friend may walk away in distance, a son/a daughter may walk away in marriage, a colleague may walk away in work, a servant of God may walk away in retirement but “my presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest.”  When we know and love the Lord, we will never walk into the unknown future alone because God is with us.  We can step into the future with tremendous confidence. 

The timing of the promise - when did it come? 

The telling of the promise - what did it mean? 

The testing of the promise - where did it lie?  In the warfare of the Lord, in the work of the Lord, in the will of the Lord. 

What a promise - God’s presence with us.  “My presence shall go with thee and I will give you rest.”  God’s presence for the present, God’s rest for the future.  What more can we want?  He will be with us now and we with him then.  Take it home with you, take into this new week with you.  “My presence shall go with thee and give thee rest.”