THURDAY 24th
Exodus 33:12-23
NIV (v14) – ‘The LORD replied, My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’
ESV (v14) – ‘And he said, My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’
I mentioned this verse in the devotion for September 8th, where it was given to me as a confirmation of the will of God for Elaine and myself back in 2006. When it comes to this verse, God has instructed Moses to move on from Sinai and to continue to make progress toward the land that flowed with milk and honey. Moses was reluctant to continue without some sort of guarantee from God to which God tells him, ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’
I don’t know about you, but I would have been eager to get to the promised land, it seemed a much more pleasant place than both where they had left (Egypt) and where they were presently staying. But we see some of the problem was to do with the people of Israel themselves, verse 3 says that they were a stiff-necked people, this comes from a Hebrew word* which indicates hard-hearted and stubborn, (obstinance) without wanting to sound disrespectful, to use a modern phrase, pig-headed! I wonder where they got this from. If we wind back to Egypt, we find that it was also how the Pharaoh was described, Exodus 9:34-35, 13:15, so there was still something of the old ways still in the lives of the people of God as they were supposed to be progressing toward the promised land.
I wonder how often we suddenly discover something of our old nature rearing its ugly head. We are reminded in Scripture that In Christ we have become new creations, the old is gone and the new is come, but sadly we all discover that in our Christian pilgrimage, too often perhaps, something of the old nature reappears and we need to deal with it, for left unchecked it will hinder our progress. It is also possible that we can react wrongly when change happens, and by change I refer to necessary change, essential for progress, but we become stiff-necked about it, stubborn to the point that we become stagnant in our walk instead of progressing. In the account before us, their progress was hindered, the stubbornness needed to be dealt with and once dealt with, God promised he would be with them, his presence would travel with them. When change is necessary to implement the way for progress, we need to learn to adapt and allow God to move us forward in his purpose knowing that his presence will be with us.
Referring back to my example from 2006, I am grateful that this verse was given to me, for of myself I would never have moved when we did from Sudbury to North Wales, and even though North Wales was far from a promised land, flowing with milk and honey,( maybe we have reached it here in the north east 😊) we knew God’s presence in so many different ways. God is faithful, when we learn to trust him, which involves yielding our stubborn will to him, we will yield knowing that he will be with us.
My stubborn will at last hath yielded;
I would be Thine, and Thine alone,
And this the prayer my lips are bringing,
Lord, let in me Thy will be done.
Sweet will of God, still fold me closer,
Till I am wholly lost in Thee;
Sweet will of God, still fold me closer,
Till I am wholly lost in Thee.
I’m tired of sin, footsore and weary,
The darksome path hath dreary grown,
But now a light has ris’n to cheer me;
I find in Thee my Star, my Sun.
Thy precious will, O conqu’ring Savior,
Doth now embrace and compass me;
All discords hushed, my peace a river,
My soul a prisoned bird set free.
Shut in with Thee, O Lord, forever,
My wayward feet no more to roam;
What pow’r from Thee my soul can sever?
The centre of God’s will my home.
* qšh – New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis Vol 3 Page 998 Willem A. VanGemeren. Paternoster Press