God's Presence with Israel (Ex. 33:12-17)

8/9/2008 9:58 AM

My Worship Time           Focus:  God’s presence with Israel

Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference:  Exodus 33:12-17

            Message of the verses:  “12 ¶  Then Moses said to the LORD, "See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people!’ But You Yourself have not let me know whom You will send with me. Moreover, You have said, ‘I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.’  13  "Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too, that this nation is Your people." 14  And He said, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest."  15  Then he said to Him, "If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.  16  "For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?"  17  The LORD said to Moses, "I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.’”

            I am now moving into the next section in Warren Wiersbe’s book on Exodus, and this is the last chapter in his book on Exodus, “Be Delivered.”  This section is entitled “Grace: God’s servant intercedes.”

            Moses is now back up on the mountain with the Lord and he is speaking with the Lord about what He had told Moses that He would send an angel to lead them to the Promised Land and not do it Himself.  Moses knew that God had promised earlier to lead them into the Promised Land and so that is what He wants God to do.  Moses also knew that the people of Israel had sinned a great sin by making the golden calf and worshiping it in the place of God.  Moses was asking the Lord this perhaps because He knew that God was a gracious and merciful God and even though the people did not deserve God leading them He wanted Him to do so anyhow. 

            God agrees to do this and I believe that God truly wanted Moses to intercede on behalf of Israel and also to claim God’s promises that He had made earlier about leading the nation into the Promised Land. 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The song writer had it right when he entitled his song “Amazing Grace,” for God’s grace is truly amazing for without God’s grace there would be no salvation for me or for anyone else.  I’m truly thankful for the grace of God and for the mercy of God and for the love of God and also for the promises of God and the privilege of prayer and the leading of God in my life through His Holy Spirit.  I believe that God leads me through difficult times so that I will be on my knees claiming the promises of God to be fulfilled in my life.

My Steps of Faith for Today: 

1. I want to trust the Lord to lead my path and to see me through the troubles and questions that I have in my life at this time.
2. Put on my spiritual armor.
3. Continue to seek contentment through the trials and tests of life.

Memory verses for the week:                      Exodus 20:1-5

1. Then God spoke all these words, saying,
2. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3. You shall have no other gods before Me.
4. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
5. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and forth generations of those who hate me.

8/9/2008 10:44 AM