Dear Abbey: How does God relate to us?
Although Exodus 33 is primarily about God's meeting with Moses to reestablish the covenant between God and Israel there is, hidden within it, a description of how God relates to us.
Exodus 33:12 Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ 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 also found grace in My sight.’ 13 Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.” 14 And He said, “My Presence will 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 bring us up from here. 16 For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.” 17 So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”18 And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.” 19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 20 But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. 23 Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”
His presence comes.
In the interaction above, between God and Moses, we see many aspects that typify all intimate relationships. The first of these is "presence". In most intimate relationships both parties are regularly in each others presence, and so it is with God. He is always close as is promised in Matthew 28:20. His closeness is a consequence of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God in our hearts. When we commit our lives to Him, He places his Holy Spirit in our hearts as guarantee that we belong to him (2 Corinthians 1:22). This is amazing and so different than when God dwelt with Israel. During those times His presence was only manifest in one place and that was in the Holy-of-Holies within the Tabernacle and in the later temples throughout Israel's history.
However this all changed when Jesus died on the Cross. As He died the temple veil that concealed the Holy-of-Holies from everyone was torn apart. This was a declaration that God was instituting a new place where His presence would dwell and that was, and is, in the hearts of those who follow in Him in spirit and truth (John 4:23) and trust in Him (John 1:12-13, John 4:23-24, John 14:16-17; Romans 5:5)!
He speaks to us
From Exodus 33 we see that Moses spoke to God and he could hear God's voice (verses 14, 17 and 19) when God spoke back to him. It was not a one-sided conversation instead it was two-way conversation.
Even though Moses was a special person God still speaks to us "non-special" people today. There are three key¹ ways God speaks to us:
- When we read the Bible: there will be times that what you are reading in the Bible will trigger thoughts and ideas that have particular relevance to your circumstances. These thoughts often seem to "break into" our consciousness and provide accurate insight and understanding. This also happens to when we hear words spoken from the Bible during a sermon.
- During prayer: God seems to give us new thoughts or words during prayer and will give insight on what should be prayed for. This may not happen immediately but as we use our minds to pray, the Holy Spirit energizes our efforts and we find we end up praying about areas we would never have considered before.
- Through other believers: often a fellow believer will say something that speaks directly to our mind or heart. They may be speaking with a certain thought in mind but you know that God has just spoken to you about something entirely different but very relevant to your life.
He listens to and responds to us
- lack of awareness that God will speak and respond to us (John 10:27-28)
- sin in our lives (Matthew 21:21-22, Mark 11:24-25, Proverbs 15:29),
- lack of faith (James 1:6), or
- spiritual opposition which can delay answers to prayer as was the case with Daniel who was praying for Israel (Daniel 10:12-14).
In committed long-term relationships it is common to see and hear encouragement being given because usually members of that relationship like each other! It is simply an outflow of they affection they have for each other. God is the same and He encourages us God because He likes us. In the verses above God encouraged Moses by telling him that He would be with him, give him rest because he had found grace in God's sight, and he was special to Him.
The Bible is the fountain of God's encouragement. Knowing what encouraging things God has said about us and how He views us is one of the reasons we read the Bible (John 3:16, Romans 8:1-2:, 1 John 3:1, Romans 5:8-11). This constant reading of the Bible will slowly renew our thinking about ourselves (Romans 12:2).
We should note that God is righteous and will challenge us when we aren't following Him as we should (see Hebrews 12:5-11) but He never discourages or belittles us. Discouragement comes from the devil who was described by Jesus as the "father of lies" (John 8:44-47 Phillips).
He reveals things to us
As Moses found, being in God's presence and communicating with Him resulted in Moses understanding God and His purposes more. Moses was given great revelation about the Tabernacle (Exodus 25:9) and also the Law of God (Exodus 20:1-17); and so it is with us. The Holy Spirit, who dwells within those who have trusted in Jesus, will reveal God's truth and purposes through the Word of God but also through His spiritual gifts. (John 14:26, 1 Corinthians 12:7-11). The Spirit's gifts are discussed throughout the New Testament but the best discussion of these can be found in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11. The purpose of these gifts is to empower us to testify of Jesus throughout our lives (John 15:26). It is interesting to note many of the gifts involve the famous three: wisdom, understanding and knowledge!
These gifts are not to make us special, or to prove we are special, but to reveal how God wants us to proclaim the power and purpose of the Gospel.
He sets boundaries around us
In healthy relationships both parties should know what the relationship boundaries are. In Exodus 33:18 Moses asks to see God's glory and in verses 19-20 God describes what He will do and what He won't do in response to Moses' request. God tells Moses He would reveal:
- His goodness,
- His name (character),
- His grace, and
- His compassion.
Like Moses, as we walk with God we realise that He has given us great spiritual riches such as:
- eternal life,
- forgiveness of all our sin,
- His grace (unmerited favour), and
- the Holy Spirit's companionship,
but we discover God also sets boundaries for us as well (Psalm 139:5).
These boundaries are the hard things that God allows that impact our lives and, although they do not seem to be like spiritual riches, they are a sign of God's love for us. Sometimes His voice is silent, our prayers don't get answered and our circumstances don't seem to change. It is as if God has forgotten us. However these impasses are boundaries that God has put in place because He is at work in our lives (Phillipians1:13). He does this because He has called us to walk by faith (Hebrews 10:38) and we are called to trust Him (1Timothy 4:10). We often rebel against these boundaries because we want an easy path through life and these boundaries stretch spiritual muscles that may never have been used before. When we get through the tough times we find we have grown spiritually stronger and tasted of the true riches of God (James 1:2-4).
He protects us
In verses 22-23 God tells Moses He will show Moses his goodness, name, grace and compassion but would have to cover Moses with His hand when His glory passes by. This was to protect Moses from seeing God's face and therefore seeing God's holiness. Seeing His holiness would have exposed all of Moses' sins and Moses would have become completely overwhelmed by guilt and shame. Throughout the Bible it is common to see when people have a significant encounter with God their first reaction is often great fear or shame. Isaiah and Peter both wanted to flee from God's presence because of their awareness of their own sinfulness when He revealed Himself to them (Isaiah 6:5-7, Luke 5:8). In all cases God graciously limited His presence and protected all those whom He revealed Himself to.
When Jesus walked as a man on earth we saw God for the first time; but, again, only in part (1 John 3:2). The Bible tells us that Jesus laid aside His equality with God and lived as an obedient servant and only after the Resurrection was He glorified (John 17: 1-5, John 7:39). This means until we die (or Jesus returns) we will not see Jesus' glory but we will know His protection. For most of us the first time God came to us was when we were challenged to repent and commit our way to Him. In doing so we found we were forever protected from judgement because God had forgiven all our sin and imputed Jesus' righteousness to us. In doing so we become His children (1 John 3:1) and were judged as not guilty for all our sins (Romans 8:1). Jesus' sacrifice also granted us permanent access to God's presence (Hebrews 10:19-22) and we are constantly protected by His advocacy (1 John 2:1-2) and intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25).
Notes:
2. Painting: "The Creation of Adam", a scene from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling (c. 1508–1512). Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:God2-Sistine_Chapel.png
Comments
Post a Comment