His presence is everything!
“Moses said to the Lord, ‘You have been telling me, “Lead these people,” but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, “I know you by name and you have found favor with me.” If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.’ The Lord replied, ‘My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’ Then Moses said to him, ‘If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.'” (Exodus
33:12-15)
By John David Hicks © 1999
Moses’ life and faith changed and motivated a nation. Under God, he led the people of Israel out of the wilderness, won their battles, organized them into a nation, and transformed the civil and moral climate of his times.
A passion aflame by a godly calling becomes a holy passion. The Russian poet Boris Pasternak described this encounter with God that changes a nation and people. “It is not revolutions and upheavals that clear the road to new and better days but…someone’s soul, inspired and ablaze.” The sin of today is spirituality without passion and passion without the perspective of God.
What was Moses’ perspective of God? He had met a “holy God” at the burning bush and stood on “holy ground” (Exodus 3:5). God defines His nature to Moses in terms of His holiness. God reveals His holy character as the one who keeps His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He then identifies Himself with the people and is sensitive to their suffering. And finely, He declares He will deliver His people through Moses as inadequate Moses thinks he is. This encounter changed Moses’ life.
Now as Moses began the task of leading the people into the promised land, he comes before the Lord and makes this petition: “Teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.” Psalm 103:7 tells us that God answered that prayer. “He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel.” In Hebrews 3:7-11, God again confirms the answer to that prayer:
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did
in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your
fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, They shall never enter my rest.'”
Notice the two levels of knowledge of God: 1) knowing God’s deeds and acts–knowing about God; and 2) knowing God’s ways, His holy
character–knowing His presence. Israel saw God’s acts, His works and deeds.
For 40 years Israel saw God work on their behalf with miracles, signs, and wonders. They knew He was God but confused Him with heathen gods. So God was angry with them because they did not know His ways. Thus, God made an oath, that they would not enter His rest. On the other hand, Moses saw God’s ways, i.e., His holy character; he lived in God’s presence and knew Him intimately. God’s ways are part of His character, His Holiness, who He is.
You can’t separate God’s Holiness from His ways or character.
Knowing His ways is knowing the Lord intimately. David understood this, too, saying in Psalm 16:11, “You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” And in Psalm 28:7, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.”
If you have faith in anyone, it is because you know his character. You trust your friends because you have a good relationship, based on their character–who they really are. Your faith grows out of the relationship and fellowship. If your faith in them is weak, it is because your fellowship is broken or lacking. You are God’s child. The God of love is your parent. He wants a personal relationship with you. Without knowing God’s ways, you will not do much standing when the going gets tough. Without God’s presence, you are defeated and will accomplish nothing that is lasting. Moses had enough spiritual
sense to realize that if he was to lead, he had to know God’s ways. To know God intimately starts with knowing His holy character.
Knowing the Works of God and Knowing the Ways of God
The works of God are the acts of God. You see what God has done. Israel would constantly testify, shout, and sing a few songs about past victories brought through its godly leadership. As long as God was good to them and things went their way, they had faith in Him. But when trials came, they lost faith and believed that God had given them over to failure, defeat, and death. They were resentful and complaining. Therefore, God says they could not enter the land of Canaan.
How did Israel get this perspective of God? Israel was exposed to
the gods of Egypt and the heathen religions around them; thus they had a mistaken view of God. This corrupt understanding separates people from God (Exodus 20:4). To teach Moses and Israel what He is like, God uses the heathen word “holy” to describe Himself. “Holy” was originally used to describe the ethical character of heathen deities. When a priest or temple vessel was described as holy, it spoke of something wholly given to a god so that the very nature of the deity became a part of it. This had behavioral implications as
reflected in how morally you would act on behalf of your god. The heathen gods had fearful qualities–they were perverse, self-centered, corrupt, and out to use you for their own ends. They would say one thing and do another. They saw people as objects to be used. With this heathen, worldly view of God, no wonder they struggled in their faith.
But the God of the Bible is not like that. So to help the people, God made a covenant with them to reveal His holy character. The covenant was one of grace through faith because of God’s love and integrity. God is unique; Moses could declare that there is no other God but Yahweh (Deuteronomy 4:35, 39; 32:39). Out of the covenant, God makes continual provision for our sin and shortcomings in the atonement (1 John 1:7). Otherwise we would be destroyed by His holiness. Out of this revelation of His holy character would come a relationship where God makes known to you the path of life, fills you with joy in His presence, and gives you eternal pleasures at your
right hand (Psalm 19:11; 21:6). Yet for 40 years Israel saw the visible works of God and was satisfied with just a system of religion. So God said they could never enter His rest. They never wanted to know the person behind the system.
Satan’s question to God about Job must be worked out in your life, too. “Does Job serve You for nothing?” Why do you serve the Lord? Because of who God is, or for His blessings? But when you know His ways, His holy character, you know how He operates and thinks. You have the mind of Christ, so you can trust His leading. You don’t
despair and think that God has deserted you. You can stand in faith like Moses at the Red Sea, Daniel in the lions’ den, or the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace. You know that God’s will is perfect even when you don’t fully understand.
The difference between works and ways is like knowing what a
person does and knowing the person. You know about me and have seen what I do. But my wife knows my ways. My deeds are merely the expression of my ways. The ways of God are the ways God Himself thinks, acts, and operates, in holiness. To know God’s ways is to know God intimately. You were made in God’s image and likeness for intimate fellowship with Him. “He who belongs to God hears what God says” (John 8:47). “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:37).
Moses desired this intimate fellowship. “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people” (Exodus 33:13). He prayed, “Lord, I need to know more than just your acts and deeds. Because there will be a time when I might think you are not acting right. So I need to know your ways, your holy character. So I may know you and continue to find favor with you.”
Note God’s answer: “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” In God’s presence you will rest from your labors and striving. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Then the Bible tells us, “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend” (Exodus 33:11). What a depth of communion and intimate friendship!
It is one thing to accept God’s Word and deeds, but another to accept His ways, even though His ways may be contrary to your ways. “The ways of the Lord are right” (Hosea 14:9). God always deals with you in righteousness. He is always morally right and His ways are always genuinely good and just.
Knowing God’s Ways Through a Personal Relationship with Him
Moses set up a tent some distance from the camp of the Israelites and called it the tent of meeting. There those who sought God could find Him. Moses would go there to meet with God. The pillar of cloud would descend and the Lord would meet with Moses face to face. Moses would then return to camp, but his young aide, Joshua, would linger in the tent of meeting. Exodus 33:7 says, “Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting.” But only Joshua and Moses did. “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). “In
his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps and makes them sure” (Proverbs 16:9 AMP). God wants to direct you. That takes the pressure off you to do something for God. Yet most Christians and churches will make their plans and then ask for
God’s blessing. God never intended that. If God did not speak clearly today, then you would have the responsibility to come up with your own plan. But 2 Corinthians 5:15 says that Jesus “died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”
God is morally required to instruct His obedient, willing children. “I will
instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you” (Palm 32:8). “For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end” (Psalm 48:14). God has taken complete responsibility. Your response is to believe His word that He will guide you in His time and in His way! You must remind yourself that it is God’s ultimate responsibility to guide you. What fellowship and intimacy with God Joshua and Moses must have enjoyed in the tent of meeting. What strength they must have gathered to meet the challenges of the day. “It is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’–but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).
Out of this time spent in the tent of meeting, Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.'” The promise was sought in the face of a great commission and responsibility. Trials and problems can increase your faith, establish a deeper relationship with God, teach you obedience, and permit God to give you the victory. God very often puts you into places where you must depend
upon Him–“live by faith.” Then Moses said in Exodus 33:13, “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.” This prayer has been echoed down through the ages. The psalmist said, “Teach me thy ways, O Lord.” Later the prophecy
came that the law would be written on our hearts. Finally, when Jesus came, He prayed for the church, in John 17:3, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
Everything you need to know about God and man’s relationship to God is revealed in Jesus. What you know about Jesus’ character will determine how you pray and relate to God. Knowing God’s Ways Will Give You Peace and Power In Exodus 33:14-16, God gives His response to the prayer of Moses. “The Lord replied, ‘My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’ Then Moses said to him, ‘If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people
from all the other people on the face of the earth?'”
God assured Moses of two things: His presence and His rest–an inner security and peace rather than an outer change of circumstances. In this rest the work does not depend on you, but God’s presence. This rest became so real and important to Moses that he spoke of it in his last words to Israel. “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemy before you” (Deuteronomy 33:27). Instead of striving to make things happen, Moses learned to turn his problems over to God. It was not easy, but eventually he learned not to take things into his own hands, but to put his hands into divine hands. The human
tendency is to take control of the situation ourselves, or to ignore it and do nothing.
Understand that the rest in the promised land was not to be had without a struggle. The Israelites did not sit back and relax. It had to be fought for and maintained before it yielded its fruit of possession. So it is with us. Although we may have the struggle, we will also have the victory and the rest when the struggle is over. The land becomes mine as I claim the territory in the power of God. “I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses…. No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Joshua 1:3, 5). Paul’s testimony is in 1 Corinthians 15:57-58, “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
God’s power is the enabling power that produces the spiritual fruit in our lives and eternal results in the lives of others. When man responds to God’s love and grace through consecration of his total self, God cleanses his life (1 Thessalonians 4:3, 7) and satisfies that hunger with a passion for Himself (Matthew 5:6). It is all God’s grace at work in your life. God has never given Himself, nor will He, to an unsurrendered will. When God finds the willingness to do His will, He imparts Himself. Your part is the consecration. God’s is the sanctification and passion. When the Bible says in Hebrews 12:14, “Without holiness no one will see the Lord,” God is speaking not only of moral conduct, but also of His holy character, His ways. This is why knowing God’s ways is so important to God. Without it God cannot be seen or truly known. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). “The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5). The Christian who is impure and self-serving is a liar who is serving the gods of this world and is distorting the God of the Bible. “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth” (1 John 1:6).
The purpose of the cross, salvation, was not just the forgiveness of sins, going to heaven, and making you happy. But salvation is provided so you can “be conformed to the likeness of His Son” (Romans 8:29). Out of this fellowship with God, within the boundary of His nature and holy character, God becomes “our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1 Corinthians1:30). As His holiness comes into your life, “you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Peter 1:4). Forgiveness and the transformation of your character cannot
be separated. Holiness is a way of behaving that is determined by the
character of the God you serve.
The assurance of God’s presence was needed to make Israel distinct from all their neighbors. The presence of God set them apart from other people. That distinctiveness rests upon a relationship to God. The will of God is not so much finding a plan, as it is following a person, Jesus Christ. God in Christ has shown you not only what He is like, but also what you are to be like.
The Christian life is nothing more than focusing on the Lord and desiring to please Him (Hebrews 12:2). Temptation to sin comes when you think that something other than God can satisfy you or give you pleasure or happiness. But when you are satisfied with God, you have singleness of purpose and a Spirit-filled life. Remember how Jesus would get upset at the Pharisees for not seeing or hearing God? “You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent” (John 5:37-38). Jesus says that you should have seen Him with your spiritual eyes, heard Him with your spiritual ears, and felt Him moving in your heart. They did not know God because their hearts were not open to God.
This is Jesus’ argument: “If you had ever listened to God’s voice, heard His call, or known Him and His ways; if your desire was to follow the will of God, God’s word would have found a place in your hearts and you would have known Me. You would have known that I came from the Father and you would have listened to Me. The light from God’s word abiding in you would show you the likeness of My face and My voice to that of My Father. If you would have seen God, you would have seen Me. But your own spiritual blindness and your
refusal to do God’s will have closed your ears and shut your eyes. If you loved the Father, you would have recognized His Son.”
Today, who will hear, see, and receive God? Now as in Bible times, only the childlike, humble, unselfish seekers of truth have a vital relationship with God. Those who recognized God first were those who loved righteousness and hated evil. Those who did the will of their Father heard the sound of His voice and looked upon His holy face. Moses fell into that category. In verse 18, Moses asked of the Lord, “Now show me your glory.” But in verse 19, God responds, “I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence.” God reveals to Moses His holy character. Note the depth of intimacy here. Moses talked to God face to face like a man would speak to a friend. To live in the presence of God is to be in union with my innermost soul mate. I become like that person, speaking, feeling, and acting with His reactions. I pass the visible to being fully known, into he depths of Jesus Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3).
Jesus said to the woman at the well, “If you knew the gift of God and who I am, you would ask of me” (John 4:10). Pray to Jesus! The extent to which you know Jesus is the extent to which you will ask. The extent to which you spend time with Jesus is the extent to which you will become more like Him. One result of time spent in prayer is the process of becoming a friend of God. Prayer is not doing something; it’s being with someone. Review the steps in a friendship on the human level and see how they also apply to the process of becoming a friend of God.
Stage 1: Casual Acquaintance. I speak of the outside world (sports, news, etc.).
Stage 2: Beginning Trust. I start to speak what I think and feel.
Stage 3: Deep Trust with my confidant and companion. I share my dreams, mistakes, frustrations.
Stage 4: Intimacy with my partner. I start to know his or her character. Is it quietly with my friend, experiencing a presence beyond words.
Stage 5: Union with my innermost soul mate. I become like that person. In John 15:15-16, Jesus says, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit–fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” The word “friends” here means friends of the king–His closest and most intimate friends who had the right to come to Him at any time for anything. Jesus says, “God wants you to be His best friend.” What an offer!
As you open your spirit to God’s spirit, you allow Him to share with you. “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). This is where interaction and fellowship take place–companionship at His table. He’s knocking. Will you let Him in? “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘I will do the very thing you have
asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name'” (Exodus 33:17). God knows your name and He knows all about you. “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free….
He who belongs to God hears what God says'” (John 8:31-32, 47). The Lord hears you. God said to Moses, “I will do what you ask.” In Exodus 33:18, Moses requests of the Lord, “Show me your glory.” God reveals His glory and gives insight into His holy character. “And the Lord said, ‘I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,’ he said, ‘you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.’ Then the Lord said, ‘There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen'” (Exodus 33:19-23). Mortals cannot bear the glory of looking directly on the face of God. But there is a sense in which those who spend time with Him, learn of His ways, and become His friend carry His glory to those around them. “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (Psalm 29:2).
Father, we pray that You would search our hearts in this moment. We want to know Your ways so we can reflect Your glory and holiness to others. We want to be Your friend and intimate companion. Give us a thirst for You. May we so hunger for Your presence in our lives that nothing else will satisfy. Cleanse our hearts of everything that hinders us from knowing You better and better. And may our lives always be lived in humble submission to Your will. Amen.
(In part 3, the glory of God, His holy character, and how God speaks to us)