Exodus 33:12-17
We are honored to be with you this week, thanks so much for joining us. Today in Exodus 33 we will take a closer look at Moses conversation with God. Our title is “Walking with God.” Last week it was “Meeting with God.” I like the progression of the titles. First, we have to meet God, then we walk with Him. Our relationship with God is just that, a relationship, think of someone you have a relationship with. You didn’t meet them once and never hear from them again. If that happens, we don’t say we know them, we say we met them. Meeting God is just the start of a wonderful relationship after that we must walk with Him.
Now, let’s think about walking with God and some of the things it has in common with our other relationships. First, relationships require trust. If you don’t trust someone it is hard, basically impossible, to have a good relationship. So it is with God, before you can walk with God you must believe that He exists, and He cares for you, without this a relationship with Him will be hard. Relationships with God and people need the foundation of trust to get started.
Secondly, relationships take time. You can’t know someone and get to know them better without putting time into it. Walking with God will require some of your time. Some take time in the evening others take time with God in the morning and some even do both. It doesn’t seem to matter when, the important thing is time is taken to be with God.
Thirdly in a relationship there is communication both ways. Think about a friendship you have, does one person do all the talking? Usually not, at least it won’t be a friendship long if this is the way it is. Walking with God requires the same type of back and forth. His Spirit speaks to our spirit as we read His Word. Or we see and hear Him through His creation. Then we open our heart and share with Him. This is the back and forth we can have with God. Yes, there are seasons when God is silent, and feels far away. These are hard times, but let’s be like Daniel and pray till there is a breakthrough.
Three things which change our meeting God to walking with God. First there is trust, then there will be time taken and lastly communication will happen. I don’t know about you, but I want to grow in my walk with Him. Let’s go with J Mark to Exodus 33 and learn even more about how we can walk with God.
Many people miss out on the blessings of life because there are things they don’t know. To be ignorant of a great truth is a tragedy. For example, if you don’t know that Jesus can give you eternal life, that is a tragedy. Missing out on that blessing affects not just your life now, but your existence forever!
But it’s even worse when you know the truth and refuse to accept it. In my generation, many people knew that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer. But, by their actions, they showed they didn’t believe it. They kept right on smoking. And many of them developed lung cancer.
Today, there are many people who seem to know the truth about God and yet they refuse to accept it. Why is that? Because accepting the truth will convict them of sin. It will confront them with changing the way they live, and they are unwilling to do that.
There were several characters in the Bible who knew God so well they actually walked with Him. Enoch, who lived before the worldwide flood, was a man like that. The Bible says, “Enoch walked with God and Enoch was not for God took him.” Moses was a man like that, too. He walked with God and talked with him face-to-face.
Even though Moses grew up in the court of Pharoah and could have been king of Egypt, yet he chose to follow the LORD, to walk with the LORD. He gave up all that wealth and power and fame to serve God. God then called him to become the leader of Israel, to lead his people from Egypt to Canaan several thousand years ago. Moses walked with God, always reaching for a clearer understanding of the LORD.
In Exodus 33:12-17 we learn about WALKING WITH GOD from the experience of Moses.
12. And Moses said unto the LORD, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight.
13. Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.
14. And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
15. And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.
16. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, land thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.
17. And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.
God’s statement to Moses, “I know you by name,” is a wonderful testimony. In this text Moses made several REQUESTS which we too can make to help us walk with God.
Moses’ First Request was,
Show Me Thy Path
Moses reviewed his call. He said the LORD had called him to lead this people from Egypt to Canaan. Now he wanted some reassurance, some reaffirmation from the LORD. It was a huge responsibility. Yes, indeed! To lead that group of several million people to the land of Canaan was no small task. Without God’s help it was impossible!
So, Moses wanted to know the way. I can imagine that. Mount Sinai was in a barren wilderness. There were no road maps or GPS available. There was no clearly marked path from Sinai to the land of Canaan. Moses must have felt inadequate to do what God was asking him. So, he said to God, “I don’t know the way, show me now your path.”
All of us want to know what to do and how to go forward in life. We want to arrive at the agreed-on destination. Moses was no different than you and me. We look to the Lord for guidance and for help too. So, the LORD listened, and Moses made his request to God so that he would be able to walk in the path that God would mark out for him. He said, “Show me thy path.”
This request has been the cry of those who follow God down through the ages. The Psalmist said, “Show me your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths.” I hope that is your prayer, too.
Moses’ Second Request was,
Secure Me Thy Presence
God said to him, “My presence shall go with thee.” That is a promise: the promise of the presence. Yes, God cares for His own. He always has, He always will! Praise the LORD! God made this promise to Moses. The writer of the book of Hebrews wrote, “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For [God] Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” In other words, God’s presence goes with us – continually.
In addition to going with him, God said He would give him rest of spirit, rest in his heart. What a wonderful promise. Moses lived in a world filled with turmoil, violence, and unrest. So do we. And yet we, like Moses, can know that God is right there traveling with us. What comfort, what assurance, what blessing that brings to us.
Moses cried out in response and said, “If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up from here.” Moses’ cry was, I can’t go alone. It is impossible for me to make this journey with all this responsibility by myself. I must depend upon your presence, God. So, he cried out to the LORD and said, “If you’re not going with me, then let’s not move off this spot.”
No one is sufficient to walk life’s path alone. It makes no difference who you are, where you live, how much education you have, or what your position in life is. Just like Moses, if God does not go with you, you cannot go by yourself; at least if you want to reach a desirable end.
So, Moses prayed and asked, secure me thy presence and God made the promise to him.
Moses’ Final Request was,
Separate Me And Thy People
God’s presence makes a difference to a person or a people. Moses said to God it surely will be known that we have the presence of God. We are different from the people around us. “So, we shall be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are on the face of the earth.”
Yes, the presence of God makes a difference. When people really are with the LORD they are separated from other people. Not in the sense that they are living in another area or in a completely different world, but in their hearts and spirits the people of God are a separated people. Then God confirmed Moses’ request. The LORD said, “Yes, I will do this thing also.” In other words, God expects His people to be different than those who don’t follow Him.
I praise the LORD that we have a special place with Him. God’s people have a special relationship with God. This relationship changes who they are – from the inside out! This is exemplified so well by how the LORD responded to Moses when Moses made this request, “Separate me and thy people from the rest of the people.”
Listen, everyone who knows the LORD is different, separated from all the other people around. Because life is lived on a different level, the path leads in a different direction, and we are in reality walking daily with the LORD.
So, walking with God means to have Him show you the path. It means you have the security of His presence. And walking with God will separate you from people who don’t know Him. Walking with God can be your blessed privilege. Why don’t you begin that walk today?
Thanks J Mark for encouraging us to walk with God. He was right, it is a privilege we have to walk with God and serve Him. May He guide you in this journey.
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Thanks so much for joining us. This brings us to the end of our program. Lord willing, we will be together next week, till then Go with God and may your walk with Him get sweeter and closer each day.
*This episode is an exposition by J. Otis Yoder, re-recorded by J. Mark Horst, with an opening and closing by Arlin Horst.