God’s Promise to Moses Is a Promise to Us, Too

“And He said, ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give your rest.’ “ – Exodus 33:14

Moses returned to the plain where the thousands of Israelites (recently escaped from bondage in Egypt) were awaiting his return from Mt. Sinai where God had given to Moses the law (the 10 Commandments) and the Covenant. Moses came down from the mountain and found the people, under his brother Aaron’s leadership, a priest before the Lord, as was Moses, had allowed and even assisted the people in gathering gold they had procured before leaving Egyptian bondage. Aaron had cast a golden calf. They had bowed down and worshiped the golden image, to the great consternation of Moses. His heart was broken.

Could God forgive the erring people? They had broken the first and second commandments: “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.” And “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images.” In their desire to “see” God, they had made a false god to worship.

At the beginning of Chapter 33, God again commanded Moses to lead the people to the land He intended to give them for their inheritance. Even though they had grievously gone against God’s command in making and worshiping the golden calf, still God remembered the covenant he had made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, “ The Lord said to Moses, ‘Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your offspring I will give it. I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way for you are a stiff-necked people.” (Exodus 33: 1-3, ESV).

On Moses’ plea, God forgave the people and promised Moses, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Exodus 33:14). Chapters 34 through 40 of Exodus tell how the commandments were written by the hand of God again on tablets of stone Moses took with him to Mt. Sinai the second time. The covenant was renewed. Then the Tent of Meeting was built in in a much more elaborate fashion, and the Tabernacle became the center of and place for Hebrew worship until such time as they were settled in Jerusalem and Solomon, a future king, could erect the magnificent temple to honor God and in which they would worship. To indicate God’s presence with the nation, we read: “For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys” (Exodus 40:38). God was faithful to his promise to Moses, earthly leader of the people of Israel: “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Exodus 33:14, ESV).

Thank God, that even today, hundreds of years after the Exodus from Egypt, the wilderness wanderings, and the conquest of the Promised Land, God is still faithful to His chosen people. Under the covenant of the Lord Jesus Christ, all who come to Him in faith are the Children of God, we have the continuing promise that God made to Moses so long ago. Thanks be to God, I am a child of the King of King and Lord of Lords. Amen. -Ethelene Dyer Jones. 10.22.2017