God’s Presence: Dangerous, but Essential (vital/needed) (Exodus 33:1-17)

Illustration:

Most of us rightly think of God as our loving Father. He loves us more than any earthly father ever could. But do you ever think of God as dangerous?

In our quest to know the living and true God, it’s important to know Him as He has revealed Himself in the totality of His Word. If we just pick and choose the parts about God that we like, such as His love and grace, and ignore the rest, we miss something important that we need to know about God for our spiritual growth. For example, when people say, “I don’t believe in the judgmental God of the Old Testament; I believe in the loving God of the New Testament,” they’re revealing that they don’t know much about the Bible. The God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. He is both loving and judgmental against all sin. As Paul exclaims (Rom. 11:22), “Behold then the kindness and severity of God!” So people who believe in a God of love, but not a God of judgment, are making a golden calf. They’re not submitting to God’s revelation in the Bible, but setting themselves up as judge over the Bible.

 Exodus 33 is the aftermath of Israel’s terrible sin with the golden calf. In Exodus 33:1, God tells Moses to move on, along with “the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt.” He doesn’t call them “My people whom I brought up,” but “the people whom you have brought up.” He promises to send His angel with them to take them to the Promised Land, but God says that He Himself won’t go up with them so that He doesn’t destroy them on the way because of their stiff necks (Exod. 33:3). Moses, however, prays and says in effect, “God, if You don’t go with us, then let us stay right here in this barren desert.” The desert with God is better than the Promised Land without God! We learn …

 

God’s presence is dangerous, but essential for His people.

 

God is omnipresent, present everywhere at all times. But here I’m talking about His immediate presence, or experiencing His presence. His presence is dangerous, because He is holy and not to be trifled with! Uzzah found that out when he reached out to steady the ark (the symbol of God’s presence) so that it wouldn’t fall off the cart. God struck him dead on the spot (2 Sam. 6:6-7)! In the “non-judgmental” New Testament, Ananias and Sapphira found that out when they lied about a donation to the church and they both died in front of Peter (Acts 5:1-11). Don’t mess with God’s presence! He’s dangerous!

 

But God’s presence is essential because without Him, we’re destitute (poor, deprived of all spiritual gifts). Without Him, we can look like a thriving church with a huge church campus and programs for every age group. We can have a multimillion dollar budget that supports missionaries all over the world. We can be written up in all the church growth magazines. On the personal level, you can be successful in business, live in a mansion, send your kids to the best universities, and serve in the church. But without God’s presence, it’s all hollow and in vain.

 

God’s presence is dangerous, but essential.

1. The peril (danger) of God’s presence is that He is not safe if we are not submissive.

 

God’s refusal to go personally with Israel into the Promised Land stemmed from their persistent grumbling and their quickly turning from Him to worship the golden calf. Even though in response to Moses’ prayer God relented and agreed to go with Israel, He eventually did destroy many because of their sins. The ten spies who brought back a negative report on the land died in a plague (Num. 14:36). Those involved in Korah’s rebellion died when the earth swallowed them alive (Num. 16:31-33). Later, when the people again grumbled, God sent “fiery” serpents among them so that many died (Num. 21:5-6). Still later, when Israel joined themselves to Moab in idolatry and immorality, God killed 24,000 (Num. 25:1-9). Eventually, the entire generation that came out of Egypt died in the wilderness because of their unbelief (Num. 14:22-23).

 

Of course, when God kills people because of their sins, it’s not that He has an anger problem! His wrath is His settled (established) opposition to all sin. His holiness requires that He must judge all sin. Sometimes, for reasons that we cannot always know, He brings temporal judgment on sinners through war, plagues, or natural disasters. When that happens, the godly suffer along with the ungodly. At other times, in mercy He allows sinful people to continue in their ways, withholding judgment until after they die. But all sin will be judged.

 

This means that either you will pay for your own sins at the judgment or you trust in Jesus, who died on the cross to pay the penalty you deserve. If you trust is in Christ and His death for you, then you don’t need to fear God’s judgment. Your sins are paid in full! But, you do need to fear God’s discipline. There’s a difference between punishment and discipline. Punishment means that the sinner pays for his sins. The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). Sinners will incur the second death, which is eternal separation from God in hell (Rev. 20:11-15). But, discipline comes from God’s fatherly hand to train His children in righteousness (Heb. 12:5-11). It is corrective rather than punitive.

 

When we sin, the Lord calls us to repent. Exodus 33:4-6 records one of the few times that stiff-necked Israel repented (v. 4): “When the people heard this sad word, they went into mourning, and none of them put on his ornaments.” And it was not just a momentary gesture, but ongoing (v. 6). The people’s ornaments had been the occasion for them to sin with the golden calf (Exod. 32:2). But now, in response to God’s command (Exod. 33:5), they took off their remaining ornaments. Later (Exod. 35:22), they will bring those ornaments as an offering to help build the tabernacle. That which had been the cause of their sin later was transformed into a source for their worship. Did you also see how Moses brought the second set of tablets of the law? The first one was made by God himself and the second one God said Moses, you chisel two tablets this time and bring them and I will write on them. That thing you have been using to rebel against God should be used this time for worship to God.

 

That’s a good description of genuine repentance. If money was your idol, turn it into good by giving it to the Lord’s work (Eph. 4:28). Philip Ryken says “When the Holy Spirit convicts us of any sin, we need to take off whatever is leading us into sin and never put it on again.”

 

True repentance also involves mourning over your sins (Exod. 33:4; 2 Cor. 7:10). Jesus said (Matt. 5:4), “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” God is present with us so that we can have a relationship with Him. Sin interrupts that relationship and puts distance between Him and us. That rupture in our fellowship with a loving Father should cause us to mourn over our sins and turn back to God in ongoing, heartfelt repentance. The peril of God’s presence is that He is not safe if we are not submissive.

 Next time we shall look at the privilege of God’s presence. (Check the post and read)

Conclusion:

Experiencing God’s presence will help you to walk more carefully in this corrupt world. Because of the treasure you carry. When you have some bank notes in your pocket, you will be more careful the way you walk on the street. You don’t want any one to snatch what you have; time and again you’ll touch your pocket to be sure the treasure is still there. If you want God’s presence, then you must be careful that you do not loose His presence; that will guide you from sinning because you don’t want to loose that experience.

Personal Awakening: The honour of God’s presence Exodus 33:3-17

 

We have the danger of God’s presence is that He is not safe if we are not submissive.

 

A. The honour of God’s presence is that we might have fellowship with the invisible God.

 

In verse 3, God offered to bless the people with the Promised Land, but without His presence. That’s exactly what many people. They want God to give them whatever they need for a happy life, but they really don’t care about a daily walk in fellowship with Him.

 

Think about it: Could that describe you? You want happiness, inner peace, loving relationships, a fulfilling job, and a good church to attend. But as long as you have those things, life is good. You don’t really care about a daily relationship with God.

 

Thankfully, in this situation, it wasn’t good enough for Israel or for Moses. Israel mourned the news that God would not go with them and showed their repentance by stripping off their ornaments. Moses sought the Lord and prayed (Exod. 33:13), “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.” He went on to add (Exod. 33:15), “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.” God’s presence was even more cherished than the blessing of the Promised Land! What do you cherish? Many people today are running for miracles rather than for God’s presence.

 

Verses 7-11 seem to interrupt the flow of the narrative, but I think they’re here to show how Moses enjoyed intimate fellowship with the Lord. The tent here was not the tabernacle, which was yet to be built. The tabernacle would be placed in the center of the camp and even Moses could not enter the inner sanctuary of the tabernacle. Only Aaron, the high priest, could go in there and just once a year, to make atonement for Israel’s sins. Moses called this tent “the tent of meeting” (v. 7): “And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp.” But it seems as if not everyone could enter the tent. They had to go through Moses, their mediator. When he went out to the tent, everyone would stand at the door of their own tents, watch, and worship (vv. 8, 10). The pillar of cloud would descend as Moses entered the tent and the Lord would speak with Moses (v. 9).

 

The people must have wondered what took place inside that tent! Verse 11 tells us: “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.” Apparently Joshua stayed there to guard the tent from any intruders. When it says that the Lord spoke with Moses “face to face,” it does not mean literally, since no man can see God’s face and live (Exod. 33:20). It means that Moses enjoyed intimate fellowship with God there. It was a sacred place where Moses met with God.

 

Some brief applications: 

1.    there are different levels of intimacy with God. Moses knew God in a way that even Aaron and their sister, Miriam, did not (Num. 12:1-8). Only Peter, James, and John saw Jesus transfigured into His glory and they were not permitted to speak of what they saw until after Jesus was risen (Matt. 17:1-13). Paul had the unique experience of being caught up to the third heaven where he heard things that he was not permitted to speak (2 Cor. 12:4). All what the rest of us can do is read about these extraordinary experiences and let them motivate us to seek to know God more deeply than we already do.

 

2.     those who seek the Lord must go through the Mediator. The Israelites who sought the Lord would go outside the camp to the tent and go through Moses. It involved some deliberate effort to go out there. Maybe they had to wait in line, since Moses could only handle a few requests at a time. But we have a Mediator who can handle all our requests at once! Paul says (Eph. 2:18), “for through Him we both [Jews and Gentiles] have our access in one Spirit to the Father.” Hebrews 13:13 exhorts, “So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach”.

 

3.     it’s helpful to have a specific place and time where you meet with God. Make a designated spot where you can get alone with God to fellowship with Him through His Word and prayer. As you read His Word, ask Him to teach you His ways so that you may know Him (Exod. 33:13; Ps. 25:4). God’s ways are how He deals with people, and His ways are not our ways (Isa. 55:8). He commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his beloved son, providing the ram at the last minute, as an illustration of how He would sacrifice His own Son (Gen. 22:1-14). He put Joseph in an Egyptian dungeon after he obeyed God by resisting the advances of Potiphar’s wife. His way with Joseph was puzzling at the time, but later God used him to provide for His people during a famine (Ps 105:16-19; Gen 50:20)

B. The honour of God’s presence is so that we might be distinct from all other people.

 

As God’s people, we are in the world, but not of the world (John 17:15-16). We saw in verses 1-3, how God distanced Himself from the people because of their sin with the golden calf. But Moses, through his prayer, sought to secure God’s presence again with His people. In verse 13, after asking to know God’s ways and find favor in His sight, Moses reminds the Lord, “Consider too, that this nation is Your people.” In verse 14, the Lord responds using a singular pronoun: “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” But Moses wasn’t content with that. So he went on (vv. 15, 16) to ask for God’s presence to lead the people from there and to go with them all. God’s presence would distinguish Israel from all the other people who were on the face of the earth (v. 16).

 

We should experience God’s presence not just individually, but also corporately. Paul asks (1 Cor. 3:16), “Do you not know that you [plural] are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you [plural]?” The church is now the temple where God dwells. Unbelievers who come into our church gatherings should sense that God is in our midst (1 Cor. 14:25). But for that to happen, we have to be distinct from the world. In 2 Corinthians 6:16, Paul again states that the church is the temple of God and that God dwells in our midst. Then he commands (2 Cor. 6:17), “Therefore, ‘Come out from their midst and be separate,’ says the Lord.” Paul concludes (2 Cor. 7:1), “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

The Urgency and promise of God’s presence - Exodus 33:15-17

 

For more than a month, I have been trying to bring all of us to the point where we can know for sure that we need personal awakening in our lives. We saw through the life of Moses the need for an awakening. We established that an awakening is the ordinary work of the Holy Spirit creating extra-ordinary effects on those who experience His presence.

 

We also saw from the old and new testament that God’s presence is dangerous to those who disobey and it is essential for us to have His presence. We went further to look at the honour or privileges of having God’s presence in our lives and in our corporate body. We need that intimacy with God if we want to do extra-ordinary service to the glory of God.

 

Today we will be looking at the urgency, the determination, the insistence of having God’s presence.

 

A.  The urgency of God’s presence is that we cannot function without Him.

 

You would think that an angel of God would have been sufficient. The angels are impressive beings with the power to strike the men of Sodom blind and then bring down brimstone on their city! But Moses was not satisfied with the angel’s presence. He prays (Exod. 33:15), “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.” In other words, “Angels won’t do! Without Your presence, God, we’re finished!”

 

By praying that, Moses was acknowledging his own insufficiency and His need for God’s all-sufficiency.

1.   We need God’s presence for joy (Ps. 16:11): “In Your presence is fullness of joy at your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”

2.   We need His presence for protection (Ps. 31:20): “You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of man.” See how he protected Moses even from the strife of Aaron and Miriam.

3.   We need His presence to deliver us from despair (misery, anguish, depression) (Ps. 42:5): “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence.”

4.   We need His presence for our good (Ps. 73:28): “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good.”

 

But, it’s obvious that experiencing God’s presence is not automatic. With Moses, we need to seek God’s presence, both personally and as a church. Finally,

 

B.  The promise of God’s presence is for those who find favor in His sight, whom He knows by name.

 

Just as God is omnipresent, so He is omniscient: He knows everything and everyone. But Moses reminds God that He has said (Exod. 33:12), “I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.” The Lord affirms (v. 17), “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; fo

r you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.”

 

For God to know you by name is a special privilege. It implies a special intimacy with God, unhindered by sin. It’s similar to Paul’s prayer (Eph. 3:16-17), “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Doesn’t Christ dwell in every believer’s heart? Yes, but there is a special sense of Christ dwelling in those who find favor in His sight, whom He knows by name. As Jesus said (John 14:23), “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” The promise of God’s presence is for those who love and obey Jesus. He knows them by name.

 

Conclusion

 

Experiencing God’s presence will help you to walk more carefully in this corrupt world. An awareness of God’s presence will keep you from sin. How can you sin if you are aware that God is present with you? You don’t want to lose the experience of His presence (Ps. 51:11). Our Lord has promised (Matt. 28:20), “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” But experiencing His presence is not automatic. We need to walk in holiness, enjoying daily fellowship with Him. His presence is dangerous, but essential!

The Sanctity of human life (Genesis 9 :5-6)

Introduction:

In 1994, a 16 year-old Philadelphia youth tried to extort money from an ice cream truck driver. When the driver refused, the boy shot him. As this father of three lay dying, the neighborhood teenagers gathered around and mocked his agony in a rap song they composed, “They killed Mr. Softee.” A fellow ice cream truck driver and friend of the dying man came on the scene shortly after the shooting. He told reporters, “It wasn’t human. People were laughing and asking me for ice cream. I was crying.... They were acting as though a cat had died, not a human being.”

In this passage, God is speaking to Noah and his 3 sons.

1. They’ve been given a fresh start in a new world.

a. so God comes and blesses them, giving them guidelines for how they’re to live in this new environment.

b. it’s at this point God tells them they’re now allowed to add meat to their diet.

c. but God is careful to warn man that even though he may eat meat, he must show reverence for life

2. The picture the Bible paints for us of the world before the flood is one of a degenerate society.

a. it was filled with violence - demonic activity was abundant - sexual perversion was pervasive.

b. ch. 4 tells us of the descendants of Cain, a line which begins and ends with the reputation of brutal murder.

c. we’re left with the impression that one of the reasons why God brought the flood was because the human race had become much like a dog with rabies.

1) it was out of control and destined to extinction through it’s own moral disease & corruption.

2) Noah alone was uninfected, and God put down the rabid dog before it could bite and infect the lone survivor of the spiritual plague that was destroying the human race.

d. as Noah and his sons now step forth from the ark, God wants to impress upon them the single greatest value, the most important truth regarding how they’re to treat one another.

e. it’s based on the value, the sanctity of human life.

f. they must not think that because God Himself has just wiped out the entire population of earth that HE disregards the value of human life.

g. on the contrary, it’s precisely BECAUSE of the value of human life that the Flood was necessary.

1) men & women had come to deny that value.

2) the whole race from top to bottom had become a murderous pack of criminals.

3) only Noah escaped the corruption of his time.

h. so God now comes to him with words that are meant to enter into his heart and mind and lay the ground for a subsequent history that will forever enshrine the sanctity of human life as the primary rule for all relationships.

What is Sanctity?

It is the state or quality of being holy, sacred, or saintly; with ultimate importance and inviolability. The human life is to be protected not violated. So the human life is very important and should not be violated but protected. This sacredness or ultimate importance does not depend on status, occupation, age or wealth but just because humans are created in the image of God. It doesn’t matter their colour, whether they are free or slaves, young or old, white or black; all human life is important and should never be violated.

Deviations from God’s call for sanctity of human life.

We live in a day when human life is no longer regarded as sacred. The devaluing of life is spreading not only through violence in the ghettos, but also through abortion on demand, which results in the deaths of 1.5 million babies in America each year. All of these problems stem from the erosion of the Bible as the standard for truth in our society. If you throw out the Bible and accept evolution, then man is just an animal and there is no basis for human morality, other than cultural norms. Without the Bible, there is no basis for affirming that humans are created in the image of God and that human life is thus sacred. For the survival of our nation and culture, we desperately need to understand and proclaim the biblical truth regarding the sanctity of human life. Since God values human life, so must we. He valued human life that is why he ordained it to be propagated as He said to Adam and Eve in Gen 1:28 “Be fruitful and multiply”. God put the fear of man on wild animals and put all animal life under man’s control. He also gave permission for man to eat meat. God ordained that human life be protected even through capital punishment.

How do some people treat their own children today? We have heard about people who abort and say it is my body. You do not have the right to kill a life! You don’t have the right to take your own life either! Even as foetus that child is still a human being having a soul. Some parents even encourage their children to abort; what a shame. Some send their children in cities to work money for them in brothels; they sleep with men to make money for these women disregarding the life of these children.

How do you treat that child who is staying with you at home? Do you treat him/her the same way you treat your children? Or do you look at that one as an animal? God is watching you. How do you treat the Orphans, the widows and the poor in the community you or in your family? Some of us Christians are the first to drive the orphans and widows from their home after the death of the husband. We care less about the wellbeing of the children and the widow.

How does God value human life? Vs5-6

In the text we just read it says “At the hand of every beast will I require it”. God will have the beast put to death that kills a man. This is confirmed in Exodus 21:28. He goes further to say “And at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.” God will avenge the blood of the murdered upon the murderer.

The first law promulgated in Scripture was that between Creator and creature. If the creature refuse to the Creator the obedience due, he forfeits all the Creator has given him, and, therefore, his life. Hence, when Cain murdered his brother, he only displayed a new development of that sin which was in him, and, being already condemned to the extreme penalty under the first transgression, had only a minor punishment annexed to his personal crime. So long as the law was between Creator and creature, God himself was not only the sole legislator, but the sole administrator of law.

The second restriction guards human life. The shedding of human blood is sternly prohibited. "Your blood of your lives." The blood which belongs to your lives, which constitutes the very life of your corporeal nature. "Will I require." I, the Lord, will find the murderer out, and exact the penalty of his crime. The very beast that causes the death of man shall be slain. The suicide and the homicide are alike accountable to God for the shedding of man's blood. Man must not take away his own life. Our lives are God's, and we must only give them up when he pleases. If we in any way hasten our own death, we are accountable to God for it. When God requires the life of a man from him that took it away unjustly, the murderer cannot render that, and therefore must render his own instead. The penalty of murder is here proclaimed - death for death. It is an instance of the law of retaliation. This is an axiom of moral equity. He that deprives another of any property is bound to make it good or to suffer the like loss. But there are those who are ministers of God to protect the innocent, by being a terror to evil-doers, and they must not bear the sword in vain, Ro 13:4. Wilful murder ought always to be punished with death.

 

The Basis of Human Government vs 5

1. Look at these verses again . . . 5Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; . . .

2. When a man or woman’s blood is spilt and a life is taken, God demands a reckoning, an accounting.

a. there must be an investigation to determine the cause.

b. and if it’s a case of murder – then the guilty party must be punished. . . . from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man.

3. If an animal has killed a person – that animal must be executed.

4. If another man or woman is to blame, they must be put to death. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.

5. God is here entrusting the task of pursuing justice into the hands and authority of the murdered person’s relatives. 6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed;

6. After giving the specifics in v. 5, God now lays down the principle of capital punishment.

a. when there’s been a murder, it becomes the duty and responsibility of other men to execute the murderer.

b. this is nothing less than the original mandate of God for human government.

1) these verses form the core and nexus for our understanding of what God intends in civil government.

2) the reckoning he demands in v. 5 speaks of a justice system.

3) and the authority to execute murderers establishes and authorizes a law enforcement system.

7. Please take careful note of this – God’s mandate for human civil government is based on what principle? The value & sanctity of human life. 

8. But this sanctity isn’t just snatched out of thin air. It’s based on the last words of v. 6 - For in the image of God He made man.

9. There you have it – The sanctity, the specialness of human life that frames the basis for all human government is based on the FACT that Man is created in the image of God!

10. And it’s precisely at this point that we run into problems in our modern age.

11. But before we get into that, we need to see how what God says here develops and grows through the rest of Scripture.

The Development of Capital Punishment

1. Later on in the Law of Moses, God refines and clarifies the basic mandate given here.

2. He gives guidelines for dealing with those who take another’s life.

 3. As He here says that a reckoning must be made, He gives insights for that reckoning.

a. a distinction between killing and murder is made.

b. not all killing is murder.

c. there are some cases where there’s just cause for killing;

1) self-defense is one,

2) capital punishment with the due process of law, the very thing demanded here, is another,

3) a just war is a case of permissible killing,

d. God also called for recognition that some cases of killing are accidental.

1) when the Jews entered into the Promise Land at the end of the Exodus, God instructed them to establish cities of refuge throughout their territory.

 2) these were special places where those who’d accidentally killed someone could flee for safety from the hand of the one who came after them to exact revenge.

3) the elders of the city of refuge would sit in judgment, listening to the refugee’s side of the story and then to the avenger’s evidence.

4) if the elders ruled it was an accident, then the refugee was permitted to remain in the city and live there the rest of his life.

The New Testament also upholds the authority of governments to impose the death penalty. In Romans 13:1-4, Paul, living under Nero’s violent reign, argues that Christians must be subject to the governing authorities, because they are ordained by God to avenge wrongs and bring wrath, including the sword, upon the one who practices evil. Paul himself told Festus that if he had done anything worthy of death, he was willing to die for his crimes (Acts 25:11).

If you take away the death penalty, murdering someone becomes insignificant. But it is also sad if a truly repentant person is executed. Reason why the law must be fair and just with all proves and evidences. Moses’ murder of the Egyptian could be argued to be in defense of another person. God is concerned about justice, and the death penalty should be applied evenly (not along racial lines) after a fair trial and convincing guilt.