My Presence Will Go With You
David E. Crosby, Pastor
First Baptist New Orleans
January 31, 2008

The people craft and worship a golden calf while Moses in on Mount Sinai communing with God, we read this week (see fbno.org; more info on YOTM; daily reading plan).

Moses breaks the tablets of the 10 Commandments written by the finger of God when he sees the people worshipping the gold calf.

God threatens to kill the Hebrews and refuses to accompany them any longer.

Moses has a long discussion with God about God’s presence with the Hebrews on the journey to the Promised Land.

God promises Moses, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Exodus 33:14). In the context of the sinfulness and stubbornness of Israel, God makes a covenant with them. They will be his people, and he will be their God.

You could hardly imagine a more difficult beginning to a covenant that this one. The Hebrew people seem absolutely untrustworthy, unpredictable, and unreliable. But God is willing to display his glory in the earth through them anyway.

You and I, too, have made the golden calf and shattered the 10 Commandments. We think it’s all over between us and God. We have sensed his displeasure, and we have known the alienation with God that puts a stopper on our prayers and pulls us back when we think we might approach him.

Let the hope rise like a flame from the ashes! God is not done with his people. His Presence is not withdrawn, and his peace is still available. He is longsuffering, full of tender mercies. His lovingkindness is better than life.

Embrace his offer of love and forgiveness. Take his hand and never let go.