Promise, Presence, and Posture

Exodus 33:14 NKJV

And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Promises for the Journey

My church is doing a Bible reading plan called 66 in 88. The Lord gave my pastor this plan, so every year we begin with reading the entire Bible (66 books) in 88 days. Yesterday, as I read Genesis 32 and 33, I noticed some monumental moments in Moses’ life that we need to recognize and imitate today.

The Promise

Exodus 32:11-14 NKJV

¹¹ Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said: “Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹² Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. ¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” 

14 So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.

When Moses came down from the mountain and saw what the people had done, he was filled with righteous anger. Yet when the Lord declared His intention to destroy them, Moses responded not with self-preservation, but with intercession. Twice he went before the Lord on behalf of the people, pleading for mercy (see Exodus 32:30–32).

Moses reminded God of His promises to those who came before him. His prayers were not to save himself, but to save others. Through his intercession, the Lord had mercy and a nation was spared. This is what selfless love looks like through prayer.

The Presence

Exodus 33:13-15 NKJV

³ “Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.”

¹⁴ And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

¹⁵ Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. ¹⁶ For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”

Moses recognized that if the Lord’s presence does not go with them, they will not make it. He was so sure of this that he said they would not go without him. The Lord gave him the instruction to lead the people, but Moses would not move without the Lord’s presence. Now, this is what total dependence on the Lord looks like! Moses also knew that it was the Lord’s presence that made them stand out from the other nations. He also knew that in His presence came protection. To go without God, even to the Promise Land, is to be like everyone else- unprotected and open to the enemy’s devices.

It’s not the title of Christian that makes us different from the world, it’s His Presence. 

The Posture

Exodus 33:17-19 NKJV

¹⁷ So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”

¹⁸ And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.”

¹⁹ Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 

Moses’ posture before the Lord was one of obedience and holy fear. He understood who God is and who he himself was in God’s presence. Because he feared the Lord, he obeyed Him; and because he obeyed Him, he was entrusted to stand in the gap for others. When he asked for the glory, he received it because of his posture before the Lord.

Notice, this wasn’t in a corporate time of prayer. Moses did not have the people of Israel go before God in repentance. Moses was alone with God in prayer. An entire nation was saved, the Lord’s Presence led the people, and the Lord showed his glory because of the posture of one man.

The Lord is shaking the earth. Warning upon warning has been given.

I found myself this morning, crying out and repenting for the sins of the people in this nation, but also crying out for His glory. Then the readings came back to me.

The Lord wants to release His glory. He’s waiting to release His glory, but He’s only waiting because He’s waiting on us. Where are we at in our position and posture before the Lord? What is our deepest, strongest desire of the Lord? Is it for His glorious presence- to lead us and pour out on us?

As I was crying out in intercession, I was asking the Lord:

Have mercy and keep Your promise to Your holy people. Moses cried out so You wouldn’t wipe out all of Israel because of their sins. They were wicked, and they turned from You… but You had mercy. So you did it then, Lord, do it now. Don’t wipe out the righteous with the wicked.

I pray we abide in Him and walk a righteous and holy life. I pray we do not just wear the title of Christian, but we seek and ask for the glory. I pray that as we do this, we cry out for our families, our city, and our nation. We need Him. We need His glorious presence with us.

As Moses cried out and interceded for the people of Israel, so should we for this nation. And we need to ask for His glory. The Lord responds to the prayers of the righteous.

Word for the Journey

I invite you to read Exodus 32 and 33. Don’t just see what the people did wrong. See the response of one man, and how his choice of living in obedience and holy reverence to the Lord led to the salvation of the people.