Exodus 33:15

But then the Lord added something that devastated Moses: "I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people" (v. 3). Could Moses think of leading the people on these terms? Suppose the Lord told us as believers to make our way to heaven as best we can, without His presence. How should we react? If that is how it would be for us personally, how much more helpless must Moses have felt, having to lead over two million people through the wilderness?

It is painful, and yet also beautiful, to see how God dealt with Moses after the people made the golden calf. While everything lay in ruins, faith under grace can have closer fellowship than when there was no ruin. Moses never had such close fellowship with God as now, when the people had made the calf. And the calf was still in the camp. The way God meets Moses is beautiful: "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." Then Moses grows bolder still, and says, "If Your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here."

He uses all the personal confidence God had in him on behalf of the people. That is the point of it all. He will not give up his love and desire for Israel. God may treat them as the people of Moses, and say, "They are the people you have brought up: they are your people." "Oh no," says Moses, "they are Yours; and You are their only hope." Nothing puts him off.

This comforted and emboldened his heart, and he replied, "If Your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here." (v. 15.) Now he identifies himself with the people. This intense love of Moses for Israel is no small picture of the heart of Christ. He links them with himself in his place of favour before God.

Grace had come in during the interval; God's goodness had passed before him. This changed everything. Because the people were so stiff-necked, Moses says, we cannot do without God. So once grace is the foundation, Moses takes the very condition of the people and makes it his argument. That condition would have led God to consume them, or at least to keep Him from going among them. Now it is the reason for God to go up among them. The moment grace comes in, we feel that our very sinfulness is a reason why we cannot do without the presence of God.

He claims, as it were, as proof of divine favour — of restored favour — God's own presence with His people. Nothing else could make it known. His presence would separate them from all other people. It is the same in principle today. The presence of the Holy Spirit on earth, building His people into a dwelling place for God, separates them from everything else.

Who but the God of all grace could meet the ten thousand needs of wilderness life? Moses had said well, at the very beginning, "If Your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here." He was right and wise to put it that way. God's presence was the only answer to the demand of such a congregation. But that presence was an all-sufficient answer. God's treasury never runs out. He can never fail a trusting heart.