An angel and promised victory... What could be better?

I was preparing for my Home Bible Study on Friday and came across Exodus 33:1-3, where the Bible says, "And the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it: And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: Unto a land flowing with milk and honey:..."

Wow, imagine that, having the promise that God would send an angel to lead us into battle... to even have the promise from God that He will drive out our enemies from before us! What an awesome promise. Who wouldn't want that? I mean, what could be better!?

Well, then I kept reading and it says, "... for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way. And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned..."

How often are we satisfied with simply seeing God's work - even seeing it in a miraculous way. I think from this passage we can learn something: Just because God is working, and even working to accomplish the goals that we are looking to accomplish, it does not mean that God is "with" us, or that we are abiding in Christ. The people wanted to go into the promised land, they wanted the enemies to be defeated. God told them that He would accomplish that... but He was not going to be with them.

Moses is one of my favorite Bible characters. He goes on to say in that chapter, verse 15: "...If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." Moses refuses to cross over into the promised land, even with the promise of an angel to go before them and the promise of victory over the enemies.

I can only imagine what the last part of chapter 33 and the beginning of chapter 34 were like. Moses begs God, he beseeches God to show him His glory, and God grants that request. He puts Moses in a clift of the rock, and passes before him... all because Moses did not want to continue his "Christian" walk without going in God's presence.

Oh, that we would all have the same desire as Moses. God, if you aren't with me, don't carry us up there. God, show me Your glory!

Let's be sure that even if God is working in our lives, that we are going through with it with His presence, in communion with Him.

Just a thought...™

Andy Hinds