Exodus 33:1-6
1 The LORD told Moses, “Go on up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ 2 I will send an angel in front of you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, or I would consume you on the way, because you are a stiff-necked people.” 4 When the people heard this discouraging word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. 5 Because the LORD had told Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, so that I may know what to do with you.'” 6 Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.
this discouraging word
We need to stop and camp out at these words before going further. Notice that the LORD is sending his people to the promised land, but not agreeing to go with them as he had done before. Their horrible sin at the foot of Sinai has caused a change in plans. Finally, the people get it. They strip off their fancy ornaments and begin to mourn. They realize that they could not have gotten this far if God had not been present with them. They begin to ponder their fate if they try to do God’s mission without his presence.
Fast forward to a Galilean mountainside. Jesus, having called his disciples to him, gives them their mission to make disciples of all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. Just before sending them to Jerusalem to wait for empowerment for that mission, he adds: “see, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”[1] Believers in Christ need not be concerned that they might lose the presence when they are involved in the mission.
LORD, thank you for the promise of your empowering presence as we seek to accomplish your mission.
[1] Matthew 28:20.
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