The Promise of Monday
Good morning. I know some people hate Mondays. I love them. By Thursday or Friday, your week’s trajectory is already determined. You might pull out a hail Mary and recover from a poor start, or you may end up tanking after a good start, but, by the end of the week, you are just pushing to make it to the end.
Monday is full of potential and promise. You are in control of whatever kind of week you want it to be. Starting in God’s word will lead you to have a fantastic one, I pray.
Today, we start by reading Exodus 33-35.
Going alone
I can only empathize with Moses in 33:3, when God tells him, I will not go with you.
There have been seasons of my life, as a Christian, that I have not spent time in God’s word. The only prayers I offered were the obligatory thanks for the meals I was eating. I would fall asleep at night, and toss and turn, without even praying, and never felt “right”.
When I would go to work the next day, everything would just be harder. Nothing seemed to fall into place. My wife would push back on me, the boss would be unhappy with me, even my cat would give me the stink eye.
I was just out of sorts.
So, I would double down and try harder. This left me more exhausted and not willing to wake up early to read my Bible. Cutting time, I would grab my lunch and gobble it down without a word of thanks. When my head hit the pillow, I would collapse, only to wake up an hour later and fight with the problems I was trying to solve the rest of the night. Watching the hours on the clock creep toward morning with no relief.
Moses had been through a lot. He may have had doubts at the beginning, when He was resisting God at the burning bush, but not anymore. He cherished and rely upon the intimate relationship he had developed with God.
Knowing the challenges of leading the nation of Israel, he was now hearing he would have to do so without God being with him.
Draw near to God
Knowing my roller coaster of faith, I could only imagine that all people have this struggle. This would include world leaders, perhaps even President Trump.
I have no reason to believe the president reads my blog, but I still pray that when things get more challenging for him, and they will, that he realizes this as a call to draw nearer to the Lord.
Moses spoke face to face with God.
Verse 35:11 says, “the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.” (NIV)
We often get too casual in our relationship with God. He is not the big guy, the man upstairs, or any other trivial title we place upon Him. He is God. We should always have a complete reverence for His authority in our lives. He supremely deserves the worship and obedience.
A genuine relationship
We should have a healthy fear for His awesome power, but here we read he will talk to Moses as a friend.
Like the old song says, “We’ve got a friend in Jesus.”
Proverbs 17:17 tells us “a friend loves at all times”. Romance comes and goes. Some people stick with us out of necessity. But, a friend is there for you because they love you.
God has no needs. Anything He may desire, He can have. He spoke the entire universe into existence.
But, He desires a friendship with us. It would not be a genuine relationship if He did not give us a choice in the matter. So He gives us free will. But that is His desire. That we have a close personal relationship with Him.
In Exodus 33:13, Moses asks God to teach him His ways so that he may know Him.
God responds to this request by staying close to Moses as he goes to the promised land. This gives Moses rest.
When I come to my senses and realize I am struggling because I am not walking with God the way I should be, and I submit myself to His will and make time with Him a priority. Life does not instantly improve, but somehow things get easier and I realize that somewhere along the way, they improved.
Don’t leave home without Him
America, and everyone in the world, must have that same attitude Moses does, asking in 33:15 that if God is not going with them, don’t send them.
God assures him He will be with them, but this does not make things easy. In 34:1, Moses is told to chisel out new tablets of stone. This is hard, tedious work.
He then has to carve the Ten Commandments into the stone. God had written on the tablets that Moses threw down and broke. This time in 34:28 it states he wrote on the tablets. The word he is lower case, so this is not God writing, but Moses.
Let His glory shine
My third point this morning is that God’s presence shone on Moses’ face after he had spent time with God. He was radiant.
We should all shine for Jesus. We are to be lights on a hill, not hid under a bushel. People should not wonder what is different about us, or for that matter, not see anything different about us. They should recognize that we have been with Jesus. (Mat 5:15-16)
When they do, we must not be like Peter and deny Him. (Mat 26:69-75).
This message applies to more than just leaders, like Moses. Exodus 35:29 shows that we should all willingly give the Lord whatever skills and talents He’s blessed us with.
As the body of Christ, we must not allow ourselves to be like the limb that falls asleep and is numb. We must get on our feet and serve Him and commune with Him daily.
