Exodus 32-35
If Jesus Goes with Me I'll Go...

After the people of Israel sinned with the golden calf in Exodus 32, God's wrath was roused against them-and, rightly so. He had protected them from the damaging plagues, delivered them from Egypt through the Red Sea, guided them day and night with a cloud and fire, and given them water and food. He had come down on Mount Sinai in fire and smoke; thundering and lightning. His presence and desire to provide were overwhelming.

Despite all that, when Moses ascended up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, the people "rose up to play" (Exodus 32:6) and created a false god to worship and attribute the powerful acts they had seen to. After Moses pled for mercy for the people, God did so, saving them. In chapter 33:3, He assured Moses He would fulfill His promise to bring them to Canaan, sending His Angel before them, but "I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people."

In 33:12, Moses begged God to reconsider, and God did so. "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." Moses' grateful response is moving and full of faith and dependence on the Sovereign Lord: "If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here."

Regardless of their failure as a people, Moses knew that the only hope Israel had was the daily presence of God. It was the thing that made them unique. If He was not with them, they might as well stop where they were because they were doomed to failure.

God was well pleased with Moses' faith and blessed Him.

We sometimes sing the song, "If Jesus goes with me I'll go anywhere. Tis' heaven for me, where e'er I may be, if He is there!" Do we mean it? Could we say with Moses, "If Your Presence does not go with me, I don't want to go"? Do we depend upon the presence of God as much as Moses did? Does the prospect of taking a foot without His presence in our lives scare us, as it no doubt did Moses? When we are faithful and dependant upon Him, He has promised to always be there for us. Jesus said to his disciples in the great commission, "And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). The Hebrew writer applied God's promise to Joshua to our lives today as Christians in Hebrews 13:5, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

But, do you realize sin endangers God's presence with us, just as it did with God's people before the golden calf? To be exact, unrepented of sin endangers our relationship with God. When we sin and leave Him, we have done just that-we have left Him. "My sheep here my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me" (John 10:27). I suppose the better way to say this is when we sin, God has not left us as much as we have left Him. He will always go the right way. When we don't, His Presence does not go with us. We are then like the prodigal son. Our Father waits for us; looks for us; longs for us. But, we must come to Him if we want His Presence, which we need so desperately. We must see ourselves for what we are-helpless without Him, and we must be willing to do whatever we must to restore His favor on us. Only then can we courage and confidence to proceed in life.