Exodus 33:12-23 - Presence over Permanence

Today we will be worshipping God as we hear Exodus 33:12-23 expounded.

To some degree, we as a church, have been in a permanent facility for the last 24 years. We have just learned about 3 weeks ago that we may have to do "church building in a box,” setting up our church building each week like the Israelites with the tabernacle.

In Exodus 33, God’s people were facing something much worse. Because of their idolatry and rebellion against God, they are told that they would still travel to the Promised Land, but without God’s presence!

I want us to think about a question today: What would it mean to have a permanent facility to worship in…and yet not have God?

Some of us today may still be feeling sad about leaving behind our quasi-permanence here, angry that we are forced to leave, excited about permanence to come, or cautiously optimistic or even afraid about some new future.

Today, let’s ground ourselves in this, that no matter the outcome for us, we know that, God’s presence, not permanence, is what makes us His people.

And so, the opportunity before us today is to know that even if we need to have a church building in a box, we have God's presence with us and in us and can bring this to a new part of Nashua?

Let's listen intently to God's word from Exodus 33:12-23.

Exodus 33:12–23 ESV

Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

What we see in this passage is that…

God's presence is greater than physical permanence

What is it that shows us as a church that we are in God's favor? Is it that we have physical permanence, a 24/7 building, in Nashua? What if God didn't give us this, but instead gave us his presence but we had to setup and teardown weekly for the rest of our lives? You see…What makes God’s people God’s people is not where they are, but whether God is with them.

Physical permanence doesn’t make us God’s people (vv. 13-16): What makes God’s people God’s people? Not a permanent physical presence. Moses refuses to lead God’s people without God’s presence. Why? Without God’s presence, nothing else matters, not even the promises.

Going into the Promised Land without God = gaining everything and losing everything.

Notice in v.15: Moses would rather stay in the wilderness with God than enter the Promised Land without Him.

God’s presence makes God’s people (vv. 12, 15-16): What makes God’s people God’s people? Though the people might not understand, Moses, the mediator does. God’s presence going with us makes us God’s. God’s presence makes God’s people.

God’s presence revealed as God chooses (vv. 17-23): God’s mediator desires not simply the presence of God for his good, but to delight in God’s glory. God’s glory is revealed to us in his goodness by his sovereign choice. We want control—but God gives His presence on His terms.

Even though God's presence is greater than physical permanence…

We want God’s presence with us to meet our expectations

While Israel was wandering through the wilderness, they grumbled about lack of water, lack of rich food (while getting heavenly food), and when their mediator, Moses, was gone for too long, they made a God they could see and called it Yahweh! The Israelites were fine with a church building in a box until it didn't meet their expectations. God revealing his presence when he wanted (sovereignly), wasn't enough for them, they wanted a god they could see and control! Are we really that much different?

Like Israel, we want God on our terms, to meet our expectations (Exodus 32:2, 4, 17-19): The precursor to this passage is Exodus 32 when God's mediator Moses didn't come back from meeting with God fast enough. Their thinking: we have a Promised Land to get to, get us the law, and let's get out of here. Things are going as we planned, who knows even if he died up on the mountain. They wanted the permanence of presence in the land on their terms and in their time. Aren't we the same? How long will we be willing to wait on God and be pleased simply by being in his presence.

Like Israel, we are stiff-necked, turning aside from God's expectations (Exodus 32:6-10): In Exodus 32:6-10 we see that when God doesn't meet the people's expectations, they abandon not only waiting on God for his presence, but abandon his commands. We are the same. When we forget that waiting on God and living in his presence, we try to find God in worldly permanence, rejecting him as the ultimate purpose of life.

We don’t just want God’s presence: we want clarity, comfort, timelines, and control.

Is God’s presence enough for us if He doesn’t meet our expectations?

The result of rejecting God's sovereignty and trying to put God on our terms to meet our expectations is not only judgment in the temporal world (Exodus 32:26-29), but is the loss of the ultimate good, God's presence (Exodus 33:1-3), and instead receiving God's retribution.

The worst possible outcome is not losing a building; it is gaining everything and losing God. Imagine getting everything you thought you wanted…and God not being there.

And if this is our natural condition, if our rebellion has forfeited the very presence of God, then we cannot fix this ourselves. We don't need a change of circumstances; we need a Savior. We need a perfect mediator.…And there is Good News…

Jesus, our Immanuel, died to bring God's presence to us

The tabernacle, church building in a box, was moveable and temporary. It was a picture of Jesus, the true temple of God, who would come as Immanuel, God with us, and tabernacle among us, doing this by taking upon himself sinful flesh in order to put sin to death in the flesh, dying upon the cross for our lack of desire for God's presence and for living for our own control, our sin, and then rising again on the third day and permanently taking on a spiritual body, receiving the Holy Spirit so that he might dwell in us by his Spirit so that God's presence is always with us!

Jesus is God's presence with us (vv. 14): The Israelites, in the wilderness had the cloud by day and pillar of fire by night to show them that God's presence was with them. When those stopped, they stopped and setup the tabernacle. This presence was God's Spirit leading them, and yet, we know that Jesus was the rock who led them through the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:1-4). Jesus Christ was the one who provided for the Israelites in the wilderness. Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life, the True Manna. Jesus Christ is the rock from which the living water flows.

Jesus mediates God's presence to us (vv. 19-20): God's favor then is truly the revelation of Jesus Christ. For no man can see God, but Jesus Christ has made Him known (John 1:18; John 6:46). John chapter 1 is clear that it is Jesus Christ who reveals the glory of God. Jesus Christ is the Word.

Jesus, the Rock, covers our sin through his death and resurrection (vv.21-23): it is certain that God's people find protection and shelter in the shadow of His wings (Ps. 91:1, 4). The Almighty provides this shelter to His people through Jesus Christ. In order for Moses to communicate with God the way he did, he was covered by Christ's blood through faith. For it is only through the mediation of Christ that any man can face God and live. Christ is the substitute who atones for sin and gives His righteousness to broken, sinful people in order to enable them to stand before God and still live.

Jesus is the cleft in the rock.

From the beginning of the Scriptures to the end, God reveals that He has set apart a people for Himself, through the intercession and atonement of His Son Jesus Christ. This atonement had one purpose in mind that is clear in Rev. 21:3b, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.' (ESV)

Because of Jesus' resurrection and ascension and the giving of the Holy Spirit to us…

We are free to share God’s presence with new neighbors

By the Spirit that Jesus poured out upon us we now have God's presence with us…Father, Son, and Spirit. We are now temples of the Holy Spirit, praying temples who God dwells in. Because of this, we don't live in our expectations about where God is taking us, but live in God's glorious presence guiding us to share his presence with our neighbors, especially if we are having to go to new neighborhoods with a "church building in a box"

We show that we are God's people by his presence with us (v. 16): It is not in the property that we own or not own, the building that we have or don't have, the programs that we do or not do that make us God's people, it is God's presence that shows the world that we are his people. God’s presence makes God’s people.

Instead of thinking that God will show Nashua that he is with us is that we have a permanent space, by the Spirit, God reveals to us that God's presence with us is found in Jesus Christ living in us by the Spirit. As we are reminded of this, instead of being overly sad, we can mourn what was and rejoice that we the joy of the Lord is our strength, instead of being angry with God that he didn't sovereignly allow us to continue in this building, we can take our lament to God and entrust that he is going to work all things out for our good. Instead of being overly excited about what we think God will do, giving us a building, we can be excited that he is with us and will make his presence known in our new neighborhood (even if it is a church building in a box). Instead of living for the comfort of not having to do anything but show up for Sunday morning worship, we can see the potential of how God is going to make his presence known through us.

When a typical moralistic institution loses its "headquarters" or permanent home, the world will advise them to find a good realtor, fight to get the place they want, do whatever it takes, or maybe even quit because it just isn't possible to find a place in Nashua that you can afford. But, when we understand that God has called a particular church to live like Jesus, as a "portable tabernacle", knowing that God's presence is with us, we can know that if God wants us somewhere, he will provide, and every part of the journey to that place is part of his plan and his good for us.

Brothers and Sisters, I want us to think about the future, not in terms of what we lost, what we will get, or what we might become, but as a people who even if we have a "church building in a box" are God's people precisely because God is with us. We have his presence. That's what makes us his people. Jesus is with us. Remember his words right before he went up to heaven...he has all power and authority and he will be with us until the end of the age. We are temples of the Holy Spirit, and together we are being built up into a spiritual house, whether we have a "church building in a box" or a permanent address.

We are not a people who have lost our home; we are a people who have been sent.

If today you find yourself without the presence of God, or you aren't sure what it would look like to live as if your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, then today I have good news! Jesus left heaven, tabernacled with us, and allowed his body, his home, to be destroyed for your sins, so that he might remake you, your whole being, into a temple of the Holy Spirit where God's presence dwells, enabling you to live in this temporary world with the permanence of God's presence with you no matter where you go.

Today I want to invite all of us to live in the reality that Jesus not only loves us, but is with us. We don't have live in sadness, anger, fear, or with expectations that might crush us if not met, we can live in the joy of knowing that we have the surest permanence there is, the eternal God not only is with us, leading us, but he lives in us. God’s presence makes God’s people.