Desiring to Know God Better

Exodus 33:7-23
Related Sunday School Lesson, Family Bible Series, September 5

In the late eighties George Barna told us in one of his insightful reports that the nineties would be a time of spiritual revival in America. Of course, everyone was excited and desirous of being a part of this much-needed revival. The mistake that we Christian pastors and laypeople made was that we automatically assumed the revival Barna was talking about would be a Christian one.

What we actually experienced was a spiritual revival in the inordinate rise of witchcraft, satanism, the occult, far Eastern religions and the New Age movement. In fact, Christianity has had to struggle to maintain its place in our society while any other “spiritual” activity has seemed to flourish.

Christians have been so careless about their faith and so caught up in the system of the world that we are in danger of losing our ability to impact the world. If we assume the characteristics of the world in our lives and worship, then the world will cease to be challenged by the Gospel message at all and we will be totally absorbed into the “system” and thereby ignored.

What do we have to say to a world if we are exactly like them? How can our witness bring conviction unless we are different? Our different nature does not exist because we have the proper moral code. Our different nature is a direct byproduct of a personal relationship to God through Jesus Christ.

Our passage for this study is Exodus 33:7-23 and it gives us some wonderful insights into who we are, who God is and how we are to relate to Him.

The Proper Attitude
v. 7-11

Even from a casual reading of the text one can see that the people had an overwhelming attitude of awe in respect to God. They had just seen His mighty works as He delivered them from Egypt. They had also just received the Law from God at Mt. Sinai. They were a people who had a reverential awe of God and we see them standing afar off as Moses approached and entered the tabernacle.

I’m sure it was an overwhelming sight to see the cloudy pillar come and stand at the door of the tabernacle with Moses inside. I think it is noteworthy that these people had the proper respect for God and for His man, Moses.

Could it be that we are a people who have adopted a casual approach to God and thereby are losing much of our spiritual power? Could it be that the world is taking us less seriously because we have lost our awe for who God is? Could it be that in the worship of many today the idea is to please man and make him feel good about himself rather than focusing on God?

Not only does this writer think these things might be so, he is sure of it. The people of Israel were focused on God, not their own “felt needs.” We will be pleasing to God and have the proper influence in the world to the same degree that we have the proper attitude toward God and respect for Him.

A Prayerful Request
v. 12-16

The prayer that Moses offered to God was not a “name it and claim it” prayer. Moses came before God in an attitude of humbleness which was a byproduct of having The Proper Attitude about who God is.

He was asking God for His grace and for His presence and protection for the people. Moses desired to know that God was going to be with them because he knew that if He was things would be fine with the people.

There is one important point which must be made about something Moses said to God. He referred to the fact that people would know that Israel had found grace in God’s sight when it was obvious that God was with them. His presence would prove the fact that they had received His grace.

Moses also said that God’s presence would make them a “separate” people. We, today, are becoming a watered down, disrespected people because we are not separate from the world. We want to claim God’s presence, but we do not expect that His presence will cause us to have to separate ourselves from the world at all.

It has been found that divorce is present in the church to the same percentage as it is present in those who are unchurched. Alcoholism, adultery, drug addiction, gambling and pornography are also present in the church to the same degree that they are present in the general population. The problem is that we do not take our Christianity seriously. We think God winks at sin and really doesn’t care.

We have absorbed the idea that the twenty-first century really is a new day and sin no longer matters. We must admit that we are not a separate people. What does this mean in the context of our passage? I think it means that if we are not a separate people, God is not obligated to be with us. Moses requested God’s presence with the people and he said that their separate nature would prove God’s presence and guidance. We should listen very carefully to what is being said in this passage.

A Personal Relationship
v.17-23

In these verses we find that God heard Moses and answered his prayer. God said a couple of very important things. First, He said, “Thou hast found grace in my sight,” and then He said, “I know thee by name.” This is always going to be true.

A person must first experience the grace of God before God knows them by name. In today’s politically correct world people are being told that any religion will do. If a person is faithful in their own religious context then they are going to go to heaven.

One priority of this politically correct world is that one never tells someone they are wrong and you must never hurt their feelings in any way. The thought is that if we claim that Jesus is the exclusive way to get to God then we have told others they are wrong and we have hurt their feelings.

So, this world thinks that there are a number of ways to come into God’s presence and Christianity is just another one of them. We must be adamant in our position that Jesus is the only way to heaven because that is what the Bible says in John 14:6, plus other passages.

The only way that God’s Grace is shed abroad is through the shed blood of Jesus for our sins. The only way God will “know you by name” is if you come to God through His chosen Vessel ... Jesus Christ.

God says, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” God is the one who has set the parameters for salvation; not man. God is the one who must be satisfied, not man. It is God whose holiness has been violated by sin and He is the only one who can dispense forgiveness. He will show mercy on those who come to Him through Jesus and through Jesus alone. He desires a Personal Relationship with us all.