"if Your Presence Will Not Go With Me,,,"

“The LORD said to Moses, ‘Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, “To your offspring I will give it.” I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.’

“When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. For the LORD had said to 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, that I may know what to do with you.”’ Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

“Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the LORD would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

“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?’” [1]

Among the many futile endeavours any of us are prone to attempt, trying to do the Lord’s work in our own strength must surely qualify as the most futile endeavour. We are prone to calling someone to pastor the congregation because they speak well and because they possess an advanced degree from a prominent seminary, neglecting to consult the instructions given by the Apostle who calls on the faithful to weigh character rather than credentials [see 1 TIMOTHY 3:1-7]. Education is important for burnishing the presentation of the Word. And the ability to craft and present the message is important in assisting in communicating what may be said. However, if character is absent, the messenger will lead the flock astray, dishonouring the Master.

I held membership in a congregation in a Dallas suburb that was seeking pastoral leadership. The pastor, under whose ministry I had come to faith, had resigned to move to another state where he would assume a new, to him, pastorate. Accordingly, the deacons of the congregation formed a pulpit committee and quickly invited a man to candidate for the position of pastor of the congregation in which I held membership.

As so commonly happens when someone receives such an invitation, the man came on a particular Sunday and delivered his “sugar stick” sermon. It wasn’t a particularly memorable sermon, and there was no message associated with what the man had to say. I remember how amused I was when the title of the man’s sermon was announced: “The Voice of the Turtle Was Heard.” The text chosen for the sermon was SONG OF SOLOMON 2:12; I suppose the gentleman thought this was a catchy sermon that would impress listeners with his ability to tease a sermon from about any passage.