Exodus 33:12-23
Moses said to the Lord, “you have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”
The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other peoples on the face of the earth?”
And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”
Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
Back when I was a senior in college, and playing on the basketball team, we got new practice uniforms with monogrammed shorts. This was a big deal. We had all seen other guys from other schools who had their names stitched on their practice shorts and now that we were going to get them it meant that we were “big time.” So, along with all my teammates, I was excited to find my near gear in my locker on the first day of practice. But when I looked at my new shorts the name stitched on them read “Coffee” not “Coffey.” I didn’t let on, but I was devastated. After three whole seasons of blood, sweat and tears, and they still didn’t know how to spell my name.
Even though I understood that it was just an unintentional clerical error, it made me feel insignificant and unimportant. I wasn’t a star player on the team; in fact, I was a bench-warmer. So I found myself wondering if they would have ever misspelled the star player’s name. I guessed not.
When it comes to names, I have good days and bad days. Sometimes, on a Sunday morning at church, I can recall dozens of names and speak to people using their names. Other times, I struggle to remember the names of people I’ve known for 20 years! But I try to remember as many names as I can because names are important!
In a very significant way we are our names and our names are us. If our names are mispronounced, misspelled or forgotten, it is we who are mispronounced, misspelled and forgotten.
God not only knows this but he created us this way!
This is why he says to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”
God wants Moses to know that even though things have been difficult; even though the people he is trying to lead are difficult; even though he feels at times like he is alone, God has not forgotten him. God wants Moses to know that he knows who he is; where he is; and what he needs.
And God wants us to know the same thing. God never has a bad day with names! He never looks at us and thinks to himself, “Now, who is that again? Oooooh, his name is right on the tip of my tongue…” He never looks at us and pretends to know us by saying, “Hey there, uh, Sport! How ya doin’?” as I sometimes do.
In Psalm 139 we read:
You have searched me and you know me…
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. Psalm 139:1,13
Do you know that God knows you by name? Take a moment to just dwell on that thought.
There are something like 7 billion people in the world today; not to mention the billions who at one time walked the face of this planet and are no longer living. And the Bible says that God could, if he wanted to, line all of us up in one long line and go down that line calling each one of us by name; first, middle and last; pronouncing every one correctly. More than that, if we had time to listen, he could recite our family trees going further back than any of us could through ancestry.com. He could also tell us who our first grade teacher was; what our favorite subject was; and what parts of our homework we never showed our parents.
Again, from Psalm 139:
O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Psalm 139:1-3
So, unfathomable as it is to us, God knows us as if we were the only human being he ever created. And the most amazing thing to me is, knowing all that, he still loves us.
He knew Moses had killed an Egyptian in a fit of rage and buried his body in the sand (Exodus 2:12); he knew Moses had made a bundle of excuses about why he couldn’t do the job when called to confront Pharaoh; and he knew Moses would become so frustrated with the task of leading a “stiff-necked people” that he would defy God’s command by striking the rock to bring water instead of simply speaking to it (Numbers 20). God knew Moses was not perfect, but God called him and used him anyway.
None of us is like Moses! But the good news is – we don’t have to be! God knows us by name. He knows we are imperfect people who struggle with doubt and fear and faith, and yet he wants to use us in his eternal plan.
I believe there is something right now that he wants for you and from you. I believe that right now God is speaking your name; and after he speaks your name he says, “Go.”
Where do you think he is calling you to go? What do you think he is calling you to do?
Have you asked him?
Pastor Brian Coffey
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment