Tuesday, June 25

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Exodus 33:1-3

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”

As the oldest sibling in my family I was the first to graduate from high school and the first to head off to college. Since I had never seen an older brother or sister go through that process I had no idea what to expect. I can remember feeling vaguely excited about college but mostly awkward, uncertain and apprehensive about leaving home.

One day in early August, while I was sitting in my room just kind of thinking about things and feeling kind of blue, I heard a knock on my door. It was my Dad. He came in and sat on the edge of my bed but didn’t say anything right away. Then, as I remember it, he said something like, “Thinking about going to school?” 

I nodded, “Yeah, kind of.”

He said, “Feeling a little nervous about it all?”

I nodded again, “I guess.”

Then he said, “I have one question for you: Could you take another year of High School?”

The question actually made me laugh a little because the answer was so obvious! 

“No!’ I said.

Then my Dad said something that, at the time, made little sense to me. He said, “I envy you.”

“Envy?” I thought to myself, “Why in the world would he envy me? I was scared to death!”

He said, “I envy all the things you’re going to learn and the experiences you’re going to have in the next four years!”

While I didn’t fully understand what he meant at the time, that conversation did help clarify both what I was feeling and why my fears should not keep me from going to college!

I think Moses knew what it was like to feel anxious about going into the unknown. If we look back at the beginning of Exodus 33 we can see why.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”

In other words, before God promised his own Presence to Moses (later in Exodus 33), he actually tells him that he will not be going with him, but rather will send an angel ahead of him to drive out the pagan peoples who were living in the land.

This might seem a bit out of character for God, but we need to remember that it was only one chapter earlier (Exodus 32) that we find the story of the Golden Calf. When Moses stayed on the mountain longer than anticipated, Aaron had allowed the people to craft an idol so they could worship like the pagan people groups around them. They had turned away from God’s commandments and God brought judgment on them for their sin.

So Moses knows God has called him to go up into the Promised Land, but he also knows it is inhabited by all kinds of people groups that won’t be thrilled at the arrival of the Israelites; and he knows that God is not going with them because they have sinned against him.

It would be an understatement to say that Moses felt uneasy!

Moses is uneasy because he has already learned two spiritual truths the hard way. First, he has learned that we can’t go where God wants us to go without obedience. And second, he has learned that we can’t accomplish anything without God’s favor, which comes through obedience.

That’s why, later in the same chapter Moses says:

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. Exodus 33:12-13

Looking back on my experience of leaving home and going to college; and thinking about that same journey that our sons are making now, it all comes down to “who” and “why”. The ultimate questions of any new journey or adventure are, “Who is going with me?” and “Why am I going?”

For Moses, the answer to the question “Who is going with me?” was the “Presence of God”; and the answer to the question “Why am I going?”  was “to find favor with God.”

Once those two questions are settled we are good to go, no matter where the journey takes us!

Pastor Brian Coffey