Day 11

Oh, how much of an indictment is today’s passage of the hearts and minds in the church of 2017! How we equate God’s blessings with right living, and with confidence in having lived right. Conversely how often have we heard the question: “Why do good things happen to bad people,” and vice versa. We are commanded not to judge, yet we elevate our own authority to a level that we believe we are justified in judging our own position relative to the LORD’s presence, and His blessings. When will we learn that there is a distinction between the two? God’s blessings DO NOT equate to His presence.
Exodus 33:1-6 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Depart and go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’ And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” And when the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. For the LORD had said to Moses, “Say to the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you.’” So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb.
In the exact same ways that we call upon the Lord to protect and bless us, or our spouse, or our children, or our aging parents, or anything at all, His answer does not mean that we are living according to God’s word, OR at all that we are living in His presence. Moses and the children of Israel were so keenly aware of the distinction between the two that they did not want one without the other. How readily do you think today’s church would accept the blessing of a full and prosperous sanctuary on each Sunday morning – and equate that unquestioningly to “God’s presence.” The Israelites had sinned grievously against God, yet He was true to His promises to bring them out of the desert and into their promised land of milk and honey. But He was so disgusted with them that He declared “I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way…. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you.” This RIGHTLY horrified the children of Israel. Are we horrified at the absence of God’s presence? Do we even know the difference as long as we are experiencing His blessings? Who hasn’t said in acknowledgment of a great windfall, or in response to rescue from near-tragic circumstance: “I am blessed by God.”? But the difference between the blessing and the presence of God is barely considered. We judge ourselves worthy of God’s presence, without considering that we might merely be receiving what God promised – because He alone is righteous, and our receipt of His blessings have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with whether we earned it or not. Because we can never earn anything from God – not any more than He could ever “owe” anything to us. Yet He is still faithful to His promises to protect us and deliver us from our enemies.
We need to have the same genuine sense of horror expressed by both Moses and the people at the thought of God’s absence. His presence was vastly more important to them than His blessing. As immature and rebellious as they were, they got the message. And when they got the message – they responded. We need to get the message. And we need to respond.