Feb. 2, 2010, Exodus 33 & 34, Psalm 16, Acts 9

Feb. 2, 2010, Exodus 33 & 34, Psalm 16, Acts 9
S: Ex 33:1-3 “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place…. Go up to the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, I will give it to your descendants.” I will send an angel before you…..Go to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a siff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”
O: First of all – so all this time they were not headed for the promised land but God was with them ---- and now God finally tells them to head for promised land but he says he will not be with them as they go there because he is afraid he cannot restrain his anger and might accidentally destroy them on the way if he goes with them. Such difficult passage.
Here are my questions:
1. All this time in the wilderness I must assume that it is just a learning exercise as they are not spiritually ready to go to the promised land. So the people that came out of Egypt were not suppose to go to the promised land --- only the next generation as the people who had experienced Egypt were too sinful. Would they have followed Moses if they thought God had no intention of taking them to a better land? Were they duped?
2. God has been with them in the wilderness and they have done some very wrong things…. If he is now leaving them…. Will they not be more at risk of making great mistakes and this is their crucial time…. They are going to enter the promised land. How can God leave them when they need him most?
3. The reason that God gives that he cannot go with them to the promised land is that he cannot restrain his inclination to perhaps destroy them while they are going there. Does God have no restraint? Does God really leave us in our time of trouble? These verses are very strange to me.

A: I am going to believe that the verse in Hebrews 13 – “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” The example of the Israelites must be a very special passage as I cannot see God ever leaving me --- This is the Rock that I stand upon and the hope that holds me firm through everything.
P: I do not understand that in this circumstance you left the Israelites but Lord I am convinced that you will never leave me…. Help me to always know that.

S: Ex 33:11 “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.”
O: I am trying to get the picture…. Moses sets up a small tent outside the camp and he goes in there where others may come and ask him questions that he can relay to God… he has his understudy Joshua son of Nun there with him in the tent (vs.11)……..while he was in this small tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance of the tent and in this pillar of cloud there would be God who would speak to Moses face to face. So God does have a real face and Jacob has seen it and so has Moses…. And perhaps even Joshua who is in the tent with Moses…. Even though later in the chapter --- Ex 33:20 says “no one may see my face and live.” Now it does not say when they will be struck dead … and at some point we all die… how can this controversial passage be explained? Not sure? If God has a face then does he at this point manifest himself in a physical body just as Jesus did when he came to earth? Many questions her
P: Lord I doubt if anyone has more questions about this Bible than me… is there someone out there that could explain a few of the answers … would love to converse with a Bible scholar who could answer a few of my questions…. For this I pray.

Title: Time in the tent with God
S: Ex 33:11 b “…Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua Son of Nun did not leave the tent.”
O: Joshua turns into a man who is a man among men – brave, Godly and without guile. Pehaps it is this time in the tent that made Joshua different. I would love time in a tent alone with God. What a great idea…. I wonder if this is here the feast of Tabernacles came from… or feast of Booths on Sept. 15 where they all get in little tents and eat and live in them for 7 days to remember the tents of the Israelites.
A: Plan a time to get in a place alone with God. What a good idea --- alone with God… nothing but a small dwelling. Must do this.
P: That it actually happens, a time alone with God.

Title: Moses negotiates with God.
S: Ex 33:18 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.”
O: Although God has said he will not go with him…. Moses convinces God to change His mind… is this what prayer is… begging God until He changes his mind. Does God not know what he will do from the beginning? How can God change his mind… or did God know what he would do all along? Just thinking.
A: If Moses could change the mind of God we can too. Prayer does work.
P: Changed lives… salvation for those I pray for.

S: Ex 33:19 “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
O: God makes the rules, true when we pray God will change his mind but He is sovereign and He answers always as He sees fit…. And sometimes he chooses to answer prayers that we should not have asked for and the answers are full of troubles. Just like when he gave the Israelites the desires of their hearts but sent leanness into their souls… we sometimes get what we want but reap that leanness in our souls.
A: Be careful what I pray for.
P: Wisdom in all that I pray for.

S: Ex 34:7 “Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”
O: We pass on our sins, even our sins of omission, what our children see us do – they will do and so it goes…. We will reap the rewards of what we do when we look at our children. We better be good examples.
A: Be a good example.
P: Lord help us both to be the above.

S: Ex 34:19 “The firstborn of every womb belongs to me…..”
O: Self explanatory.
S: Ex 34:28 “Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water.”
O: I know that you can survive 40 days without bread but without water ?? – the only way would be for God to help Moses supernaturally. What would have Moses mental condition have been like? He did come down with the ten commandments though.

Psalm 16

Acts 9
Saul is saved and becomes Paul and preaches.