It's a beautiful summer's day. You're on your way down the sidewalk to the store on the corner. Your mother has asked you to get her some things for dinner. Halfway there 3 neighborhood bullies run from behind a house. They chase you all the way to the market. You get the things your mother wanted you to get, but you stick around the store another half an hour until you're sure the coast is clear. Then warily you make your way back home, keeping an eye on each tree and house you pass. Not until you close the door of your own house behind you do you relax. You escaped for the moment, but what will happen next time?
The next day your mother asks you to go to the store again. Beads of sweat begin to break out on your face. You want to do what she asks of you, but you're afraid because the bullies are still out there. Just then your father comes in and says, “Come on, I'll go to the store with you.” Whew! What a relief! He's big and strong; nothing bothers him. So off you go together, confident, secure. As long as he is by your side, you've got nothing to fear.
A child's story? Perhaps. But there are parallels to it in every Christian's life. Bullies confront you at every turn – bullies whom you cannot conquer on your own: unbelievers who taunt you for your faith; people who use you for their own gain; illness that puts you in the hospital time and time again; then there's the unholy three who give you no respite - the devil, your own sinful flesh, and death. They will hunt you down, pursue you, beat you up, and leave you for dead. You will not get away from them on your own.
But what a difference your heavenly Father makes! He stands with you in life and goes along to help. Even when outnumbered by eternal enemies, one Christian plus God make a majority. He's the almighty God; He's got more strength than anything lined against you. If He is at your side, you can defy a host. With such faith, the Christian finds rest and confidently moves forward.
I. He will give you rest.
That's the way it is for believers in every age. So it was that Abraham did not hesitate to take only 318 men to fight against the armies of 4 kings in order to rescue his nephew Lot ; and he won (Gn.14). So it was that Gideon took only 300 men of Israel to battle thousands from Midian and Amalek who attacked them; and he won (Jud.7). So it was that David stood against Goliath, Elijah against Ahab and Jezebel, Peter and John against the Council of Jerusalem, Paul against the might of Rome . Without God at their side , what could any of them have accomplished? As David proclaimed: “(Lord,) You give me Your shield of victory, and Your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great. You broaden the paths beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn” (Ps.18:35f). With God at his side, David was at rest.
In order for the Israelites in our text to have such rest, they needed God. Indeed for them to go anywhere in their wanderings through the desert on the way to the Promised Land, they needed God. Have you ever wandered alone through a great desert, not having any idea of where you were going, what direction you were headed, and confronted with all kinds of enemies and forces of nature just waiting to get the better of you? Moses knew their need for God to make that majority on their side. Go without Him? Nuts! They couldn't go anywhere, do anything, stand against any forces bent on destroying them if God were not at their side.
So it was that Moses said to God in our text: “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….Remember that this nation is Your people….If Your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.”
“Don't send me if you're not at my side! Who knows what could happen without you there to protect, rescue, and give relief!” I bet that's exactly how that little boy felt when his mother asked him to go to the store again for her the second day. If someone didn't go with him, he would never be able to stand against the neighborhood bullies who pursued him. Sooner or later they would catch him. And then what would happen? The feeling wasn't any different for Moses and Israel as they wandered through the desert.
But it wasn't a life of wandering in a desert that bothered Moses; it was Israel 's life of wandering away from God that disturbed him.
You see, this incident in our text took place right after Israel had shown their sin and weakness at Mt. Sinai by building the Golden Calf and worshiping it instead of God. With that rebellion so fresh in his mind, Moses wondered how they would ever stay on the narrow and difficult path of faith.
Ah, dear friends, what is it that Jesus said? The way to hell is a broad and easy path to follow. The devil makes it that way as he seeks to lead us astray. And he succeeds to get us on it at times.
Haven't you ever felt it's much easier to surrender to temptation than to fight it? Even the great Apostle Paul agonized over it today in the Epistle when he said, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing….I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner to sin….Who will rescue me?” (Ro.7:18f)
“No rest!” Paul cried. “I have no rest from sin and temptation. They bully me and I succumb too easily. How will I get relief?”
“No rest from the things against us!” Moses cried. “No way to reach the Promised Land on our own! How will we get there?”
“No rest from the worries, the troubles, and the daily weight of temptation and sin,” we cry. “How will we ever make it through the things that beset us in life?”
How, dear friends? Our God replies: “I know you by name and you have found favor with me….My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
The Presence of God, dear friends, is more than just Him being there. The Presence of God finds its highpoint in the salvation over sin, death, and the devil that was won by Christ, our Savior. That's the only way God's favor could ever come upon us for we have done nothing to deserve His grace. That which we've done, like Paul said, is to give in to the pull of sin and temptation in our lives. How would we deserve God's favor for that? Not anymore than Israel did when they succumbed to worshiping the Golden Calf!
But they had a Savior, and so do we. He died for all sin and rose for our life. Through Him God's favor rests on those who believe. And so He invites, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened (with sin, doubt, temptation, a guilty conscience, and the heavy effects of sin on life), and I will give you rest” (Mt.11:27).
Can we do without such a Presence in our lives? Not any more than Moses and Israel could. Moses knew it and called upon God, placing his confidence in Him. He would give him rest.
So, dear friends, what bullies pursue you in life? If God is at your side He will give you rest from them.
II. He will let you see His goodness.
Moses was happy with that promise, but not fully satisfied. Like many believers, he thought he needed more than promises. So Moses made a second request: “Now show me your glory.” The Lord replied, “I will cause my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence….But you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
“I want to see you in all Your glory!” That's Moses request. It's not such a strange one; I'll bet it's something that you've desired, too.
Wouldn't it be great to see God? Then we would know for sure that He exists, because we'd see Him at our side. Then we would be certain that things will come out okay. Then we'd have tangible proof to show our friends who are skeptical about Him. Wouldn't it be great to see God's glory? We think the same way Moses did.
Why is it that we think such things would bring us closer to God? Israel actually had such things to see – the parting of the Red Sea ; manna coming down daily from heaven to feed them; water coming out of a rock; thunder, lightening, and the voice of God from the mountain. They saw incredible things that we think would convince anyone about God. Yet, they so easily bowed their knee to the Golden Calf. Seeing is not necessarily believing. So it is that Paul writes, “We live by faith, not by sight” (2Co.5:7).
Still, to help Moses God gave him a glimpse of His goodness. It was a small glimpse, shielded by God's hand.
You and I have so much more. We have the complete story of Christ laid out for us. In them is found the height of God's goodness and glory – in them is found our salvation.
So we live without a grand visual display of God's glory. But we live with His precious promises recorded in His Word and the Sacraments. They are what the Holy Spirit uses to create faith in us. With such faith we are blessed more greatly than if we could see Him. And one day, when all this here ends, we will see Him face to face when we can endure that sight forever.
But till then it is enough to know that if He is at your side , He will give you rest and you will see His goodness at work as He carries you past the bullies that would harm you. So trust in Him, as Moses learned. He will take care of you and He can do immeasurably more than we imagine. God grant it in our lives of faith for Jesus' sake. Amen.