Exodus 33:12-23
October 16th, 2011
"In the Cleft of the Rock"
These are tough times today. 71% of Americans say we’re in a recession that “experts” say ended 2 years ago. The stock market has gone through violent gyrations. Interest income for seniors is almost non-existent.
I read a T-shirt lately that said, “I’m so broke I can’t even pay attention.”
In the Middle East the Arab Spring leaves great doubt as to the outcome. Will it be more freedom for all, or just freedom for some as Coptic Christians are having their churches burned and their lives taken? Iran has been caught plotting assassinations on American soil and the war in Afghanistan goes on and on.
And it seems like everyone is accusing everyone else of threatening Social Security. Indeed, it seems no one has any security.
Part of our scripture today makes the point that without God’s presence there is no social security much less any other type of security. The gods that people are grasping are dissolving in their hands: money, political parties, politicians, stable world politics. It all seems to be shifting and falling apart.
Moses was in the midst of such a time when this exchange between him and God took place. This exchange happened right after the incident of the golden calf that I spoke about last week. It was right after 3000 had died by the sword and many more of a plague in the Israelite camp for their rebellion against God.
God was very angry at the Israelites and threatened to replace his presence with them with simply an angel. Or even worse still, to abandon the Israelites altogether and only go with Moses.
This all seems awfully harsh and it was, but it was also an invitation to Moses to pray. As you read this whole story you see the story lived out of a righteous, loving God, a dedicated leader Moses and a wayward people. God wasn’t about to abandon the people the nation Israel whom his presence brought into being, but Moses had to pray. Moses had to grow in his relationship and boldness with God.
Most of all I believe this scripture today is calling us to boldly come before God in prayer. God already knows what God is going to do, but we need to ask, and it is through the asking that we grow.
Moses boldly addressed God in verse 12, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people!’ But you have not let me know whom you will send with me.” (This was Moses way of saying an angel is not enough.) Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name and you have also found favor in my sight.’ This is Moses plea for God himself to go with them.
Then Moses gets even bolder, “Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” Moses boldly comes back at God and says essentially “I know you care for me, but don’t abandon your people.”
God comes back and says, “My presence will go with you, (meaning Moses) and I will give you rest.” That still wasn’t good enough for Moses. He will not abandon the people God has entrusted to him and really gets in God’s face that the Israelites are God’s people, because it is only God’s presence that brought them into being and made them the unique people they are. Essentially Moses says that without God they are nothing. I think this applies to us all.
In answer to Moses’ bold prayer God acquiesces and says, “I will do the very thing that you have asked; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” A bold in your face request by Moses is answered “Yes” by God!!! This emboldens Moses even more and so he asks to see God’s “glory”. So God tells him 4 things he will do for Moses, but Moses cannot see God’s “face” or God’s fullness. On this earth there is only so much we can know of God and live.
The power of God in God’s fullness is so great that to stand in God’s full presence while we are in this physical state would annihilate us. It would be the same as us standing in the presence of an exploding atomic bomb. The power would annihilate us.
The thing that struck me most about this scripture, though, is that God wanted to protect Moses and lovingly so. God spoke about how he would let Moses see his “glory” by placing Moses in the cleft of a rock and covering Moses with his “hand” as he went by so that Moses would see where God’s glory, God’s face had been, but would not be annihilated by God’s power. The tenderness of that protection spoke to me in the midst of the unsettled world we live in today.
The thing Moses needed to fear most was not the desert that he was in or the power of the Pharaoh that was destroyed, or the rebellion of the Israelite people, but the full presence of God that no human being can bear in this life.
Now this curious story of Moses being hidden in the cleft of a rock; the Old Testament does not record it as having taken place, but the New Testament is another story. I believe this was fulfilled on the Mount of Transfiguration when Moses and Elijah stood face to face with Jesus and the glory of the Lord shown through Jesus Christ.
An ancient Christian theologian named Cyril of Jerusalem wrote, “Since we cannot look on the face of God and live, he assumed the face of human nature (Jesus Christ) that seeing him we might live & live eternally.” He went on to say, “His (Jesus) bodily countenance shined, not according to the full power of him who wrought it, but in the measure the disciples could bear (it).” Ancient Bible Commentary Exodus page 148
The Rock that was “cleft” was Jesus. The old hymn, “Rock of Ages Cleft for Me” is a reference to Jesus hanging on the cross and the spear piercing or cleaving his side. The words to that song continue, “let me hide myself in thee.” When we hide ourselves in Jesus the rock we claim to participate in all the power and protection of God t save and make us pure.
Moses eventually found his rest and protection, his comfort, hope and strength in Jesus. Moses got to see the face of God in Jesus in the life beyond death.
Here on earth, though, in this life, God is present and we need to remember this in the good times and the bad.
I want us to see a video clip now that dramatically illustrates where God is present with us in all of life.
ROLL VIDEO CLIP “WHERE IS GOD?”
This video clip and scripture affirm that God’s presence is with us in all the situations of our lives, but I am going to be like Moses and ask once again, “How are you present with us, God?”
God is present with us in the gathered body. A woman told me of when she left her abusive husband decades ago she had nothing: no food, no furniture, nothing but small children to take care of. Her pastor ran into her in the little farming town near where she lived and asked, “How are you?” She burst into tears and poured out her heart’s agony and needs. The church rallied around her and provided baskets full of food and furniture from storage. The word to her was, “Do not be embarrassed, just ask. That is what the church body is for.”
In our food bank many of the newly poor come in with tears. They have never had to ask for help before and now they are humbled to the point they have to ask, just to eat.
I have seen God’s presence at the bedsides of those in hospitals and hospice when a Stephen Minister’s presence or my presence has brought the presence of God. I have heard people say after prayer with them, “I felt the power of God in my body like electricity.”
I have experienced it powerfully in pray at these communion rails where in prayer and confession lives and hearts and minds have been healed. You will get a chance to do that again in a moment.
Many of you have experienced being the answer to prayer as you have given out clothing and food and blankets and quilts. God has been present through you.
A pastor wrote, “For us, this desire to 'see God' is very real. Where is God when I need God? Why do bad things happen to faithful people? Where is God when I lose my job? Get cancer? Deal with my difficult teens? Why should a good faithful person suffer? All good questions that, I feel, are wrapped up in Moses’ demands.
The answer, I think, is to look beyond our individual demands of God and strive to see the results of God's presence in our lives. I lose my job, and the community of friends’ rallies to help. I get cancer, and my pastor comes to counsel me. I have trouble with my kids, and the church school helps by being a community for us.
I need to be loved, and the faithful respond.
On the flip side, I have things to contribute to the family of God. I do my part, I share my love. I don't see God serving food at our homeless shelter, but I do see ten members of my church there. I don't see God teaching in the preschool, but I do see some loving teachers.
God is too awesome to view face to face. I'd die from fear or I'd die from the overwhelming power of the love.
But I can see the backside, the footprints, the work left behind when people love, care and work together.” TB in MN Date: 17 Oct 2002 Time: 22:26:14
The love of God, the presence of God is with us as we minister to one another. It becomes real and tangible. Think of the things we can face when we have another with us. Pray then and be an answer to others’ prayers.
The conclusion of all this is to seek God as Moses did. Do not get discouraged or give up. Seek God boldly in prayer.
The bad times teach us humility and strip us of all the other gods we trusted in: wealth, health, intellect, political power and politicians. We are stripped of everything until we seem to wind up in life, in a desert like the Israelites, stripped of everything and at the sole mercy of God.
We learn then as Paul did when he prayed for release from his thorn in the flesh. Jesus responded to him and said, “My power is made perfect in your weakness.” God’s presence is discovered so often in our weakness when we rely totally on God.
We will know God’s presence fully only after this life. In this life we will have suffering, and because of that we will often ask, “Where is God?” But in the life to come we have the promise from 1 Corinthians 13:12 “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
One day, my friends, we will stand in God’s presence and all the doubts and pain of this world will be gone for the promise of Revelation 21:3b-4, is “They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
In the meantime pray! Pray as boldly as Moses did. Seek the Lord your God with all your heart mind soul and strength. Seek God and his presence. And remember that God is indeed with us. Remember the promise of Deuteronomy 31:6, “The Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.”
During the singing of our last song/hymn I am inviting you to come forward to our communion rails and pray. I am encouraging you to boldly seek God with your prayers and requests. God is with us. We are not alone. Come and I will pray with you. Come and I and the Stephen ministers will pray with you.
