Hear Him Speak

“My presence will
go with you,
and I will give you rest.”

Exodus 33:14

Moses had taken on a responsibility that he had not sought out. Picked by God from his birth for a destiny he never imagined Moses knew first hand the range of emotions and experiences that exist when living God’s plan. Initially there had been heart stopping, God-glory moments when he and the other Israelites had first escaped Egypt. But as the days and weeks passed the unending desert vistas began to take their toll. Now Moses, chosen by God for a task which seemed to highlight his inadequacies, heard daily thousands of voices whining and complaining. Where was the burning bush God when you needed him?

So, once again Moses has a conversation with God, doing his own bit of whining and complaining and in the middle of Moses’ “furthermores” God assures him of his presence. It isn’t a promise of rescue from the difficulties or a commitment to making it all better, simply a promise that God’s presence is in the desert.

Despite all that Moses had seen of God’s glory in the desert when times got really tough he needed assurance that God would be there. And God delivers yet again giving Moses a God-glory encounter like he has never experienced (Exodus 33:21-23).

This same God goes with us every day, even when we feel he his distant. In fact, it is perhaps in our desperate times that we hear his voice most keenly because in our questioning and our desire to know we listen more intently

Hear him speaking today, “My presence will go with you…”

Even when I don’t “feel” You, Father,
You are with me.
When my day is dry I need You to
lead me to water.
Tired from the turmoil of life
I want to hear Your words,
“I will give you rest.”

Amen.

Artwork--In the Wilderness of Sinai, Igor Ulanovsky, Israel, 1998.

http://www.angelfire.com/il/ulanovsky/shanah.html