If Your Presence Does Not Go With Us… | Exodus 33:12–23

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Good morning, good morning. We talked a whole

night through.

Good morning.

Good morning to you and.

You and you.

Happy Tuesday, Happy Tuesday.

Happy, Kyle, it is happy.

It's a happy Tuesday.

It's a happy good morning to everybody who tuned into

the Bible Guys. My name is Chris, this is Kyle,

and today we are your Bible guys. Because Jeff's out

of town.

Yeah, he's traveling. T I dot org actually should have

looked that up. We could have actually given people at

said dot com.

You can try to Timothy initiative.

Just giggle the bad dot TV tomorrow.

That's right TV. Anyway.

Hey, today we're actually in the second week and second

day of the second week of Dangerous Prayers.

Yes, and today we're talking about.

Moses and how he actually had a conversation with God

and prayed a very audacious and kind of a out

there kind of a prayer.

Absolutely. Yeah.

But before we get into that, we have a really fun.

Segment Who's most Likely?

Yes? Do you like these?

Yeah?

Yeah?

Sure, I like these a lot.

Yes, all right, so we're gonna go through. We got

five who's most likely yep and uh yes, So I'm

gonna read these or we're gonna read them together. I'll

start with the first one, and then we're just gonna

discuss who's most likely to do something? Okay, first one,

who's most likely to show up late with Starbucks in hand?

Chris or Kyle, which, by the way, is funny because

that indicates that the reason why they're late is they

stop to get Starbucks right.

For somebody else. Yes, so I would say you are.

I would say probably historically more of a late person,

maybe just.

Because I'm no, no, no, there's no doubt I am.

And when it comes to cost, but I'm the Starbucks person,

So I don't know. That's a tough That's a tough one, man.

Yeah it is, as I have a generic cuff yet

by hand.

Yeah.

I if I'm willing to be late to something and

I have Starbucks in hand, I think that's my way

of justifying being late.

Okay, all right, so let's go with you, which, by

the way, wait, that is pretty funny, right when somebody.

I actually saw a commercial the other day where a

lady walked into the hospital and she's like, I got

here just as soon as I can. And she's like,

where have you been?

She's like, got her as soon as I can.

And she had a Starbucks to her hand and she goes,

did you stop for coffee?

Hit in forty minutes in life for that, it's it's hilarious.

So yeah, okay, we'll say we'll say you.

Okay. Number two.

Who's most likely to fall for an obvious scam?

Oh? Man, are you? You don't seem gullible?

I don't. I think I'm the opposite of this. Yeah.

So I when I first when I read this before

we started this, I was like, oh, I don't think

either of us. But I did realize I did fall

first scam recently. I'm embarrassed to admit this.

Really.

Yes, So there's these golfers that I follow on social media,

Good good golf. You ever heard of them?

Huh?

Christian guys, but that they just do golf videos on YouTube.

They're very popular among YouTube golfers, and their instagram mad

came up a few months ago. Oh for like for

like seven dollars shirts. It was it literally showed video

with them. Since seven dollars shirt. It's good good golf.

Click on this link and I did, and I was like,

holy smokes, they're actually seven dollars shirts and they had

this and they had that. So I ordered like forty

dollars worth of things, maybe fifty dollars worth of things,

and I ordered it and then it sent it like

when I when the order came through with some some

third party website, and I was like, oh my goodness,

I think I just got scammed. But before I had

even realized I got scammed, I'd sent it to several

friends and they're like after I'd ordered, They're like, bro,

you get like you really fell for that. So it's

kind of like I felt embarrassed later that. I'm like,

so somebody must have taken their videos, yeah, and then

threw the seven dollars shirt over top of their videos,

so it was a legitimate scam.

But yeah, okay, and then what happened to your money?

So I ended up having to go and fight it

with a credit card company and got my money back.

But yeah, it was definitely it. And you didn't get

anything in the man, No, no no, no, no no no no,

I'd still be waiting.

Wow.

Yes, so that that's incredible.

Yeah, and I was. I was annoyed at myself because

I had. People were like, dude, how did you not?

I'm like, oh, I thought I found a good deal.

Yeah, yeah I had. I had a lady called me

just like the other day, and I decided to answer it.

And she you know, you know, it's obvious she's in

another country somewhere. She's speaking in such broken English that

I can't even understand her. And she's saying, you've been

forgiven for you know, my kids have like student loan things.

You know, She's like, you've been forgiven for maximum forgiveness.

She's like maximum forgiveness meaning everything, And all I need

to do is get your information to sign into your account.

Oh and I was like really really, I mean I

can't even understand the English, and she's saying to me

that all she needs is all my personal information because

I've been approved for maximum forgiveness.

All right, So unfortunately I think this one may be me.

I hate to admit that.

Okay, all right.

Number three actually wait wait no you read.

Yeah, yeah, number three, who's most likely to run for office?

Just to prove a point, Well.

If Jeff, we're here that be him, Yes, there's no doubt.

Can we just say Jeff just because so why would

it be Jeff?

Well because number one, he would actually.

Be smart enough to run for offic Yes, yes, you

and I know no, there's there's there's that.

Yes.

And number two, I guess he's just determined in some ways.

Do you ever hear the Did you ever hear the

story he told about like fighting the county for chickens?

Yeah, for chickens he told Yeah one time.

He told me.

There's a fifteen minute story. He told me one time,

like some get together. I was like, wow, there's quite elaborate.

Yeah.

And the thing is he didn't even really care. Yeah,

you don't wanted to win?

Is to prove a point?

Well, because he was right?

Yes, yes, yeah, so.

I thought that was funny. So so yeah, Jeff, Jeff's

the winner between But uh, me or you?

I don't know, man, I don't know.

If we had to choose, i'd probably say me just

because people, Well that's not true either. I was gonna

say older people have a better shot at office. Is

that true? I think it's true?

Yeah? Maybe yeah maybe? Or trust yeah maybe? Okay? Fine.

Number four, who's most likely to compete on Survivor and

actually win.

Boy. So dude, actually, I do you ever watch the arrivor?

Do you want to something hilarious? This is remember just

as embarrassed as you were to say that you fell

for a scamp. I have never once seen a single

episode of Survivor, okay, not one, So I have no

idea what Survivor is other than I think they just

have to have knowledge to survive things.

Yeah.

So you're stranded on an island. It's essentially stranded, and

you do different challenges. You sleep in the woods or

the jungle, and you every couple of days you vote

somebody off that you basically dislike.

So I knew this voting off there.

Yeah, so that's that's where you get to the end

and then and then basically your peers vote who the

winner is.

Okay, the fact that you even knew that puts you

ahead of me.

I would Okay, So I've watched the show a bunch.

For anybody who's a Survivor fan out there, I would

love the chat Survivor with you because I have watched.

I've not watched the last few seasons, but it's a

show that me and my family, we enjoy. It's a

great show. I've thought about it a lot because I

watch it and I wonder what it'd be like to

be on there, and I think I could do a

good job on the show. From a from a challenge

slash social perspective. The biggest negative sleeping and rats. I

hate roadents, So I think I already can you handle

are there a lot of rats? I think that there's

a lot of wildlife roading like that and where they're at,

and they'll just be out in the bout and stuff

will be around them.

That's so so I actually already know it doesn't really

matter how good you are or think you can be

on this show. The fact that it's just outdoors. All

you have to do is say outdoors.

Sleep and I'm out. Yes, I'm out.

So you know, it's not like I can't sleep outdoors.

I've done it.

I've camped, I've camped on the ground with sleeping bags.

I've done the tenth thing, I've done, the RV thing

I've done, I've done some of those things. I've you know,

cooked by the fire and all that stuff. I've done that,

and I just loathe it. I loathe it.

I loaded it with every part of my being.

Yeah, I just don't understand, right, It's like, I don't

understand why that's so unbelievable. And you know what I

think it is. I think it's it's this. It's one

of two things. Either number one, people love nature and

they love it, love love love nature, right, feel closer

to God, nature, want to be around nature. They feel

something about what nature does for them, all these kind

of things.

I have none of that.

And then number two, there's like a primal, live off

the land kind of a thing, right that, which is different.

It's more of like a look at me, I survive

with a stick and a you know, in a hunting whatever.

That's a little bit of survivor. Some of the people

that go on the show are thinking that same way.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, So I would say I have none

of that either, right now? Could I do it? Well?

I think I could.

I just don't like it.

Yeah. So some people go on the show and they

literally will last twenty four hours and they're ready to

go home. There's other people that will last thirty something

days and say I love this, this was great. And

that's the part where I'm like, you are a certain

type of person. Oh, you go thirty something days and

you loved it. That's odd? All right, So I think

that woul want to be me but by default yep.

And then last one go ahead, all.

Right, this last one, who's most likely he become obsessed

with a random hobby like extreme ironing.

Extreme ironing.

Oh boy, First of all, I've never even heard of

that phrase in my life.

Oh have you no extreme ironing?

No? Now, first of all, let's just talk about this.

Do you like to iron?

I don't do it. No, I use a steamer.

So I'm the only one in my family that irons.

So it's not like my wife can't iron. She can,

but she lets me do it because I grew up ironing.

Yeah, I kind of want to buy an ironing board

and iron because you don't. No, we use like a

little steamer thing, but it's not the same. I like

when I go to hotel and I see if I'm

like doing a weddy or something like that, I like

to actually iron my shirt.

Huh.

Yeah.

So my mom taught me when I was a kid,

had iron and so she literally would take different types

of clothes and say, here's how you do it. And

so I grew up ironing, so weirdly enough, I mean,

the fact that ironing is attached to me in some

way is weird by itself. But I'm not kidding when

I say, like my best friend since the eighth grade,

Jeff Miller, he always knows wherever we go. All he

has to do is say, hey, I have six things

and he'd ironed. Here you go, and he just hands

them to me, like if we're on a trip or something,

so so here you go. I'll say, Okay, make this

look good, and I'll make it.

I'll make them look great. That's awesome because I love

to iron.

Actually I don't love it. I just I sort of

enjoy it.

Okay, So extreme ironing, so most likely to become obsessed

with a random hobby, that probably would be you, between

the two of us, and then extreme ironing, for sure

it would be you.

Okay, So I'm the winner of that clearly.

All right, Yes, all right, well, hey that was really random.

Yes, And you know what else is random?

This prayer that Moses comes up with out of the blue.

It is random.

It is random.

It's it's it's sort of like it's it's never been

requested before, and uh, and I don't think it's ever

been indulged since then. No, right, so you can say

that it's random. It's certainly cool.

It is it is?

It is random?

Yes, all right? So Exodus thirty three is the chapter

we're in, yep, and then twelve the verses twelve through

twenty three. Let's see her, all right. Starting in verse twelve,

one day, Moses said to the Lord, you've been telling

me take these people up to the promised Land, but

you haven't told me whom he will send with me.

You have told me I know you by name, and

I look favorably on you. If it is true that

you look favorably on me, let me know your way

so I may understand you more fully and continue to

enjoy your favor. But remember that this nation is your

very own people. And the Lord replied, I will personally

go with you, Moses, and I will give you rest.

Everything will be fine for you. Then Moses said, if

you don't personally go with us, don't make us leave

this place. How will anyone know that you look favorably

on me, on me and on your people if you

don't go with us, For your presence among us sets

your people and me apart from all other people on

the earth, the Lord applied to Moses, I will indeed

do what you have asked for. I look favorably on you,

and I know you by name. Moses responded, Then show

me your glorious presence. Love that applied, I will make

you all, make all my goodness pass before you, and

I will call out my name yahweh before you. For

I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I

will show compassion to anyone I choose. But you may

not look directly at my face, for no one may

see me and live, the Lord continued. Look stand near

me on this rock. As my glorious presence passes by.

I will hide you in the crevice of the rock

and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

Then i'll remove my hand and let you see me

from behind, but my face will not be seen. All right,

that's the end of it. Yes, so let me read

that again. Then I will remove my hand and let

you see me from behind, but my face will not

be seen. That's verse twenty three. All right.

Yeah, you want to know how churchy My church was

so so a lot of times when you preach this

in the King James version and in those type of churches,

we used to call that the afterglow. Okay, so you know,

it's like the afterglow of God's presence. And so every

time we would have like an event after like a Sunday,

like a insidate service or senate service, we call it afterglow.

That has to be literally, I'm not even kidding. That

is one of the cheesiest and worst memories.

Think about that. This is the cheesiest thing. Now, it's

not cheesy for church people.

Right, I mean, it's kind of cool for church people

in terms of like the concept. But like, can you

imagine inviting a friend come after who does it? Yeah, Hey, hey,

we're gonna do this thing.

You'll be going so cool. What's it called?

It's called after glow?

Why is it called after glow?

Well, we're gonna have to get that's kind.

Of a long story, but we're calling it afterglow.

Oh, it's just the worst y.

So anyway, but yes, that is actually such a random request,

you know, let me see your presence, because think about it,

I don't think that anybody well I'm trying to think,

you know, Jesus' disciples said you know, take us where

you're going, right. I don't think anybody asked to see

Jesus and the transfiguration, although they did, they saw Jesus

face as white as you know, bright as the sun.

But I don't think anybody has ever said, God, I

want to see your face. I could be wrong, but

I don't think so. And yet God indulged Moses. And

you know what's so interesting here is that God indulged

Moses in his patience more than once, because Moses said,

go with me, and then God immediately said I indeed

will go with you and with all of the people.

And then Moses says again right after that, Lord, if

you don't go with us, how will anybody know? Right?

And God, it's almost as if God, if I were God,

I would say, didn't you hear me? I literally just said,

did I stutter? I literally just gave you the promise?

And and and I think that sometimes we as humans,

you know, we are plagued by past experience, like for instance,

here's the reason why I believe Moses had such a

hard time believing God at his word, because this is

Exous thirty three and actually has chapter twenty that was

the ten Commandments, and then you know after you know,

of course, the Ten Commandments were given after the plagues

of Egypt, so you know, God had demonstrated himself in

the plagues of Egypt. He'd you know, part of the

Red Sea. He had demonstrated himself as the God who

loved and cared for his people to the entire nation

of Israel, which is estimately be millions of people by

the way. And so these people then are in the wilderness.

And then what happens. Moses goes on top of Mount Sinai,

comes back with the Ten Commandments, and while he's on

the mountain, they decide to build a golden calf. In

Exus thirty two, which is the chapter before, right, the

chapter before, so one chapter earlier than this, Moses comes

down with the Ten Commandments and sees Arin not just anybody,

Aaron for crying out loud, right, his right hand man,

who actually fashioned the golden calf himself, and all the

people contributed from the community. It says, they took off

their gold earrings, their gold rings, they're gold necklaces, they

go bracelets, and they and they heeded them up and

they formed this huge golden calf to worship because they

had no god to worship, because that's what they were

used to in Egypt, right, they were used to worshiping

raw the god of the Sun, or you know, or

or whoever it is, Haites, the god of the underworld,

or you know, all these different you know, Egyptian gods.

And so what do they do. They form this gold calf,

Moses comes down. God gets angry, the tank, commandment tablets

are shattered, right, and then and then there's death. There's

this big punishment where he actually like grinds up the

into it's it's just a long story, right, but he says,

drink it and all these different things. I mean, it's

it's it's it's terrible, and half the nation dies. And

so then of course I would why would Moses not

be discouraged?

Yeah?

Right, And so so he says, God, go with us

in our journey to the Promised Land. You've told us

that we're going to be given at land. Go with us,

And God says, I will indeed go with you. He says, God,

you have to go with us, right, And I think

it's because we're shattered from our from our past experiences,

don't you.

Yeah, no, I agree. I think it's actually uh yeah,

when you put that context into it, Yeah, you see

why Moses is that way. And also I think it's

an even better picture of who God is, you know,

like Moses literally was a friend of God and the

way God was patient with him, and the way God

reminded him multiple times, Like I like, I think it's

a few different times he says, I show favor, like,

I see you favorably. I want to give you favor.

Let me see, I will, Yeah, I look favorably upon

you said it. I think two three times he shows

favorite to him and he says that I know your name, yes,

and I even I will show mercy to anyone I choose.

I will show compassion to anyone I choose. So I like,

I think I think it's interesting he chose mercy and

compassion and anyone I choose that it was not Honestly

when I first wart out, I was expecting mercy and

then judgment. I'll choose mercy and I'll choose judgment. He

said mercy and compassion, Yeah, like.

Mercy or judgment. Yeah, but he's he's say mercy and

compassion that I choose which are which are close cut?

Yes, yes, But then the whole idea of yeah, looking

looking at me, at my fate, my presence, you can't

even look me in the face. I mean, yeah, that

is that's really I mean, honestly, all I can say

that's awesome, like that is such a cool like picture

of God. Just say, you can't even see me, you can't,

like you're gonna have to turn my back, and even

then you're probably still gonna have a hard time comprehending

the majesty of my presence.

I love that.

So when I memorized all of this when I was

a young student, I just remember in the King James version,

in verse eighteen, instead of saying, then show me your

glorious presence, Moses said, then show me your glory. That's

all it says, right, show me your glory. Yeah, and

and uh and so God God grants him this request,

and he says, I will show you my presence, but

I'm not gonna I'm not gonna show you my face

because nobody can look upon my face. So so somehow

Moses hides in the cleft. It's another fancy where we

used cleft and the cleft of the rock, right, and

and somehow God covers his face with his hand, and

yet we know that God is spirit, right, so so

you know, this can either be symbolic, you know, because

you know it's not going to say covered Moses with

part of his spirit, right, so his hand, But somehow,

with God's presence he covered Moses's face and then and

then somehow he let him see the back of him.

So so I do wonder at times did God take

a form that Moses can identify with with hands and

with a back? You know? Was it more like a

like a like a foreshadowing of a Jesus form, right?

You know, that could have been it like the what's

it called when Jesus shows up in the Old Testament?

Christophanie?

Yeah, Christophanie. So it's like so it could be one

of those things. But either way, Moses gets to be

a part of something that I don't think anybody else

besides the Transfiguration could even witness. And so Moses then

is seeing God's glorian So think about it. Man, of

all the people who have ever walked the face of

the earth, you know, Moses had that privilege because he

dared to ask.

Yeah, I love that, right, Yeah, And I think I'm

glad you brought up the context earlier of what led

to this, because I think that matters a ton, right.

I think it was cool the way God was patient

with him, but also is just saying, like, ask for

my presence. And I think that we, as Christ's followers,

I think, isn't it so easy to get caught up

with the busyness of our lives and schedule and all

that stuff that we completely miss God's presence in like

everyday life. Even if for anybody who missed yesterday's episode,

Chris talked about going out and just being aware of

the fact that God is all around us. I do

think that there's like this thing we have in our

world where we're so busy, we're so distracted, there's so

much going on around us that we completely miss on

a miss God's goodness. Christin. My wife just started like

a year ago. She started doing this like thankfulness journal

where every morning she writes five things that she's thankful

for that she's I think it's gratitude journal. That's it,

five things that she's grateful for. And she says that

she looks forward to writing in her gratitude journal. And

then sometimes she even find herself like a knight or

witnessing something throughout the day saying oh, tomor I'm wanna

write that in my gratitude journal. So I'm like, man,

what a cool perspective that, Like, you're always looking for

things God's presence, things to be grateful for. And I

love that. Yeah, Like you mentioned that, Moses wasn't afraid

to ask God like show me your glory, show me

your presence. I want to see it. And and God

granted it because that God knew he needed to see that.

He needed, like you said, like a pick me up

to remember, like, hey, I'm with you. You need this.

It's really cool.

Yeah, and I think that. I think that it's also

a demonstration, like you said you said earlier, that's also

a picture of who God is. Because God was so

patient in his response to Moses. You know, instead of

saying did I stutter, God says, yes, let me reassure

you the same exact thing, and then he goes even

this step further. He says the same thing to Moses, yes,

I'll go with you, and then he goes further and says,

I look favorably upon you, and I know you by name,

and I think that there's something very personal about that

where God is trying to let Moses know like, you

are seen, you are appreciated. I've asked you to do everything,

and you have done it. You've been my faithful servant.

And yes, of course Moses has gone through a heck

of a journey, right, and he's about to go through.

A heck of a lot worst journey, right.

I mean, you know, forty years of everything else, right,

So it's you know, it's not always easy. But yet

what God is saying is is you are seen, you

are loved, you are faithful, you are favored, and I

know you by name. And I think that that is

so unbelievably important for us to remember that God knows

us by name. So the Bible promises that every single

one of us today that it says actually that God

knows the number of hairs that are on your head,

and for me that gets less and less everything. Yeah,

and so that number constantly changes. But He knows the

number of hairs are in your head. He knows the

Boble says in the New Testament. He knows our hearts

better than we know ourselves. He knows the depths of

who we are. He knows our every single part of

human nature. The Bible reveals that that that God has

this insight more than we even do ourselves. And God

knows us by name, and he loves us, and he

still accepts us and values us in spite of our sin,

in spite of our discouragement.

In spite of our you know, rebellion.

I was going to say cynicism, right, I mean, a

lot of things have happened in our nation even that

are pretty discouraging, right, And I mean that's an understatement, right.

When I say pretty discouraging, I mean very discouraging. And

if and if not careful, you could let yourself just

go down that rabbit hole and say the whole world

is this way. And in some ways it kind of is.

That's what the Bible says, right, the world's gonna get worse.

But in a lot of ways we have to realize that.

You know, sometimes you know, one action doesn't speak for

the majority of the human race, right, So I think

that sometimes we think it does, but I don't think

it does.

We know that the world's getting worse in a lot

of ways.

But all I'm really trying to say is the perspective

is Moses is letting the tragedies of the nation and

the discouragement of of of these, you know, atrocities in

the past keep him from believing, keep him from having faith,

keep him from trusting in God fully and so and

so that's why he says, God, if you don't go

with us, and God's like I just said, I'm going

with you. So it's like, you know, no matter how

to discourage you are, and you have reason to be

Believe me, I'm not making light of those things. In fact,

it's incredibly discouraging. I do think that what I'm trying

to say is God's presence is still with us. God's

promises are still the same. God's you know, reliability and

dependability are just as strong, right, and so no matter

what you're going through, no matter how discourage you are,

just know that God's promises are still just as true

today as they've ever been.

Yeah.

Good, great's great, dude, great truth right there?

Yeah right there?

All right, Well, hey, that is our time for sure,

so we will see you hopefully next time on the Bible.

Guys. See it