‘Your Presence’

Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.

Exodus 33:15

The children of Israel had behaved badly. In the absence of Moses they had persuaded Aaron, the High Priest, to make for them a golden calf. They fell to worshipping it after the manner of the pagans, with all its’ attendant immorality. Moses had returned and called them into account. They were now experiencing the displeasure of God with a plague of destruction upon the perpetrators. God then told Moses that He would send an angel to lead them into the Promised Lord, but declared, ‘I will not go up in your midst….’ It was to this particular statement that Moses was responding in our text for today. All the possessions which they might acquire, and even the acquisition of the land itself would be of no avail without the Presence of God in their midst. Moses rightly understood this. So it is with us in the opening days of this new year. The new year lies like a promised land before us. It is full of possibilities. What value will it be to us, however, in this incoming year, if we ‘gain the whole world’ for ourselves, yet have not the Presence of Christ with us? Here, then is a wise and worthy petition for us as we begin the year. ‘Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.’ We must have Christ with us, to Lead, to Guide, to Counsel and to Uphold. Let us have a godly fear of going forward without the Presence of Christ.  Let us borrow this petition from the disciples in Emmaeus, ‘Abide with us.’

Our Kind and Loving Christ,
we praise You that You will presence Yourself with us.
We desire most of all in whatever path we tread,
to behold You going before us, Our Emmanuel.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning