“Second Altars”

A Sermon Series on Idolatry

“The Presence of God In The Life of a Believer”

Exodus 33:1-11

 Introduction

What if we wanted God’s presence in our lives as much as this little girl wanted her parents to be at that show? And when we realize He is there, will we have the same reaction?

The Presence of Sin Prevents the Presence of God (Exodus 33:1-3)

“The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ 2 I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”

Israel has experienced the consequences of their making and worshipping the golden calf – and now it is time to move on. God is still going to keep his promise of giving them the promised land, and would drive out their enemies so they would be safe. There would even be the power of an angel that goes before them.

But now, after the people have sinned, God’s presence would not be with the people. It’s not that God will lose His temper, but He is holy and will always respond with righteous anger toward sin. The fact that the people were “stiff-necked” (they had broken the covenant); this made it dangerous for God to be close to them.

The whole Exodus story up to this point was God wanting to draw close to His people. The law would allow Him to settle right in the middle of their camp. Exodus 25:8 “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.” But at this point the tabernacle, God being with His people – all of that was on hold.

Also, there is the issue of ownership. Remember earlier there was a discussion between God and Moses about who’s the people were, 32:7 “And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.” Then in verse 11 Moses says back to God, “But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, . . .” God wants to be Israel’s God but instead they worship the golden calf. “To whom do the people belong? And to whom do they confess ownership? These are the questions of identity at the heart of the story of idol-making in Exodus 32. YHWH’s covenantal ownership of Israel is threatened by their attempt to grant ownership rights to the idols.”[1]

The law that Moses has received, much of it dealt with the tabernacle (God’s presence amongst His people). But, at this point, there would be no lampstands, no offerings, no pillar of smoke during the day, nor pillar of fire by night. There would be no place the people could go to interact or pray, or worship God, or have their sins atoned for.

God is offering them what they wanted when they made the golden calf – He was offering to bless them, “a land flowing with milk and honey,” to protect them, “I will drive out the . . .” to empower, “I will send an angel before you,” them, But there would be no relationship with Him. God was going to give them everything they wanted – except a relationship.

How Important Is It to You to Have A Relationship With God?

Do you expect Him just to take care of everything, give you everything, but to have no conversation?

If we go back to the opening video of the little girl seeing her parents at the show – this is the same saying, “I will take you to the practices, I will buy you the outfit, I will have your hair done, and I will make sure you get to the performance – but I am not going to attend, I will not be sitting in the audience” This goes back to ownership and identity – does it matter if strangers were sitting in the audience, verses your mom and dad sitting in the audience?

But isn’t this still true for many people? They want God to solve all their problems. They want God to give them what they want; they want to be protected from misfortune, and they will even pray asking for these things (“Lord give me, give, give me . . .”) – but they aren’t really interested in having a relationship with God. So how do you think the people responded?

The People Repent of Their Sin (Exodus 33:4-6)

“When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. 5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” 6 Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.”

This was a disastrous word that spread throughout the camp – “God is not going with us.” Their response is to mourn and to make an act of repentance. They took off all ornaments (earrings, jewelry, fancy clothes) anything that pointed back to their act of making the golden calf. Their response to God’s Word was “Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments.” They repented of making the idol, and they didn’t display anything that would point to that action, “from Mount Horeb onward.” This is similar to putting on sackcloth and ashes.

There is a similar situation in Genesis 35:1-4 where, “God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. 3 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” 4 So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem.”

Jacob knew that if he were going to genuinely worship God, and to lead his family in authentic worship, the idols and the things associated with idols (ear rings) had to go. The earrings led to worship of an idol – get rid of the idol, and the things that lead to something becoming an idol.

If we are going to have a genuine relationship with God,

the idols (and the things that lead us toward idols) have to go.

 We can tell there is a heart change in God’s people because three things happen. 1) They are truly mourning over how they have broken their relationship with God, and 2) they are taking actions of repentance to get rid of the sin. In order for our relationship with God to be restored – there must be remorse (brokenness over sin) and repentance (taking action to ensure that it doesn’t happen again).

 Paul compares this in 2 Corinthians 7:10 “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” Godly grief is a brokenness and sorrow over our sin which leads to a turning from our sin. Wordly grief is a sorrow that you were caught. It is a displeasure at the circumstances that have resulted from the sin but you don’t actually change. Here are some statements to help us understand the difference:

• Worldly grief hates the consequences of your sin. Godly grief hates the sin itself (see 2 Corinthians 7:9-11).
• Worldly grief is how sin makes you feel. Godly grief grieves how your sin makes God and others feel (see Psalm 51:4).
• Worldly grief hides sin until you get caught. Godly grief confesses sin before you get caught (see Proverbs 28:13).
• Worldly grief makes no plans to change. Godly grief actively and practically wages war against sin (see Acts 26:20).
• Worldly grief leads you to commit the same sin over and over again. Godly grief leads you to sin less over time (see 1 John 3:9).[2]

God has blessed us in countless ways, but the ability to experience His grace, and our ability to return back to Him through repentance and the forsaking of sin all of which leads us to know Him; to have a deepening relationship with Him, is priceless.

God’s most profound blessing to us to that he allows us to know Him. God’s presence in our lives means everything. God wanted to be at the center of the Israelite camp – God wants to remain at the center of our lives. If God is not present with His people – it is disastrous.

So what does it look like when we have a relationship with God?

God’s People Spend Time With God (Exodus 33: 7-11)

Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. 8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. 9 When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. 10 And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. 11 Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

(v. 11) “Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting.” Moses had a time and place where he would go to spend time with God. It was intentional, deliberate, and it took effort on his part. Today we call this having a quiet time. You intentionally have a time and place where you open up God’s Word and you communicate with God.

How do we know the Israelites were truly repentant? 3) “And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door.” There was now a desire to worship God that was not there before. Before the Israelites were interested in safety, material possessions, being provided for, prestige among the nations, etc. (what they would get from God). Now, after their repentance there is a desire for God Himself, and for Him to be with them.[3]

(v. 11) “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” Moses talked with God at the burning bush, he spoke with God in Mt. Sanai, and he spoke with God regularly at “the tent of meeting.” Face-to-face doesn’t meant Moses could see God because a few verses down, God tells him that man cannot see God and live. It was a way of saying that there was communication between them.

Moses and God were friends, and no one had (since Adam) enjoyed this kind of relationship with God. And if you had a question you would go to the tent and ask Moses, who would then talk to God on your behalf, “And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.”

God desiring to be with His people has been a process; 1. His presence among the people (pillar of smoke and fire), Mt. Siani 2. The eventual tabernacle, 3. The temple, 4. Jesus 1 John 1:1, 14 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt (tabernacled) among us,” 5. The Holy Spirit within the believer.

But today, through our relationship with Christ, we can have the same kind of relationship as Moses had with God (if not better). John 15:13-15 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” The conversation between the friend of God and God Himself involves knowing the plans of God. Today we have the Holy Spirit who is within us, so we become the tent of meeting.

God’s desire has always been to grow closer to His people – but there is sin that has to be dealt with. As a follower of Jesus, once you place your faith in Christ you are sealed for all of eternity. Your name is written in the lamb’s book of Life, and your eternal destiny is secure. Jesus died in your place on the cross, so that you sin can be forgiven.

So, with God having shown all through the pages of the Bible that God wants a deepening relationship with you – does it matter if I sin? Yes, Ephesians 4:30 “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Paul is echoing an Old Testament passage in Isaiah 63:10 “But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; . . .” Isaiah is referencing our Exodus passage (ch. 33). Isaiah goes back to the Exodus account, how God brought his people Israel into a covenant with himself (v.8). v.9 states that it was the presence of God himself, not simply an angel, which saved his people in the wilderness. Israel then rebelled and grieved the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, the Lord placed his Holy Spirit in the midst of his people to deliver them and to give them rest (v.14).

The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:1-11 uses the same language as Isaiah 63, to warn the new church not to grieve the Holy Spirit as Israel had done. To grieve the Holy Spirit in Ephesians deals with speech and not causing disunity within the body. But in a larger sense, “when His children refuse to change the ways of the old life for the ways of the new, God grieves.”[4]

When God’s people built a golden calf and proclaimed that this was what brought them out of Egypt – to abandon His Word, and to break their covenant with Him, he was grieved and removed His presence from them. Their repentance and willingness to obey God’s Word, God relented from destroying them and His presence returned.

For those who follow Christ, their souls have been secured – but sin in the believer’s life will grieve the Holy Spirit. “Grieving can lead to quenching (1 Thess. 5:19), and to a forfeiture of power and blessing.”[5] When the Christian sins, the presence of God becomes distant.

God will not dwell amongst an idolatrous people.

God is unwilling to empower the believer, so the believer then lives this life in their own strength, guided by their own foolish wisdom, and doing “what seems right to him.” The believer who does not have the presence of God in his life is disastrous because they cannot live the life they have been made and called to live (they are wasting their time).

If we are going to make a difference in this world, we have to take risks, pick up responsibilities bigger than ourselves, we have to carry loads beyond what we think we can carry, and do what only God can through us. In order to do this, we have to have God present and active in our lives – and He won’t be there if you are in sin. In time you become like the god/God you worship.[6] Holy, righteous, true, good v. stiffnecked, rebellious, hard hearted, ears but don’t listen, eyes but can’t see.

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[1] Richard Lints, Identity and Idolatry, The Image of God and its inversion (Downers Grove, Illinois; Intervarsity Press, 2015) 92.

[2] https://www.jordanraynor.com/blog/5-differences-between-worldly-sorrow-and-godly-repentance

[3] W. Ross Blackborn, The God who Makes Himself Known, The Missionary Heart of the Book of Exodus (Downers Grove, Illinois, 2012) 188.

[4] John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Ephesians (Chicago, Illinois; Moody Press, 1986) 189.

[5] MacArthur, 189.

[6] Lints, 93.