Daily Thought

In the early verses of this chapter, it is clear that the people were showing an inclination to repent of the evil they had done. They did not put on their ornaments - a recognized outward sign of inward sorrow. In view of this God responds in a gracious way and sets about rebuilding the bridges between His people and Himself.

Due to the fact that the camp had been defiled with the sin of the golden calf incident, Moses took the ‘tent of meeting’ and pitched it outside the camp. As he did so every man stood in the door of his own tent to see what would happen. As Moses entered the tent a marvellous and reassuring thing took place - ‘the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses’. Whereas, before, God had been in the midst of His people, now He was only to be found outside the camp. The people stood and worshipped afar off. God was still available to them, but their sin meant that He was no longer in their midst. Nevertheless, through Moses they still had access.

God and Moses spoke face to face, i.e., in close communion. Moses, frustrated with the people, and impatient with God, says, ‘shew me now thy way’. He wanted to know exactly where he was going, who was going with him, and when they would reach the Promised Land. And he wanted to know now! Away with faith - sight is better! We can sympathize with Moses in this prayer, but we need to learn from the way in which God answers it.

God responds to Moses’ prayer in two ways. He will not describe the future in detail, but He does say, ‘My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest’. Moses recognizes these two promises and appreciates too that if the Lord goes with them, they will be a unique and separated people.

Often to us our future is obscure or dark. We have many problems, and we wish we knew precisely what is going to happen. Our concern should not be for tomorrow - God will take care of that, and of us too. We know that His presence will go with us and that in all our doubts and fears we have the promise of His fellowship and power. He knows the future, and we are glad! This knowledge and experience bring peace.