Exodus 33:12-17 Moses said to the LORD, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” And the LORD said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.”
For Moses, it wasn’t enough to know that he and Israel would make it to the Promised Land. In his estimation, the Promised Land was nothing special without the special presence of the LORD. “Moses is now concerned to obtain both a guarantee of that presence for his people, and also the enjoyment of a closer experience of it for himself.” Moses was determined to have God’s presence with Israel as close as possible. Moses was bold in drawing near to God, but he based the boldness on the grace God had already shown to him. This was a good ground for drawing near. Moses was almost obsessed with God. He was still on earth, but he connected everything to God in heaven. God seemed to answer Moses’ prayer, but Moses did not rest. He continued to press God for affirmation of the promise. This shows how boldly Moses sought after God for the sake of his own relationship with God and for the benefit of the nation.
Moses knew that nothing the LORD could give them would make them truly different from the nations. Only the strong presence of the LORD Himself could do that. Moses wanted something for Israel that would show that they were not just like all the other nations, and that could only be the unique, powerful presence of their God. “‘Now,’ said Moses to God, ‘I am asking for this something extra, because I am concerned. Here we are thy people. How are all the other nations to know that we really are your people? They are looking on at us, they are laughing at us, mocking us and jeering at us, they are ready to overwhelm us. Now, I am asking for something,’ said Moses, ‘that will make it absolutely clear that we are not just one of the nations of the world, but that we are thy people, that we are separate, unique, altogether apart.’” God honored the bold intercession of Moses, and He promised to restore His relationship with Israel. (Guzik)
Do we seek and desire to know the promises of God? Do we proclaim them in our prayer(s)? Do we honor and glorify God by speaking to Him about His promises? Do we trust His promises? Do we rely on His Promises? Do we believe them without a doubt?
If the answer is “yes” then all of our days will be filled with awe and wonder at the grace and mercy He has given, and our lives will be lived so that honor and glory are given to Him in every thought, word, and act we do.
