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The Israelites finally left Egypt, led by Moses the man of God. On their journey through the wilderness to the promised land, God gave them several instructions to govern their lives as a newly formed nation and to set them apart as his peculiar people. One day God tells Moses to come to him on the mountain and stay. There, he would receive the tablets of stone, with the law and the commands written by God for Israel’s instruction (Exodus 24:12). Moses was on the mountain for forty days and nights (Exodus 24:18).

When the people saw that Moses was long in coming down from the mountain, they told Aaron to make gods for them claiming, “As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him” (Exodus 32:1). Aaron obliged and the people were involved in idolatry. God was displeased and dismissed Moses from the mountain to return to his people. He described the Israelites as Moses’ and not his (God’s) people and spoke of destroying them and raising Moses into a great new nation. But Moses interceded with God on behalf of the people and the Almighty relented (Exodus 32:7-11).

Go With an Angel, But Not with God

Then the Lord told Moses to continue with the people to the promised land. He said, “I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people, and I might destroy you on the way” (Exodus 33:2-3).

When the people heard these words they mourned, stripped off their ornaments as commanded and awaited God’s response.

Moses and Joshua, who both went to the mountain also went to the tent of meeting, the place where they met with God who came down in the pillar of cloud. It was there that the Lord would speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. Even when Moses would return to the camp, Joshua did not leave the tent (Exodus 33:2-11).

Moses returned to God, requesting to be taught the ways of God, to know God and find favour with him. 

“You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favour with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favour with you. Remember that this nation is your people.” The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Exodus 33:12-14).

Moses was saying to God in effect, ‘Lord, you are the one who called me and not myself. I am going about your work; will your presence not go with me? You know me as close as a friend, you know my name; I have found favour in your sight, you said. If that is the case, show me your way.’ It is worth noting here Moses’ ministry as a type of Christ, who interceded for his people. Jesus, even right now, intercedes for us before the father, as our advocate: “But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One (1 John 2:1).

The Promise of His Presence

When God said, “My Presence will go with you”, Moses quickly grasped that word. He held on to the word as that which he could not do without. “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here” (Exodus 33:15). Moses dreaded the very thought of he and the Israelites proceeding on their journey without God’s presence. He knew that the safety and success of their journey was totally reliant on God’s presence. He was saying in effect, ‘we will rather remain here in the wilderness than go forward to Canaan without God’s presence.’

Think for a moment about the place the Israelites were at this time, a desert or wilderness. It is not a place conducive for living. The land is usually desolate, receives little annual rainfall, has sparse vegetation, and is wild. That was part of why they needed to be fed with manna from heaven, required water from the rock and were bitten by snakes. That was why when their shoes or their clothes did not wear out, it was a clear miracle. Canaan on the other hand, was, according to God’s own word, “a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8). Imagine the rest and relief of arriving in Canaan after all the experience of Egypt and the desert. It would be all the more sweeter. 

No God, No Canaan

Moses said to God, “I don’t want a Canaan without you!” Remember that God had promised to take them to the promised land and that promise couldn’t fail. This time however, after their idolatry, God said he would send them to Canaan with an angel, but he (God) would not go with them, lest he destroy them because of their stubbornness. Moses said, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” (Exodus 33:15-16). For you, maybe the only thing that distinguishes you from other people on the face of the earth is your fingerprint – Moses wanted The Presence to be the difference.

For you, maybe the only thing that distinguishes you from other people on the face of the earth is your fingerprint – Moses wanted The Presence to be the difference.

Moses was saying, ‘Thank you for the offer of an angel to accompany us, but if you will not go with us, you can as well keep your angel. Canaan is spacious and flowing with milk and honey, but I do not want a milk and honey that has no God in it. If you will not go with us, we will rather remain and die in this desert. It is better to stay in this desert than go forward to Canaan without your presence.’ And this was no fluke. The writer of Hebrews reminds us that when Moses had grown up, he “refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward” (Hebrews 11:24-26). Moses knew the value of God’s presence; he knew it was what distinguished them from all the other people on the face of the earth.

If you had the choice of going to heaven, the place where the streets are made of gold, where there is no scorching sun, no want, no hunger, no thirst, no pain, no disease, and no death but God would be absent from that paradise, what would you choose? Is your hope of heaven based on the promised bliss or on the prospect of being with the lover of your soul, Jesus? Your sincere answer to that question will also determine the choices you make while still on earth. The songwriter said, “Your Presence is heaven to me.” What is heaven to you?

What happened to a man who had lived as a prince in the palace of the greatest king at the time and was an heir to the throne; a man who had seen God’s power displayed in many diverse ways; a man who led a whole nation, who had the promise of a land flowing with milk and honey and the security of angelic presence; what made him prefer God’s presence above all these? Whatever that is, it has to happen to you and me.

Bliss Without God

Before you make haste to count yourself in the rank of Moses, pause for a moment and consider what your preferences in life have been. Have you gleefully chosen bliss and success even when you didn’t have God’s presence with you? The person who cheats to pass an exam is saying ‘I want success even if God is not in it’. The businessperson who bribes their way into lucrative deals just cares about milk and honey but not God. That lady who opts for, or even considers, marriage to a non-Christian because the man has money and promises her a life devoid of lack, is saying, ‘Give me Canaan without God, I don’t mind. Provided there is milk and honey, I am okay.’ The jobseeker who is ready to do anything to secure their job is saying, ‘I am okay with a Canaan without God.’ Every day of our lives, we are confronted with the option of choosing either God’s abiding presence or the pleasure of a life without Him. When the serpent spoke to Eve, she fell for the same thing: ‘I will eat and be wise and know good from evil at the expense of God’s presence.’ Look where we are with that. When the Devil met Jesus following his 40-day fast, the offer was the same: “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me” (Matthew 4:9). “All this”, the kingdoms of the world and their splendour, another name for milk and honey. Glory to God that Jesus chose The Presence and not the milk and honey. 

Every day of our lives, we are confronted with the option of choosing either God’s abiding presence or the pleasure of a life without Him.

What have you chosen before? What will you choose today? What will you choose every day? Canaan without God or you’d rather remain in the desert? “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).

Cultivating His Presence

If you will make the wise choice, like Moses exemplified for you and me, how will you go about it? How will you remain in his presence?

First, what made God to offer an angel to go with the Israelites to Canaan but not himself was because they were a stiff-necked people; they chose to have other gods besides the LORD, thereby breaking the first commandment. It was sin that sent Adam and Eve away from God’s presence – before they were even penalized for eating the fruit, they hid themselves, and later they were banished from Eden. Do away with sin by God’s help and remain in his presence. The Israelites had Moses to intercede for them; a greater than Moses is here – Jesus Christ the righteous. He is our advocate with the Father. No one comes to the Father except through him.

Second, maintain your own ‘Tent of Meeting’. It was at the tent that Moses met with God and God spoke to him in the pillar of cloud. It was in the tent that Moses spoke face to face with God. That was where Joshua remained even when Moses would return to the camp and little wonder, he succeeded Moses and led the people into Canaan. When God promised Moses his presence, observe how Moses took that word of promise and turned it into another session of prayer. It was after the promise that he said to God, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.” He was like the Patriarch Jacob saying, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The promises of God are not meant to make you relax into laziness; they should not only encourage your faith but excite your fervency in prayer.

Do you have a ‘Tent of Meeting’, set times when you commune with God in prayer and hear his voice in Scripture? If you do, keep the fire on the altar burning; if you don’t, establish one. Moses had it; Jesus had it; the disciples had it. You cannot cultivate his presence without having your own personal ‘tent’.

Third, do all things with a consciousness of his presence. Paul admonishes that, “whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17). Conduct your daily affairs with a consciousness of His being with you; speak to Him as you do so; engage with Him in your heart all day.