Separation

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

 “For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.” (Exodus 33:16)

The transaction that is recorded in this chapter is perhaps the most remarkable of any that we find in the history of the children of Israel. Consider the circumstances and what precedes this interview between Moses and God. It was after they had so sadly worshipped the golden calf, after they had provoked the Lord by their base idolatry, that He suffers Himself to be prevailed upon by the prayers of Moses, the typical Mediator, to show forth His mercy and grace; and not, in His own words, “Consume them in the way.”

What was it that called forth this appeal from the mouth of Moses? The Lord had said to him, “Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob…” (Ex. 33:1)

The Lord, by this speech, puts the children of Israel into the hands of Moses. It is as if He was saying, “I will fulfill my promise; I said I would take them to the land of Canaan, and I will do so, but I will renounce the direct charge of them. I will fulfill My promise to Abraham, so that none shall call Me unfaithful, yet My presence shall not go with them. I relinquish charge of them.” This was the most cutting stroke that God could have given to Moses, for his soul, like every child of God, was so deeply penetrated and possessed with a sense of his own helplessness and nothingness, that such words from the mouth of the Lord seemed a deathblow to all his hopes. It was this, therefore, that led him to plead so earnestly with the Lord. He says, “If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.” He would sooner have stayed where he was and die in the wilderness without moving a single step forward than to be deprived of God’s presence. He would rather God did not fulfill His promise at all than to deny him His presence. What would life be without the Lord? Why go to the Promise Land at all? Heaven would not be heaven if our precious Savior were not there.

Thus Moses, as the Psalmist says, “Stood before the Lord in the breach.” (Psa. 106:23) He was the typical Mediator, and the Lord condescended to hear his prayer. God assured him that His presence would go with him, and that He would give him rest. This precious promise led Moses to offer the prayer contained in the text, this affectionate and powerful plea with Jehovah: “Wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people (notice how Moses, like Christ our Mediator always include the people) have found grace in thy sight? is it not that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.”

How wonderful is this text! First, it assures us that the original source and fountain of every spiritual blessing that the soul receives for time and eternity is God’s amazing grace – “That I and thy people have found grace in thy sight.” Then, the chief blessing of finding grace in God’s sight is the knowledge of His presence. “Wherein shall it be known?” – Both with God’s people and with others. And then we see that the fruit and effect of God’s manifest presence is separation. “So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.”

What is the cause of this separation? It wasn’t merely because of different doctrines, or because they worshipped the living God rather than dead idols; nor was it merely because they had the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant. These were indeed reasons, but not the chief reason. The chief reason, that which Moses brings forward in this text, is that God’s presence was with them in their assemblies, and in the hearts of His people. Awareness of God’s presence will keep Christians separate from the world. (See II Cor. 6:14-18)