Promised Land

I prepared this as the last part of a 6 part series on Exodus I was doing when my brother died and so never got around to using it so it’s a little unfinished. I realised recently that I am too busy and need to stop, let go and listen to the Lord instead of rushing around in circles, getting nowhere.

The Lord said to Moses, “Lead these people you brought from Egypt to the land I promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for I said, ‘I will give this land to your descendants.’ I will send an Angel before you to drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. It is a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’; but I will not travel among you, for you are a stubborn, unruly people, and I would be tempted to destroy you along the way.” 

When the people heard these stern words, they went into mourning and stripped themselves of their jewelry and ornaments. For the Lord had told Moses to tell them, “You are an unruly, stubborn people. If I were there among you for even a moment, I would exterminate you. Remove your jewelry and ornaments until I decide what to do with you.” So, after that, they wore no jewelry.

Exodus 33:1-6

God gave Moses the task to lead the people to the Promised Land but he wouldn’t travel amongst them because of their disobedience..

Israel went into mourning. When the people heard the stern message they were sorry and they repented with tears which was proved by them not wearing their jewellery. 

It is one thing to have God’s promise of salvation. God cannot lie, we will be saved if we believe the Gospel. But if we make disobedience a pattern of our lives, constantly falling into sin then we can lose God’s presence and that’s an awful way to journey through life going around in circles in the desert. 

However, what is worse than travelling around in circles is if we do not repent even once, we are sealing a worse fate. Because, nothing changed, we remained as an unbeliever, our life ended in ruins, and there could be no redemption. 

Please understand I am talking about the person with an unrepentant heart. They don’t battle against sin, they think that the Grace of God is like an insurance plan, a licence to do what they like with a guaranteed payout at the end.

As J John the UK evangelist says, some people think they can make an 11th hour confession to the priest and repent on their deathbed so they continue to live a life of sin. They finally realise their terrible error when they die at 10.30pm. They are already a finished work by the time the priest turns up. What I mean is, imagine your life as a tree which is to become a carving. Early on, the Artist can still change the shape of the wood but by the end the carving is formed and cannot be changed.

What will the people say when the story is over and the book is closed ? It doesn’t matter a lot what people will say. People remember good things about even the worst of people. But it only matters what God will say. 

The thief on the cross was saved at the last moment because he saw who Jesus was and repented. There was no time to put things right but there was still time to call out to Jesus to remember him. That is very different to the person who knows who Jesus is but won’t repent when they have the chance believing they can live their life and be saved later because God is gracious. 

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Hebrews 3:7-19

I can’t see your heart today but the Lord can. Moses spoke to the Lord as his friend;

Moses talked there with the Lord and said to him, “You have been telling me, ‘Take these people to the Promised Land,’ but you haven’t told me whom you will send with me. You say you are my friend, and that I have found favor before you; please, if this is really so, guide me clearly along the way you want me to travel so that I will understand you and walk acceptably before you. For don’t forget that this nation is your people.” And the Lord replied, “I myself will go with you and give you success.”

Exodus 33:12-14

Then the cloud covered the Tabernacle and the glory of the Lord filled it. Moses was not able to enter because the cloud was standing there, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. Whenever the cloud lifted and moved, the people of Israel journeyed onward, following it. But if the cloud stayed, they stayed until it moved. The cloud rested upon the Tabernacle during the daytime, and at night there was fire in the cloud so that all the people of Israel could see it. This continued throughout all their journeys.

Exodus 40:34-38

So the Lord was with Moses but not amongst the people. Many people today look to the Pope or their Minister. Because that man is considered holy, they follow him without really experiencing God for themselves. They think you can only find God in Church. They don’t realise they can have a personal relationship with him just like Moses had.

Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land. The Law will not get you there. Only the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the promise of God which cannot be changed. He is faithful, we are not.

Then Jesus shouted out again, dismissed his spirit, and died. And look! The curtain secluding the Holiest Place in the Temple was split apart from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and rocks broke, and tombs opened, and many godly men and women who had died came back to life again. After Jesus’ resurrection, they left the cemetery and went into Jerusalem, and appeared to many people there.

Matthew 27:50-53

Jesus death on the Cross made possible for us to have the kind of relationship that Moses had and also guaranteed our resurrection from the dead. That eternal life begins the moment you become a Christian. The curtain separating you from the Lord is torn away and you can go to Him. Before I was a Christian, death seemed like a wall of blackness. I couldn’t see anything but black beyond the wall. But now death is only a door to walk through to that place where Jesus is and where those who have gone to him before are now.

We are not in the Promised Land yet, we do live with that tension, but we have a glorious hope as Paul described;

But I am telling you this strange and wonderful secret: we shall not all die, but we shall all be given new bodies! It will all happen in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For there will be a trumpet blast from the sky, and all the Christians who have died will suddenly become alive, with new bodies that will never, never die; and then we who are still alive shall suddenly have new bodies too. For our earthly bodies, the ones we have now that can die, must be transformed into heavenly bodies that cannot perish but will live forever. When this happens, then at last this Scripture will come true—“Death is swallowed up in victory.” O death, where then your victory? Where then your sting? For sin—the sting that causes death—will all be gone; and the law, which reveals our sins, will no longer be our judge. How we thank God for all of this! It is he who makes us victorious through Jesus Christ our Lord! So, my dear brothers, since future victory is sure, be strong and steady, always abounding in the Lord’s work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever wasted as it would be if there were no resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:51-58

Lord, today I want to put aside all these things I have to do, and all these things that are just a distraction and meet with you as Moses did - face to face. Thank you for these quiet moments, let me rest and listen to your voice !