God often pitches Himself, with His holy presence, on the outside of the camp which is supposed to be carefully following Him.
Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And it came about, that everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp. Exodus 33:7.
The tent of meeting is not the tabernacle that God gave Moses the pattern to build. The Old Covenant was just types and shadows, of the reality that we experience in the New Covenant today.
In the book of Hebrews it says, “Let us go unto Him outside the camp bearing the reproach” (Hebrews 13:13).
I heard about a young man who had received a ministry of healing. The first thing God told him to do was withdraw from the churches. Sometimes God is not given much of a place in the churches; so in order to meet Him, you have to find a place outside the pitched camp (the organized camp). This has always been true.
Moses pitched the tent of meeting outside the camp. It came about that whenever Moses went out to the tent of meeting, all of the people would arise and stand at the entrance of their tents and gaze after Moses until he had entered the tent of meeting.
Whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent and the Lord would speak with Moses. When the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they would arise and worship, each still standing at the entrance of their tent. Thus the Lord spoke to Moses, face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend.
When Moses returned to the camp, his young servant Joshua (the son of Nun) would not depart from the tent of meeting. I pray that God will give us a great Joshua company, a company addicted to the presence of the Lord, a company hooked on His glory, a company of perfect addicts to the glory of God, a company that can’t get enough of His glory.
Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, Thou dost say to me, ‘Bring up this people!’ But Thou Thyself hast not let me know whom Thou wilt send with me. Moreover, Thou hast said, ‘I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.’ ” (Notice how Moses speaks to the Lord in this next verse.) “Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found favor in Thy sight, let me know Thy ways, that I may know Thee, so that I may find favor in Thy sight. Consider too, that this nation is Thy people.” Exodus 33:12–13.
Moses knew what he was doing. He said, “If I’m going to walk with You, Lord, I must understand Your thinking; I must understand Your ways. How will I please You unless I know Your ways, unless I know what You want?
And one other thing, Lord, don’t talk to me anymore and say, ‘Moses, look at thy people that thou hast brought up in the land of Egypt.’ From now on, Lord, when You talk to me about this people, You say, ‘My people.’ Consider this people as Your people. They are either Yours or they are not, but they are not mine. You are going to consider that they are Your people.” The Lord answered, … “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then he said to Him, “If Thy presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.” Exodus 33:14–15.
This is one of the most important issues you and I face. We say, “Lord, I know You started this thing; now I don’t want You to change Your mind. Will You be faithful to me even If I am not? Will You change Your attitude toward me as I go on from day to day and prove to be such an unprofitable servant? Will You really love me?”
Moses had reason to ask this because he had just seen the children of Israel make a golden calf. God had judged the Israelites and He was ready to forsake them. He didn’t want anything more to do with them. The Lord was dealing with Moses, and Moses was dealing with the Lord.
He was saying, “Lord, it’s time we got this thing straight. Do You intend to start something You’re not going to finish? Will You be our God? You must either play ball or lay the bat down. You are going to be our God or You are not. We want to know.”
It is beautiful the way God has allowed these examples to be revealed in the Word, because these are the questions which we face now. “Lord, You started this. The prophecies came over me. Revelation came over me. You got me into this walk. Now, are You going to walk with me all the way?”
A chaplain in Congress once prayed, “I’m running with You, Jesus.” I like that kind of prayer because we are running with Jesus. “We don’t want You to drop out of the race, Lord. We like knowing that if we stumble You are there to pick us up. If we are not faithful, will you still be faithful? After all, You have more strength; You have all the power and all the glory. It is all to Your praise.” This is the way the Lord likes to reveal Himself.
Another passage of Scripture dealing with the Lord’s changeless presence is this: Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be as it were the first fruits among His creatures. James 1:17–18.
There is no variation; there isn’t even a shifting shadow. He is just the same in the morning as He is in the evening. In the morning when I get up and face the sun, there is a long shadow behind my back, and at evening when I face the sunset there is another long shadow behind my back. For a little moment in midday the shadow seems to shift and grow smaller. But I can count on variation in my shadow every hour of every day. As there is a shifting of my shadow, I am aware of the moods in my heart that change.
My energies may be fresh in the morning and my feet heavy at the end of the day. There are times in which I draw upon His strength and other times when I have no strength. There are times when I feel well and times when I feel ill. There is always a variation. But He is the one who says, “I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore you are not consumed, you sons of Jacob” (Malachi 3:6).
This passage back in Exodus teaches us something. Moses was concerned about God changing. He said, “Lord, are You going to change? Will there be a variation? We started out learning about grace, but when we stumble and fall will there be grace? Will You have mercy on us? Will You be faithful to us when we are not so faithful?”
And His answer is, “Yes. My presence shall go with you and I will give you rest.” His presence is there. His presence has lingered, coupled with what we call immutability.
Everyone has certain attributes, certain characteristics. Some people have a temper or some other strong attribute. God has a number of great attributes. The greatest of all are His love and His mercy, greater than His righteousness and His justice, for mercy triumphs over judgment in the heart of God.
God looks around to find an intercessor who will pray; He looks for one who will turn wrath away, because He delights in mercy. Why should we pray for one another? Because, in the Old Testament when no one stood in the gap, when there was no intercessor, God brought judgment. God said, “I looked for an intercessor. I looked for one to stand in the gap and I didn’t find any.” He was looking, delighting, and wanting to show mercy to the offender.
He is trying to tell us something. God is immutable. He begins with love for you—like Jesus, when the time of the cross came, having loved His own that were in the world, He loved them unto the end.
Whatever they did, Jesus never stopped loving them with all of His heart. Peter blaspheming and saying, “I never knew Him,” turned and saw Jesus looking at him; Jesus was still loving him while Peter was denying Him. Peter went out and wept bitterly.
How often do we fail? This walk is not for people who do not stumble. When we get into the Kingdom we will have a lot of scabs on our knees and our noses, for we have not walked without stumbling.
Yet the happy thing is that we despair not, because God is immutable. He is immutable because He does not change. His purposes toward us do not change. Get up in the morning and say, “Lord, did You change Your mind about me? Has anything happened? Did some accuser of the brethren come up before You? No, I know that’s not so, Lord; I know that You love me.”
Moses was leading a group of rebels, and God became very aggravated with them. That was all right. God was going to make them His people; He was not going to forsake them. His presence went with them.
His purposes, His feelings towards them were immutable, unchangeable. He is the Father of lights. Every good and perfect gift which comes is from Him. There is no variation, no variableness, no shifting shadows (James 1:17). There is nothing about Him which changes.
You might say, “Well, I thought God repented and changed His mind in some situations. Wherever God seems to change, you will find that it was only the individual who changed and put himself on another beam that comes from God. When a person sins without repentance, he puts himself on the beams of God’s judgment. When God deals with you and you say, “Oh, I’m cut off,” you are the one who is responsible. God isn’t responsible. He is absolutely unchanging. God is willing to bless you twenty-four hours a day, to walk with you continually, to bring you forth into everything of His will beyond what you could possibly imagine.
“Well, He’s been beating me, lately.”
“You deserve it.”
“I’m going to repent.”
Then He will smile on you. God doesn’t change. Look into the Old Testament story of Jonah for a good example. Jonah had a sure word from God; he was not a false prophet. He had a word from God that in forty days Nineveh would be destroyed—absolutely!
Jonah built a little lean-to and waited to see what was going to happen. But the people in Nineveh repented in sackcloth. They even put sackcloth on the animals (Jonah 3:5–8). I can see them getting out and kicking their donkeys, saying “Repent! Get the rebellion and stubbornness out of you!”
The king repented: “Everyone is going to repent!” Did God change His mind? No. God repented of the evil (Jonah 3:10). In other words, the evil was being changed. The gun was still aimed at people who would do such evil things, but these people had moved out of that focus and drawn near to God. They were a different people now because they had repented and changed. As a nation, Nineveh existed almost a hundred years after that. What a great revival!
Jonah pouted on a hill overlooking the city: “I know Your longsuffering, God. I was afraid this was going to happen. Now what are they going to say to me? They will say I’m a false prophet. I prophesied something and it didn’t come to pass. It is a terrible thing that has happened to me.”
So God pointed out the thousands of little children who didn’t know their right hand from their left: “Do you want all of them to die, too?” God was thinking of everyone involved, yet He would have destroyed the city, and He had to persuade Jonah to go and speak it. God changed? He didn’t change a bit. It was the people who changed. Was the word true before? Yes. And if the people had remained unrepentant, it would have happened as he had spoken it. But when they repented, God delighted in mercy.
How immutable are His counsels! How wondrous are His ways! Even when He is dealing with you, if you repent (maybe God can change your mind), you change. He doesn’t need to change His mind. Repent and seek the Lord, and see if He will come and leave a blessing (Joel 2:14). He has a blessing for us; He has something glorious.
Now we will read the rest of Exodus 33. “For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Thy sight, I and Thy people? Is it not by Thy going with us, so that we, I and Thy people, may be distinguished …?” Moses was clever—“I and Thy people! We have this straight now. This is Your people, Lord. This nation is Thy people. You are not going to call them mine anymore. They’re Yours!”
And the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken: for you have found favor in My sight, and I have known you by name.” Then Moses said, “I pray Thee, show me Thy glory!” And He said, “I myself will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” But He said, “You cannot see my face, for no man can see Me and live!” Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by Me and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.” Exodus 33:16–23.
The next chapter tells of Moses going up to the mountain for forty days and nights. When he came down Moses did not know that the skin of his face shown because of his speaking with Him. So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. Exodus 34:29–30. What an amazing thing.
“O God, will You be faithful to all of us, even if we are not faithful? What, O Lord, will You do? If we sin, You will chastise us. If we are arrogant or rebellious and we cast away Your blessings, we will lose them. We can count on You, Lord. We can count on You dealing with us, chastening us. We can count on You loving us. And if we sin and we really repent, You will forgive us; You won’t count our iniquities against us. And when we are not faithful to you, You will still be faithful to us.
This is the happy thing of this walk with God. God will be God; He will always be true to His word, and we are going to walk in His word. What about our sinning? Can we count on God passing it by? Fortunately He will not. He will not allow things to build up too much before He will begin to deal with us. This is the mercy of the Lord. His presence will go with us.
“Lord, as You walk with me, I want You to smile on me. I don’t want Your scowl. I’m going to walk with an open heart.” Amen.