And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.
After Israel's sin with the golden calf Moses pleads for God's favor to be restored and refuses to be led on toward Canaan unless God's presence goes with both himself and the people together. God reads the sincerity and unselfishness of his heart and promises that His presence will go with him, assuring him that he has found grace and is known by name. That accompanying presence is the proof of grace in His sight, the mark that sets them apart from all other peoples, shown in the cloud by day and fire by night to guide and assure them, for their safety, progress and victories depend on His personal going with them and not merely on reaching the promised place. The plea expresses conscious weakness and self-distrust, counting that assurance of more value than all Egyptian learning or military skill, since no earthly power or wisdom can supply the place of God's immediate presence. No one can lead God's people without that presence, so all who bear responsibility and all believers in their labor and conflict must make this refusal their own, praying for His accompaniment above property, honor and everything else rather than go forward without it.
Context and Plea
Moses spoke these words as a plea after Israel's transgression in making the golden calf and thereby dishonoring God, asking that God's favor be restored to His people and that the token of His presence continue to direct their journeyings. He prayed with a deep sense of his own unworthiness and unfitness for the great work to which God had called him, knowing the perversity of the human heart and the difficulties before him. Knowing that to have influence with the people he must first have power with God, he cast himself and all his burdens fully upon God and poured out his soul before Him with intense earnestness.
He bore Israel's burden with overwhelming responsibility, suffering keen remorse over their sin as if guilty himself. He realized the terrible result if God should give Israel up to darkness and impenitence. In the face of the people's repeated murmuring and his fear of relying on his own human wisdom, he brought his fainting heart's burden to God to be strengthened, longing to come still nearer to God to obtain a stronger assurance of His abiding presence.
The words mean he refused to be carried up or to lead Israel onward toward Canaan without God's presence going with him. He pleaded for God to go with both himself and the people, holding his own case and Israel's case together before the Lord. He would not separate his interests from theirs or go on alone without God.
Even after God assured him of His presence and rest, he did not cease petitioning but drew still nearer. He desired to become more thoroughly acquainted with the invisible Leader of Israel. Close communion with God had made him depend on God's presence, so he sought assurance of it before leading the people.
God read the sincerity and unselfish purpose of His servant's heart and did not reprove him. He condescended to commune with him face to face as a man speaks with a friend and stooped to listen to his supplications. He promised His presence would go with him, granted the request, and affirmed that Moses had found grace in His sight and was known by name.
What Presence Signifies
God's going with Moses and Israel is the present proof, sign and evidence that both leader and people have found grace and favor in His sight. That going with them is what makes it known that they have found grace, and God answers by promising to do what Moses has spoken because Moses has found grace and is known by name. That same presence is what separates them and marks them as distinct, set apart and different from all other peoples and nations on the face of the earth.
The presence is shown by the token resting on the tabernacle and by the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night over it. That visible token would guide their journeyings onward, assure them of His nearness, mark Israel as a people favored by God, help Moses lead them, and urge them toward right actions.
Israel's safety, progress and victories depended on God's personal leadership and accompaniment, not merely on reaching the promised place of Canaan. Moses would not continue toward Canaan without that accompaniment, having no confidence that they could gain victories if separated from God. He needed assurance that the Lord would accompany them so the people would follow the Lord through whatever test came, telling them in every victorious battle to claim no honor for themselves because God gained the victory in their behalf. That assurance that the divine presence would attend him was of more value to Moses as a leader than the learning of Egypt or all his attainments in military science. No earthly power or skill or learning can supply the place of God's immediate presence.
Moses Humility and Communion
The refusal is the cry of conscious weakness and self-distrust, casting away all confidence in self and in the arm of flesh and clinging for help to carry the great responsibility of leading. Forty years in the wilderness had put away self in Moses and made room for God to work, so that he was able to receive the promised presence. He believed that having the presence of God's glory with him would help him carry on his great work, with the God of Israel as his strength and leader.
He knew the people were stiff-necked and given to murmuring, and he feared to rely on his own human wisdom to meet them. Yet he did not dwell on what was objectionable in them but pressed his own need for God to go with him. He told Israel he was only what the God of Israel had made him, receiving no adoration as the kings of other nations did. In every victorious battle he told them to claim no honor for themselves, because the God of Israel gained the victory in their behalf. When fainting under the burden he brought it to God, and God strengthened his fainting heart.
It was close communion with God that made him thus depend on the divine presence and seek assurance of it before he would lead the people onward. He cast himself and all his burdens fully upon God, pouring out his soul to obtain stronger assurance of His abiding presence. In that history may be seen what intimate communion with the Most High it is man's privilege to enjoy when the soul is in harmony with the will of its Maker.
As he holds fast the promises of God and obtains assurance, he is emboldened to ask still greater things. He pleads to see God's glory, because he must know God in order to represent Him to the people in all his ministry. The Lord hears him, puts him in the cleft of the rock, and declares His own character before him. That one great burden of soul, that God's presence would go with him and that he would behold God's glory, remains the pattern of preparation for successful missionary work.
Pattern for Leaders
No one can lead God's people by himself unless God's presence goes with him, so everyone bearing responsibility must admit inability to lead without it and tell God so in Moses' words. That refusal to go forward without God is to be made one's own prayer of dependence, constantly looking to God for help, counsel and wisdom instead of looking to and trusting in man, fastening upon God in living faith rather than relying on human strength or self in Christian service. Those who bear responsibilities are to make known their troubles to God and ask for His presence and wisdom to lead His people, seeking His guidance rather than trying to lead by themselves.
Those who carry burdens, give advice, plan and execute must pray this together when they meet to counsel, uniting in fasting and earnest prayer for the wisdom God has promised to supply liberally. They are to talk less and make their troubles known to God, fastening upon God in living faith. Praying in this way brings the human will into harmony with the divine will and brings harmony with one another. It brings Christ by the side as counselor and makes Jesus the sufficiency of those who feel they have no sufficiency of themselves.
The solemn and important work of bearing God's message for souls requires constant connection with the Lord and a deeper realization of its sacredness, solemnity and necessity. Human efficiency compassed with infirmities, perplexities and trials cannot bear the weight of responsibility, and no work for souls can be done without God's presence and power going along. Jesus alone as Helper must take and carry the burden and make the worker a fit vessel for new wine, for no one can do work for the Master, bear the message for the salvation of souls, or bring converting power upon hearts by natural inclination while Christ is not abiding in the heart by living faith, and to try brings disappointment and failure.
The prayer is wrestling earnest supplication that will not let go without blessing, drawing all hope and courage from Christ as the Way, the Truth and the Life and obeying step by step in faith and simplicity, and it is answered with rest, quietude and peace found only in Him. Believers now must pray the same prayer with the same faith, seeking God earnestly to walk through their midst with power to impress hearts, feeling they stand on the borders of the eternal world to gather rays of divine glory and press back the darkness enshrouding souls. God does not want His workers to meet the opposition Satan devises without His presence, so in trouble, discouragement and perplexity they must go directly to Christ Jesus the Fountain Head for strength instead of reaching out to human agencies for strength, and receiving that presence gives what is needed to carry God's goodness to the world.
Spiritual life reveals itself by walking and working infused with the Spirit of God and infusing others, which are the unmistakable signs of Christ abiding in the heart as light and life, and without His presence they are not to be carried forward. Those who draw nourishment from the life of Christ reveal fresh, new life principles to others, reflect light from the source of all light, and lead men to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, leaving a bright track heavenward. The same presence Moses had with him when he led the children of Israel through the wilderness is needed to give words power with those partly blind to the importance of the time and work. With that presence the message urges brethren to seek the Lord while He is to be found and call upon Him while He is near, shows them that unless they are imbued with the Spirit of God they can do no good in their work, reproves their coldness and lukewarmness as an offense to God, and warns them to walk in Christ's light lest Satan put his blinder before their eyes so they call light darkness and darkness light.
Moses' one great burden of soul was that God's presence would go with him and that he would behold God's glory, and that object is the preparation for successful missionary work. Keeping that object in sight means seeking God's presence, faith in God's power, and constant communion with God. Students coming to become successful missionaries must make God's presence their real object, and not let many unnecessary studies and long years of preparation sink that purpose out of sight, for giving them more studies than are absolutely necessary causes them to forget that object.
Call to Dependence
The verse is the soul cry of owned weakness in which strength lies, refusing to go forward unless God goes along. It is casting away all confidence in the arm of flesh, crying to God for help, clinging with firm grasp to Jesus, and working out salvation with fear and trembling. Such conscious weakness and self-distrust fits character for the society of heavenly angels and for working with the Spirit.
God's people should not feel free to go forward in Christian labor and spiritual conflict without assurance and evidence of His presence. His presence brings the divine help and power needed for the work, and is the essential condition for going onward. In trouble, discouragement and perplexity they must go directly to Christ Jesus the Fountain Head for strength instead of reaching out to human agencies for strength, for God does not want His workers to meet the opposition Satan devises without His presence. Receiving that presence gives what is needed to carry God's goodness to the world, and makes it one's constant need in every place and task.
It is an earnest prayer for divine accompaniment, that Jesus be with the person and that the presence of the Lord go along. It is prayed when traveling to work in another portion of the field, asking not to be sent up without it. No work for souls can be done without God's presence and power going along, so believers now must pray the same prayer with the same faith as Moses, who said he could not go before the people unless God went with him and was answered that He would go with him. They must seek God earnestly to walk through their midst with power to impress hearts, feeling they stand on the borders of the eternal world to gather rays of divine glory and press back the darkness enshrouding souls.
It means praying for God's presence to go with His people above everything else, willing to lose property, worldly honor, and everything rather than go without it. It calls for being on the Lord's side wholly, not half-heartedly, for half-hearted, indifferent, careless work separates the soul from Jesus, the source of strength. It is safe to be wholly on the Lord's side, for it is always safe to commit the keeping of the soul to God who reigns over all heaven and earth. His infinite wisdom and power are exerted in behalf of souls purchased by the Saviour's blood, the heavenly host fight their battles for them and look with intense interest upon them, seeing the value of the human soul through Christ's sacrifice.
After Israel's sin with the golden calf Moses pleads for God's favor to be restored and refuses to be led on toward Canaan unless God's presence goes with both himself and the people together. God reads the sincerity and unselfishness of his heart and promises that His presence will go with him, assuring him that he has found grace and is known by name. That accompanying presence is the proof of grace in His sight, the mark that sets them apart from all other peoples, shown in the cloud by day and fire by night to guide and assure them, for their safety, progress and victories depend on His personal going with them and not merely on reaching the promised place. The plea expresses conscious weakness and self-distrust, counting that assurance of more value than all Egyptian learning or military skill, since no earthly power or wisdom can supply the place of God's immediate presence. No one can lead God's people without that presence, so all who bear responsibility and all believers in their labor and conflict must make this refusal their own, praying for His accompaniment above property, honor and everything else rather than go forward without it.
Context and Plea
Moses spoke these words as a plea after Israel's transgression in making the golden calf and thereby dishonoring God, asking that God's favor be restored to His people and that the token of His presence continue to direct their journeyings. He prayed with a deep sense of his own unworthiness and unfitness for the great work to which God had called him, knowing the perversity of the human heart and the difficulties before him. Knowing that to have influence with the people he must first have power with God, he cast himself and all his burdens fully upon God and poured out his soul before Him with intense earnestness.
He bore Israel's burden with overwhelming responsibility, suffering keen remorse over their sin as if guilty himself. He realized the terrible result if God should give Israel up to darkness and impenitence. In the face of the people's repeated murmuring and his fear of relying on his own human wisdom, he brought his fainting heart's burden to God to be strengthened, longing to come still nearer to God to obtain a stronger assurance of His abiding presence.
The words mean he refused to be carried up or to lead Israel onward toward Canaan without God's presence going with him. He pleaded for God to go with both himself and the people, holding his own case and Israel's case together before the Lord. He would not separate his interests from theirs or go on alone without God.
Even after God assured him of His presence and rest, he did not cease petitioning but drew still nearer. He desired to become more thoroughly acquainted with the invisible Leader of Israel. Close communion with God had made him depend on God's presence, so he sought assurance of it before leading the people.
God read the sincerity and unselfish purpose of His servant's heart and did not reprove him. He condescended to commune with him face to face as a man speaks with a friend and stooped to listen to his supplications. He promised His presence would go with him, granted the request, and affirmed that Moses had found grace in His sight and was known by name.
What Presence Signifies
God's going with Moses and Israel is the present proof, sign and evidence that both leader and people have found grace and favor in His sight. That going with them is what makes it known that they have found grace, and God answers by promising to do what Moses has spoken because Moses has found grace and is known by name. That same presence is what separates them and marks them as distinct, set apart and different from all other peoples and nations on the face of the earth.
The presence is shown by the token resting on the tabernacle and by the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night over it. That visible token would guide their journeyings onward, assure them of His nearness, mark Israel as a people favored by God, help Moses lead them, and urge them toward right actions.
Israel's safety, progress and victories depended on God's personal leadership and accompaniment, not merely on reaching the promised place of Canaan. Moses would not continue toward Canaan without that accompaniment, having no confidence that they could gain victories if separated from God. He needed assurance that the Lord would accompany them so the people would follow the Lord through whatever test came, telling them in every victorious battle to claim no honor for themselves because God gained the victory in their behalf. That assurance that the divine presence would attend him was of more value to Moses as a leader than the learning of Egypt or all his attainments in military science. No earthly power or skill or learning can supply the place of God's immediate presence.
Moses Humility and Communion
The refusal is the cry of conscious weakness and self-distrust, casting away all confidence in self and in the arm of flesh and clinging for help to carry the great responsibility of leading. Forty years in the wilderness had put away self in Moses and made room for God to work, so that he was able to receive the promised presence. He believed that having the presence of God's glory with him would help him carry on his great work, with the God of Israel as his strength and leader.
He knew the people were stiff-necked and given to murmuring, and he feared to rely on his own human wisdom to meet them. Yet he did not dwell on what was objectionable in them but pressed his own need for God to go with him. He told Israel he was only what the God of Israel had made him, receiving no adoration as the kings of other nations did. In every victorious battle he told them to claim no honor for themselves, because the God of Israel gained the victory in their behalf. When fainting under the burden he brought it to God, and God strengthened his fainting heart.
It was close communion with God that made him thus depend on the divine presence and seek assurance of it before he would lead the people onward. He cast himself and all his burdens fully upon God, pouring out his soul to obtain stronger assurance of His abiding presence. In that history may be seen what intimate communion with the Most High it is man's privilege to enjoy when the soul is in harmony with the will of its Maker.
As he holds fast the promises of God and obtains assurance, he is emboldened to ask still greater things. He pleads to see God's glory, because he must know God in order to represent Him to the people in all his ministry. The Lord hears him, puts him in the cleft of the rock, and declares His own character before him. That one great burden of soul, that God's presence would go with him and that he would behold God's glory, remains the pattern of preparation for successful missionary work.
Pattern for Leaders
No one can lead God's people by himself unless God's presence goes with him, so everyone bearing responsibility must admit inability to lead without it and tell God so in Moses' words. That refusal to go forward without God is to be made one's own prayer of dependence, constantly looking to God for help, counsel and wisdom instead of looking to and trusting in man, fastening upon God in living faith rather than relying on human strength or self in Christian service. Those who bear responsibilities are to make known their troubles to God and ask for His presence and wisdom to lead His people, seeking His guidance rather than trying to lead by themselves.
Those who carry burdens, give advice, plan and execute must pray this together when they meet to counsel, uniting in fasting and earnest prayer for the wisdom God has promised to supply liberally. They are to talk less and make their troubles known to God, fastening upon God in living faith. Praying in this way brings the human will into harmony with the divine will and brings harmony with one another. It brings Christ by the side as counselor and makes Jesus the sufficiency of those who feel they have no sufficiency of themselves.
The solemn and important work of bearing God's message for souls requires constant connection with the Lord and a deeper realization of its sacredness, solemnity and necessity. Human efficiency compassed with infirmities, perplexities and trials cannot bear the weight of responsibility, and no work for souls can be done without God's presence and power going along. Jesus alone as Helper must take and carry the burden and make the worker a fit vessel for new wine, for no one can do work for the Master, bear the message for the salvation of souls, or bring converting power upon hearts by natural inclination while Christ is not abiding in the heart by living faith, and to try brings disappointment and failure.
The prayer is wrestling earnest supplication that will not let go without blessing, drawing all hope and courage from Christ as the Way, the Truth and the Life and obeying step by step in faith and simplicity, and it is answered with rest, quietude and peace found only in Him. Believers now must pray the same prayer with the same faith, seeking God earnestly to walk through their midst with power to impress hearts, feeling they stand on the borders of the eternal world to gather rays of divine glory and press back the darkness enshrouding souls. God does not want His workers to meet the opposition Satan devises without His presence, so in trouble, discouragement and perplexity they must go directly to Christ Jesus the Fountain Head for strength instead of reaching out to human agencies for strength, and receiving that presence gives what is needed to carry God's goodness to the world.
Spiritual life reveals itself by walking and working infused with the Spirit of God and infusing others, which are the unmistakable signs of Christ abiding in the heart as light and life, and without His presence they are not to be carried forward. Those who draw nourishment from the life of Christ reveal fresh, new life principles to others, reflect light from the source of all light, and lead men to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, leaving a bright track heavenward. The same presence Moses had with him when he led the children of Israel through the wilderness is needed to give words power with those partly blind to the importance of the time and work. With that presence the message urges brethren to seek the Lord while He is to be found and call upon Him while He is near, shows them that unless they are imbued with the Spirit of God they can do no good in their work, reproves their coldness and lukewarmness as an offense to God, and warns them to walk in Christ's light lest Satan put his blinder before their eyes so they call light darkness and darkness light.
Moses' one great burden of soul was that God's presence would go with him and that he would behold God's glory, and that object is the preparation for successful missionary work. Keeping that object in sight means seeking God's presence, faith in God's power, and constant communion with God. Students coming to become successful missionaries must make God's presence their real object, and not let many unnecessary studies and long years of preparation sink that purpose out of sight, for giving them more studies than are absolutely necessary causes them to forget that object.
Call to Dependence
The verse is the soul cry of owned weakness in which strength lies, refusing to go forward unless God goes along. It is casting away all confidence in the arm of flesh, crying to God for help, clinging with firm grasp to Jesus, and working out salvation with fear and trembling. Such conscious weakness and self-distrust fits character for the society of heavenly angels and for working with the Spirit.
God's people should not feel free to go forward in Christian labor and spiritual conflict without assurance and evidence of His presence. His presence brings the divine help and power needed for the work, and is the essential condition for going onward. In trouble, discouragement and perplexity they must go directly to Christ Jesus the Fountain Head for strength instead of reaching out to human agencies for strength, for God does not want His workers to meet the opposition Satan devises without His presence. Receiving that presence gives what is needed to carry God's goodness to the world, and makes it one's constant need in every place and task.
It is an earnest prayer for divine accompaniment, that Jesus be with the person and that the presence of the Lord go along. It is prayed when traveling to work in another portion of the field, asking not to be sent up without it. No work for souls can be done without God's presence and power going along, so believers now must pray the same prayer with the same faith as Moses, who said he could not go before the people unless God went with him and was answered that He would go with him. They must seek God earnestly to walk through their midst with power to impress hearts, feeling they stand on the borders of the eternal world to gather rays of divine glory and press back the darkness enshrouding souls.
It means praying for God's presence to go with His people above everything else, willing to lose property, worldly honor, and everything rather than go without it. It calls for being on the Lord's side wholly, not half-heartedly, for half-hearted, indifferent, careless work separates the soul from Jesus, the source of strength. It is safe to be wholly on the Lord's side, for it is always safe to commit the keeping of the soul to God who reigns over all heaven and earth. His infinite wisdom and power are exerted in behalf of souls purchased by the Saviour's blood, the heavenly host fight their battles for them and look with intense interest upon them, seeing the value of the human soul through Christ's sacrifice.