“Teach me your ways so I may know you”

Who in the whole history of humanity knew God like Moses did? Who had God call to them personally by name, for instance, from a bush on fire that didn’t burn up in Exodus 3:2-4? Who had God express his own personal concerns like he did to Moses in verses 7 to 9? Who had God personally tell them in his own voice, “I will be with you” (12)? And to whom did God first reveal his own name and the meaning of it (13-14)? 

And who had deep and detailed conversations with God like Moses did all through thirty chapters in Exodus, including a strong appeal to God by Moses to not destroy the Israelites, which God agreed to (32:11-14)? And who had “the Lord speaking to him face to face, like a man speaks with his friend” in Exodus 33:11? 

Moses came to know God in an extraordinary way, and look at the effect it had on him. From being a timid man afraid of what God was asking him to do (4:10-13), he became so angry at the Israelites for not doing what God had asked them to do, that with no fear whatsoever he actually smashed the very tablets that God with his own hand had inscribed his laws on (32:19). How bold was that?

From timid to bold, then, Moses’ relationship with God had transformed him. And what he learnt about God along the way was extraordinary too. He knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of God’s “burning” anger (4:14), including God wanting to kill him (4:24). But he also experienced God’s encouragement (4:14-16), and the huge elation of God doing the impossible, freeing the Israelites as he’d promised from the most powerful genocidal tyrants on the planet. 

So why, having experienced all these things about God already – about his power, his utter faithfulness to his promises, and his deep love and concern for his people – did Moses then say to God in Exodus 33:13, “If I have found favour in your eyes, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favour with you”?

Well, since everything else in Moses’ life up to this point had been God’s doing, then this must’ve been God’s doing too – which was bring Moses’ mind into sharp focus, that the most important thing we humans can experience in our lifetime is a very real and always present God revealing himself and his love for us. Because as Moses came to realize: “Life is nothing without God’s presence”….(next blog)