Receiving and Giving from the Lord Jesus by His Spirit

The people formed an idol and gave it glory while Moses was up on the mountain meeting with God. Afterwards, God said to Moses, “I will send My Angel before you… I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” [1]

“When the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments.” [2]

Next, “Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp.” [3]

The Holy Spirit reminded me of a New Testament reference to this passage, “The bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.” [4]

God atoned for sin outside the camp because atonement involved bloodshed and death. Thus, Christ, suffered outside the camp. It is God’s grace that His Son would become an outsider for us so we could become insiders with God.

“Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His Name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” [5]

We also should go outside the camp. Outside the four walls of our gathering places to do good and share because God is well pleased with such sacrifices! Heaven is our home. Earth is just a temporary mission field for us.

“So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door. So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend...” [6]

The people showed reverence to God by standing at their tent doors when Moses met with God. They worshiped God when they saw the cloudy pillar of God’s presence above the tabernacle. Reverence and worship towards God are commendable traits, but how much better when we meet with God face to face and endeavor to be His faithful friend.

Moses prayed, “If I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.” The Lord responded to his request, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” [7]

There is rest for the soul and peace that passes all understanding in God’s presence.

Moses wanted God’s presence. He prayed, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So, we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.” [8]

The Lord’s presence in our lives is what makes us unique among all people.

Jesus said to His disciples, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.” [9]

Jesus with us [Emmanuel] is the authority by which we speak. Jesus with us is the rubber stamp of God’s approval on our ministry. Jesus empowers and guides us in our discipleship efforts among the nations. His presence with us is the constant that we need to bring people that are outside the camp into the camp, and to baptize them in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and then, to disciple them.

Moses prayed, “Please, show me Your glory.” [10]

The Lord agreed! “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the Name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live. Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.” [11]

God reveals Himself to those who seek Him. And what do we learn when we meet with God? We learn that He is good, gracious and compassionate. Jesus Christ revealed God to us in the Gospels by doing among us what was good, gracious and compassionate.

Previously, after the people formed an idol and gave it glory, Moses was angry and broke the stone tablets that had the Ten Commandments on them. So, the Lord asked Moses to make two new tablets, and to write on them the commandments. [12]

While Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments for a second time, “The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the Name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for 1,000’s, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.’” [13]

Mary alluded to this passage in her song of praise to the Lord when she sang, God’s “mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.” [14]

God proclaimed His Name to Moses because only in His Name is there salvation. No one else’s name has the power to save from death and give eternal life.

God is merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abounding in goodness and truth. If we don’t know God in this way, we don’t know God well. He forgives iniquity (unfairness), transgressions (crossing lines) and sin (missing the mark). He shows mercy to thousands but will not say someone is innocent when they are not (by no means clearing the guilty). Without believing in Christ, without receiving the Holy Spirit, we are guilty because we have not received the means by which God makes us right.

“Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I am driving out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.” [15]

The Lord presence with us is an attention grabber. A people influencer! People see God’s work in our lives. God drove out the practitioners of evil spirit activities before His people. God drives out evil spirits by His Spirit. He clears the land of our soul from that which kept us from knowing and loving Him. We read about this in the testimony of Mary Magdalene. “Certain women [were with Jesus] who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities—Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons.” [16]

“When Moses came down from Mount Sinai… Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.” The people were afraid to come near him. Afterward when they did, he gave them as commandments all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.” [17]

The Lord references this miracle in His letter to the Corinthians, saying, “Clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.” [18]

God meets with us and dwells within us by His Spirit. He gives to us His Word: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” [19]

If we only had the letters of the Bible and no Holy Spirit, we would misunderstand, misinterpret and misinform our listeners about God, but we do have the Holy Spirit. The Spirit helps us to explain the Word of God accurately.

Moses had the ministry of death, that is the Law, which condemns sinners, yet his face shined for God as he spoke what God gave him to say. “If the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.” [20]

We have the ministry of righteousness because whosoever believes in Christ is made righteous from all things that the Law of Moses condemned us for doing. Christ takes our sins away and fills us with His Spirit so we can live a new life full of God’s grace, love and peace.

“When one turns to the Lord, the veil [between the person and God] is taken away.” [21]

“We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” The key to transformation is to meet with God via His Word and by His Spirit. [22]

[1] Exodus 33:2-3
[2] Exodus 33:4
[3] Exodus 33:7
[4] Hebrews 13:11-12
[5] Hebrews 13:13-16
[6] Exodus 33:8-11
[7] Exodus 33:13-14
[8] Exodus 33:15-16
[9] Matthew 28:18-20
[10] Exodus 33:18
[11] Exodus 33:19-23
[12] Exodus 34:1-4, 28
[13] Exodus 34:5-7
[14] Luke 1:50
[15] Exodus 34:10-11
[16] Luke 8:2
[17] Exodus 34:29-32
[18] 2 Corinthians 3:3
[19] 2 Corinthians 3:5-6
[20] 2 Corinthians 3:7-9
[21] 2 Corinthians 3:17
[22] 2 Corinthians 3:18