Morning Meditation

The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.” Exodus 34:5-9 This was part of my Bible reading this morning. It is a wonderful passage that I have preached on in the past. At its heart is speaks about our awesome God. He is a covenant keeping God who is merciful, gracious, loving and faithful among other wonderful attributes. Yet, just because God is all of these, does not mean that he is not just. He will by no means clear the guilty. As I considered this once again, I realized that it is a call to myself and all people. We are guilty sinners in ourselves. We cannot stand on our own before the court of God expecting that he will clear us because we tried to make up for our sins with some half-hearted "good" works. God will by no means clear the guilty who come this way. The only hope we have is to come God's way. The way he has provided so that he can exercise his mercy, and forgiveness. Thankfully, God has provided this way through his Son Jesus Christ. He is the one who provides all we need through His perfect obedience which fully fills all the requirements of God's law. He is the one who willingly took the curse and punishment our guilt deserved upon Himself, suffering the suffering, facing the hell, and dying the death of punishment for all who trust in him. In doing that He brought the perfect justice of God and the perfect forgiveness of God together, showing how God can be just and merciful at the same time. What a wonderful Saviour is Jesus the Lord. In light of all this Moses response seems so very appropriate. We read, "And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”" How can I not bow down and worship our most holy God? How can you not worship? What further caught my eye was Moses prayer. It convicted me as a pastor. He said, "If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance." I guess some might take him to task in calling the people stiff-necked, but I know who I am and you know who you are. We are a stiff-necked people. If you are a pastor you realize that is true about not only yourself, but those you have been called to minister with. We may complain about that often. Yet how often do we bow before God and plead, even though we are a stiff-necked people, that God would go in our midst? How often doe we plead for God to wash us and those in our care of all our unrighteousness? How often do we plead with God to make us and those stiff-necked people we pastor, His inheritance? I know that I don't pray that way as often as I should. Before the word of God I stand convicted. Do you? It is only as God goes in our midst that we will be the people God has called us to be. All the conferences, programs, and plans in the world will come to nothing if God is not in our midst. It is only as God washes us clean of all unrighteousness that we will shine forth as lights in this world of darkness. Only then will people who do not know God start to see Him though his people. It is only as God make us his inheritance, His beautiful portion, that we will be moved from the wilderness to the promised land. The challenge to me is to stop saying prayer is important, and to start living out that truth and pray. That is the challenge to you as well, for all the great works of God start with prayer. If you are a pastor, and are discontent with the people God has put under your care finding them stuborn and intractable; remember who God is and bow down before Him. Don't simply complain, instead pray God to be in the midst of your congregation. Then all the plans and programs will bear the fruit that He gives.