January 23, 2024

Exodus 33.16, 17 (NIV)
“How will anyone know that you are pleased with me . . . unless you go with us?  What else will distinguish me . . . from all the other people on the face of the earth?” And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”

God answers prayer when our life choices radiate from our faith.*

How could God and Moses be having this conversation? Remember back in the desert when Moses was like, “Who me?” and God was like, “Who made your mouth?” (Exodus 3.11 and 4.11)

These verses are rich in meaning on more than one level. There’s the literal: it’s a conversation between God and Moses. And there’s the spiritual/personal: how it applies to us. On the literal level, we see Moses asking God to manifest himself in such a way that the world will know that God is pleased with him. God admits that he is pleased with Moses and agrees to fulfill Moses’ request.

For our personal application, I see two blessings and a promise. Let us beg for the first blessing: that God be pleased with us. And then let us be thankful for the second blessing: that he knows us by name and by heart.

Finally, let us claim the promise that God will do the very thing we have asked so that the world will know that he is pleased with us, and to distinguish us from all the other people in the world. And what was it that God gave Moses? What sets us apart from the rest of the world except God’s presence?

What is to His glory is always to our good.*

*Quote sources available upon request.