The Tent Outside

How much of what you ask God for would be safe for Him to give you? Moses asked for three things in this chapter, just after the golden calf. God had said He would send an angel ahead of the people but would not go among them Himself: "for I will not go up in the midst of thee." So Moses pitched a tent "without the camp," and there "the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend." Two of Moses' requests were granted. The third was refused, with something else given in its place, and the refusal came from the same Friend.

So pray it after him, and keep his order. "Shew me now thy way, that I may know thee," because I have been told to lead these people, and I have not been told who is coming with us. Lord, "consider that this nation is thy people." I did not make them, and I cannot carry them. "If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." I would rather stay where I am with You than arrive anywhere without You.

Then comes the request that went too far: "I beseech thee, shew me thy glory." The answer was no: "Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live." Instead God gave him a cleft in the rock, His hand covering Moses while His glory passed by, and a sight of His back.

And before Moses asked for anything he could not have, he had already been given one sentence: "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." In Hebrew, "presence" there is the word for face. It was made to a man leading people who had just been dancing around a calf, with no condition about how good the crowd would be. Lord, You promised Moses that Your face would go with him, even when he could not see Your face. Go with us too, and give us Your rest. Amen.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 351 is Mountains Around Jerusalem (Psalm 125:2).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two