Experience God: An Example from the Life of Moses

Scripture: Exodus 33:12-23

One of my favorite songs is “Goodness of God.”  It tells the story of my life. I have seen God’s work and the benefits of a relationship with God throughout my life. I have experienced God's faithfulness even when I was not faithful. I can look back at my life and see God’s hands all over it in big and small ways.

However, I can see how sometimes it can be easy to stick with the status quo, become distracted, and stop seeking to grow and continue to experience God. How about you? Have you found that to be true in your life as well? We live in a world with more distractions than we know what to do with, many of which turn our focus away from God and onto ourselves or other people or things.

Moses is someone who did not stick with the status quo or become distracted. He had seen the goodness of God in many ways throughout his life, including being saved from being murdered shortly after his birth to being raised in the Egyptian palace, which would set him up for God’s call for him to bring His people out of slavery and lead them to the Promised Land. But even with all the great things he had seen God do, including parting the Red Sea, Moses couldn’t get enough of God’s goodness. He wanted more. He wasn’t satisfied with the condition of his relationship with God staying the same as it had been. 

Just prior to the passage we are looking at, Moses was on Mount Sinai talking to God and receiving the Ten Commandments. But while that is happening, the Israelites, with the help of Aaron, make an idol, which breaks their relationship with God. God tells Moses that He will not go with them any longer to the Promised Land but will send an angel instead because if God went with them, He might destroy them.  

Moses asks God to go with them because going without Him would have been pointless. God’s presence made the Israelites a distinct people, and possessing the land separate from God would not have been the same. God agrees to go, and even though Moses has a direct line of communication and a unique relationship with God, he asks to see God’s glory (vs 18).

He wants to know and see more of God’s nature and character. He is not content with his past experiences. He wants his relationship with God to go to the next level. He was thirsty for new experiences with God. He wanted to know and experience all he could of God, and God answered and took their relationship to the next level (19-23).

Moses, the Israelites, and the land would not have been all they were intended to be without the presence of God. You will never be the man or woman God intended for you to be without this ongoing relationship and God’s presence. “For in him we live and move and have our  being…” Acts 17:28 (NIV).

• Do you want to know and see more of God’s nature and character?

  
  

• Are you content with your past experiences of God, or do you crave more?

  
  

• Have you asked God to reveal Himself in a special way to you?  

  
  

• Do you ever feel like everything you do is meaningless, like Moses would have without God’s presence? Have you invited Him to be a part of and speak into your life in new and fresh ways?

  
  

• What practices do you need to start or do more of to do your part in taking your relationship with God to the next level (ex., Bible reading, prayer, joining a small group…)?

  
  

Share what you plan to do to be open to experiencing more of God. It may encourage someone else and give them ideas for what they could do.