His face (panim)...

Exodus 33:18 “And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.”

 I think about Moses compared to Adam and Eve.  Unlike them, Moses is a man that is doing the will of his Father, yet is leading a people that are stiff-necked and have turned away from YHVH.  Due to their sins (sins of the people), YHVH’s panim (face) is turned away from Moses.  This obviously foreshadows Yeshua and the cross.  As I compare these two situations, I wonder at the magnitude of pain that is felt by both Moses and Yeshua…both suffering for the sins of a people, both at that moment being rejected by YHVH.  I can’t comprehend the pain.  I can’t feel the over-whelming sense of despair that they felt as His panim was turned away.  I think about the comfort I find in Him (as one who hasn’t seen His panim), the solace I find in His arms, and then I imagine His turning away.  The vast sea of rejection, the falling from His arms…  Desolate, abandoned, forsaken…    I don’t bask in His presence enough.  I don’t appreciate His loving presence enough.  I don’t feel the magnitude of Yeshua’s sacrifice enough.  I should feel it every moment of every day.  I should thank YHVH every moment for His grace and mercy…that I have felt, and still feel, the freedom to worship Him…in the open, during the day when the sun can shine on my face.  So many people in our world today do not have the blessing of freedom of worship.  My prayers are not with them often enough. 

I am humbled today, humbled by YHVH’s love for me. 

Thank You, Father…for it…all.  Thank You for the Bible that I have studied this morning.  Thank You for time with You.  My thoughts and prayers are with all of your people today that aren’t blessed with freedom…the freedom that knowing You brings and the freedom to worship You after they have found You. 

Are we a set-apart people? Really?

"For how else is it to be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people, other than by your going with us? That is what distinguishes us, me and your people, from all the other peoples on earth.” Exodus 33:16 

Are we really a set-apart people? Do we, as a people, mingle the Holy with the profane?

I already felt YHVH's leading on how very, very important the golden calf incident was and the correlation to today.  Everything that went on then was mixing and mingling...of the Holy and the profane. They took something they knew (that was pagan in origin) and mixed it with Him.  Exodus 32:5-6 says, “And when Aaron saw it, he built an alter before it (golden calf); and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast to YHVH.  And they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings…”  They did all this (using the culture that they grew up with) for YHVH…not to worship another god.  No, they mixed the profane (pagan) with the Holy.  And, what did YHVH say?  Exodus32:8-10 says, “They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy might ones, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.  And, YHVH said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiffnecked people.  Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.”

 The turning away from Moses (and His Torah) was the basis of the mixing and mingling. I am in awe of how YHVH shows us the exact path we are to follow (narrow is the gate – Matt. 7:14) and then shows us how His people moved away from it (for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction – Matt. 7:13). He showed us exactly what (and how) we are to live. But, even today there are many "golden calves" in Christianity and few see the correlation. I realize that even then (in Exodus) that they didn't realize that there was anything wrong with their worship, anything wrong with the mixing and mingling. After Moses came down from the mountain, did they really understand and believe that Moses was right and that they had really done anything wrong? Or, did they think "it's what's in my heart" that matters?  (“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9)  

History repeats itself…again and again.  We must test everything we see and hear against His word and His truth!

I am completely and totally in love with YHVH!!!! And, I am so very thankful that He loved me first!