If You Don't Go
12 Moses said to the LORD, "See, you have said to me, 'Bring up this people'; but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.' 13 Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people." 14 He said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." 15 And he said to him, "If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people, unless you go with us? In this way, we shall be distinct, I and your people, from every people on the face of the earth." 17 The LORD said to Moses, "I will do the very thing that you have asked; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name." (Exodus 33:12-17)
Leading the people of Israel out of Egypt and through the wilderness was a continuous struggle, but Moses was wise enough and humble enough to realize that any journey without God is pointless. Moses boldly shared his misgivings with God - telling God that he didn't feel that God had given him enough information to go forward - then boldly proclaiming that he and the people would not move unless God went with them. While not specifically addressing Moses' initial complaint, God got to the heart of Moses' fear - assuring Moses of God's presence, peace, favor, and intimate relationship.
We sometimes take for granted God's presence and the blessing of a one-on-one relationship with the Divine. For some of us, it's second nature to cry out to God in prayer or praise and know that we are heard, and that is a true gift, but we forget that it has not always been so and for many it remains a foreign concept. Moreover, it is an incredibly mature faith that can confidently express to God, "If you don't go with me, I won't go." Are we willing to remain in a place of discomfort, challenge, or uncertainty until we know how God is leading us? Can we refuse to try to fix it, fret about it, or numb ourselves through various forms of self-medication (food, drugs, alcohol, mindless streaming, etc.)?
Similarly, in Matthew 22, Jesus encourages us to say, "If it's not for God, it's not for me". The Pharisees asked Jesus if the people should pay taxes - believing that, rather he said yes or no, he'd offend and upset someone. Jesus simply asked whose image was on the coin used to pay those taxes. When they answered that the coin bore the image of the emperor, Jesus said that, therefore, it belonged to the emperor. They did not need to withhold what wasn't theirs to claim.
May we diligently seek and humbly yield to God's presence and leading, and may we - with grace - release our claim on anything that's not for God and God's purposes.
17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?" 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin used for the tax." And they brought him a denarius. 20 Then he said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?" 21 They answered, "The emperor's." Then he said to them, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." (Matthew 22:17-21)
