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I Will Not Go With You (Exodus 33:1-11) I. The Lord Declared II. The People Responded
Whenever there are sins, there will be serious consequences. The children of Israel had built and worshiped the golden calf, and because of that, the instigators or main people involved were killed—about 3,000 of them—and the others had to experience a devastating plague. But God is a covenant-keeping God, and He will not break His promises. The children of Israel would still enter the Promised Land. The question is not whether they would enter the Promised Land, but how they would enter it.
Take a moment and consider our lives. We believe that once we are saved, we are always saved. We will not lose our salvation. Jesus said, "No man can pluck you out of my hand." (John 10:28). Ultimately, we will enter into our Promised Land, which is heaven. There’s no doubt about that. But the question is how we will enter it—the hard way or the way that is filled with blessings.
That is what will happen to believers who disobey God and His Word. They may be true believers, but whenever they sin, they go astray and drift away from God. They may not lose their eternal salvation, but they will lose their spiritual blessings, of which the most precious is the presence of God in their lives. They may still arrive at their final destination, but as they go through this earthly life, it will be a path that is filled with miseries, sadness, heartaches, pains, and consequences they have to face due to their sins, disobedience, and foolish decisions they have made along the way.
This is what we want to consider from today’s passage in Exodus 33:1–11. The title of our message is: "I Will Not Go With You."
Our First Point: The Lord Declared
Beginning with verse one of Exodus chapter 33:
"And the Lord said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it."
So God commanded Moses, who was the leader of the children of Israel, to lead the people into the Promised Land.
Verse two:
"And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite."
The children of Israel not only had Moses, their leader, but they also had the angel to help them defeat the inhabitants of the land—the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. This was an ordinary angel, and angels were spiritual beings vested with power given to them by God. No human being or nation would be able to fight against the angels who were sent as God’s messengers.
Up to this point, everything seems well and good. After all, they had Moses as their leader and the angel to help them defeat the enemies. God would still keep His promises, which He gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They would enter the Promised Land, and it was described as "a land flowing with milk and honey."
But here is the problem. Look at the second part of verse three:
"For I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way."
It does not mean that God could not control His anger here. It meant that God had kept His part of the covenant, which He had made with their forefathers, to be their God. But they had broken their part of the covenant, which they promised to keep—to be His people—by breaking His commandments. They had separated themselves from Him. They had proven themselves to be a "stiffnecked people."
In those days, the masters would put a yoke or burden on the animal’s neck and then direct it to plow the land. Sometimes, there would be certain animals that would refuse to wear the yoke or refuse to move. That is the picture of a stiffnecked animal. Using this imagery to describe the children of Israel, God was saying they are a stubborn group of people who refuse to bow their heads and wear the yoke of obedience to Him.
Basically, stiffnecked people are stubborn. They always think they are right and never admit they are wrong. They refuse to listen to good spiritual counsel. If they ask for advice, they do not follow it and just go ahead with their own plans anyway.
Oftentimes, God will use the situations and circumstances of life—like trials, sufferings, and afflictions—to teach His people spiritual lessons, like the way the yoke or burden was used to break the animals’ will. But when the stiffnecked people go through the trials, they would murmur and complain and even blame God. They never learn anything. They never change. They never grow. And the saddest part of it is that they don’t even realise it.
Dear friend, are we a stiffnecked people? If we seek biblical counsel from the Bible or from people who have the spiritual authority to teach us the Word of God faithfully, then we must follow it. If we are wrong and we are being corrected, we must repent and change. If we go through certain trials, instead of murmuring and complaining, the first thing we need to ask ourselves is: What spiritual lessons can I learn from this situation? You and I must never be a stiffnecked people.
Take a moment and consider what it means when God said, "For I will not go up in the midst of thee." Remember, God had promised to dwell in the midst of the people, and this was represented by the tabernacle, which was located in the centre of the Israelites’ camp. That was the reason why He gave them specific instructions on how the tabernacle ought to be built.
So this would mean the plans for the tabernacle would be put on hold. They would move into the Promised Land without the tabernacle. Without the tabernacle, there will be:
- No altar for sacrifice,
- No brass basin for cleansing,
- No lampstand for light,
- No table of shewbread,
- No incense for prayer,
- No ark for atonement, etc.
In other words, the divine presence of God would not be in their midst. It does not mean that God was not omnipresent—they were always in His presence, and nothing could escape His eyes—but His presence, His blessings, His empowerment, His glory would not be with them. In a sense, it would be a life without God.
Without the sacrifices offered in the tabernacle, whenever they sinned, they would be consumed or destroyed.
How can we apply this truth into our lives? Whenever we sin against God, we are going against the commandments of God, right? God’s Word says, "Don’t do this or that," but we choose to do it anyway.
- We must not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, yet we choose to marry the unbeliever.
- We must never take the job that requires us to work on Sundays and stop coming to church for worship, yet we choose to accept the job.
- We must never associate ourselves with sinful and immoral friends that will cause us to compromise our faith, yet we choose to continue the friendship.
Whenever people do that, they will say, "Well, I have been married to an unbeliever, or I took the job that required me to work on Sundays, or I have associated myself with ungodly friends, but look at me—everything is still good. In fact, I’m not only surviving, I am flourishing. I am as well as it can be. My house is getting bigger, my bank account is increasing even as we speak, and I have been promoted to a higher position."
Well, remember this: God is not with you in all your endeavours. Physical prosperity means nothing—it does not equate to God’s presence or blessings. And oftentimes, what may appear to be a blessing is rather a curse in disguise. Physically, you may appear to be doing well, but spiritually, you will not be blessed.
Like the children of Israel who would enter the Promised Land, God may allow us to continue in our disobedience, foolishness, and stubbornness, and in the wrong path we choose to take. As one theologian said, God is like saying to us, "Well, go ahead. You will go, but without Me."
A life without the presence of God is empty, vanity, and meaningless. And this is exactly what the devil wants us to believe:
- "You should have left the church long ago. Those people there are a bunch of hypocrites."
- "You should have stopped obeying the commandments of God. Those are just burdens meant to enslave you."
- "Look at yourself now—without God, you are still making money, going for holidays, your job is secured, your retirement plans are in place, your children are doing well in school, you are in good health. You are doing just as well, if not better, without God."
Dear friend, let us ask ourselves this question: If given a choice—we can have a life with many physical things: wealth, material possessions, great accomplishments, marriage, family, and children—but it will be a life without God; or, will we choose a life with God, whether with or without those physical things? What will we choose?
The children of Israel knew better than that. They could have chosen to move ahead and enter the Promised Land with Moses as their leader and the angel to help them defeat the inhabitants of the land. But they knew that the whole purpose of the Exodus was not only to bring them out of slavery from Egypt but to draw them closer to God.
So it didn’t matter if they were to enter the Promised Land. For God to say, "I will not go up in the midst of thee," that was like the end of the road. They didn’t want to be led by Moses or even an angel—they wanted to be led by God Himself. Period. And that was all that mattered.
Will you and I be able to say the same thing? "God, it doesn’t matter even if I have all these physical, material things. I want You. I want You to be with me, to guide and lead me at every step of the way." I pray that all of us will be able to say that.
Our Second Point: The People Responded
Look at verse four:
"And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments."
The word "evil" means bad or distressing, and the word "tidings" means words or news. In other words, when they heard this bad news—"God is not going to be with us; He will not go up in the midst of us"—they were grieved in their hearts, and no one put on his or her ornaments or jewellery.
Some people think that this putting away of their jewellery was only a sign of grief—like in a funeral service, the people would remove all their jewellery and grieve for the loss of their loved ones. I believe this was more than just a sign of grief—it was a sign of repentance.
Because the next verse, verse five, says:
"For the Lord had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee."
Why would God consume or destroy them because of the ornaments?
"Therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee."
The command to put off their ornaments tells us there was something about the ornaments. That is the reason why some theologians believe that these ornaments had to do with idolatry—perhaps something they wore on their necks. If this is true, then they were truly a stiffnecked people, because even at this point in time, they were still wearing the ornaments of idolatry. And God said, "Put off or strip off your ornaments, otherwise I would destroy you."
Verse six:
"And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb."
When the people realised their sins, they immediately got rid of the things that caused them to sin. The word in its original language, "strip off," was a permanent stripping off and never to return to it again. It was a genuine sign of repentance.
Previously, they had used their gold and jewellery to make the golden calf, which drew them away from God. Now, they were taking off their gold and jewellery to draw closer to Him. Later on, they would use their gold and jewellery to build the tabernacle for God’s glory.
So the knowledge of sin led them to repentance. But the children of Israel did not know if God would go with them or if they would go without Him.
Verse seven:
"And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp."
The word "tabernacle" means a tent or a tent of meeting. This tent of meeting was not the tabernacle, because at this point in time, the tabernacle had not yet been built. The instructions were given, but the clearest indication was that the tabernacle was located in the centre of the Israelites’ camp, while this tent of meeting was outside the camp—far outside.
It had to be far away from the camp because the camp was still a place of sin, and God would not dwell in it. So if the people wanted to consult God, they would have to go outside the camp.
This tells us how devastating sin was. Sin had separated the people from God. But God was a loving God who wanted the people to draw close to Him, so He made a way for them by having a tent of meeting outside the camp.
Let us move on to verses 8 to 11:
"And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle."
The pillar of cloud represented the presence of God, "and the Lord talked with Moses."
Verse 10:
"And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door."
In other words, that was as far as they could go. They could only worship God at a distance.
Finally, verse 11:
"And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle."
So Moses went back and forth from the tabernacle and into the Israelites’ camp, delivering whatever God would want him to speak. Only Joshua was with him, since both of them had not participated in the golden calf worship.
The phrase "face to face" does not mean Moses could see God, because in verse 20, God said, "There shall no man see Me, and live." It simply means to have an intimate fellowship and communion with God—and God spoke to Moses directly, like the way a man would do to his friend.
Here, we can see how the knowledge of sin led the children of Israel to repent, and their repentance led them to worship the Almighty God—howbeit from afar off and through Moses, the mediator.
Dear friend, this reminds us of our salvation. Our salvation begins with the knowledge of sin. We realise we have sinned, and there’s a price to pay for sin—the wages of sin is death: physical, spiritual, and eternal death—which leads us to repent of our sins and turn to the Mediator, the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ.
This blessing of repentance leads us to:
- The blessing of forgiveness—being pardoned of all our sins,
- The blessing of justification—being declared righteous in the sight of God,
- The blessing of adoption—receiving the rights and privileges of being a child of God (we can call upon God, "Abba, Father"),
- The blessing of sanctification—growing in godliness,
- The blessing of perseverance—pressing on with God to the very end (we will not give up; we will press on),
- And ultimately, the blessing of glorification—being in our glorified body to be with God forever and ever.
All this begins with the knowledge of sin—the conviction in our hearts—which leads us to repent. But the great difference is that when we believe in Jesus Christ for salvation, He calls us His friends.
Do you realise that Jesus said in John 15:13–15:
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you."
Jesus is our most wonderful Friend who laid down His life. He was crucified on the cross, shed His precious blood, died for us, and rose again from the dead on the third day. And the risen Saviour calls us His friend the moment we believe in Jesus.
He sent His Spirit into our hearts to tabernacle in us. The Holy Spirit dwells in us. Remember, Romans 8:9 says:
"If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His."
Every believer has the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of Christ—indwelling in him, tabernacling in him.
Today, we speak to Jesus not as a stranger, but as a most wonderful Friend. We do not need to be afraid. We can speak to Him at any time, in any situation, and in any place.
- We do not need to go at a distance.
- We do not need to go to a particular place like a church or a cathedral.
- We do not need to go through a pastor or a preacher.
We go straight to Him.
Whenever you and I sin against God, the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of Christ—will convict our hearts through the Word of God. Why? Because Christ does not want us to experience a life filled with misery, pain, and heartaches. He wants us to repent of our sins, be forgiven, and then experience His presence at every moment of our lives.
He wants us to have an intimate fellowship and communion with Him. He knows that sin will drift us away from Him, but He longs for us to draw nigh unto Him so that He will communicate with us directly through His Spirit and through His Word.
And our Lord Jesus Christ will not say to us, "Well, go ahead. I will not go with you." But rather, He will say to us, "I will go with you—in whatever situations, in whatever trials, tribulations, and afflictions. I will always be with you."
And that is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
I pray that all of us must understand this seriousness of sin. Sin separates us from God. Whenever we sin, we will go astray, and we will drift away from the Almighty God. God does not want that to happen. He wants us to come nigh unto Him. So we must repent and turn to Him. He will forgive us—no matter what sins we have committed. He is ever faithful and righteous. When we confess our sins, He will forgive us, and He will draw us close to Himself.
"I will go with you."
Let Us Pray
Our Father in heaven, we give Thee thanks for this opportunity to consider this portion of Scriptures—to learn of how the children of Israel, in the time of the Exodus, how they had sinned against Thee in building and worshipping the golden calf. They had not kept their part of the covenant to be Thy people, but Thou art always faithful to keep Thy covenant. And they would still go into the Promised Land.
But there are consequences for their sins, and for that reason, God said to them, "I will not go up in the midst of thee."
Oh Lord, if Thou wilt not go with us, how can we move on? What is a life without Thee? It is a life that is empty, meaningless, and full of vanity. Material blessings cannot take Thy place. Even if Thou would remove all the physical, material things from our lives, but we can have a life with Thee, we would rather choose to have a life with Thee.
A life with the Almighty God is the most precious thing we can ever have on this earth. Oh Lord, help us that we not only know this truth or cherish this truth, but also to live out this truth in our lives. And we long to hear Thou wilt say to us, "I will go with thee."
If Thou wilt go with us, then there will be no fear. Nothing will stop nor hinder us—if only Thou wilt go with us.
We give Thee thanks, and we pray all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.