And the Lord said unto Moses, Depart,
and go up hence, you and the people . . . for I will not go up in the midst of you;
for you are a stiffnecked people: lest I consume you in the way. Exodus 33:1, 3
God’s
reply to Moses is in effect, “I have given this promise to these people, that
they shall go to that land of promise, that land of Canaan, which is flowing
with milk and honey. And, therefore, I tell you now, you lead them up. You take
them to the land of promise. In view of what they have done, I am no longer
coming up with you.”
That,
then, is the position. And what is of such great interest to us is the reaction
of Moses and the Church to this. This is always the first stage in revival. You
see the position they were in—their sin, God’s pronouncement, God’s judgment
upon it. And the first stage, the first step, in revival is, as we see here, a
realization of the position.
These
people who had rebelled and turned their backs on God, who had blasphemed His
name and had criticized His servant Moses, who had caused Aaron to make the
calf and had worshiped it, and who had sinned, suddenly they were stopped
short. They realized something, at any rate, of the situation they were in. Now
obviously this is a matter of final importance. There is no hope of revival apart
from this. It is an awakening to the situation. It is an awareness of the
implications of what God has said: “He is going to withdraw His presence from
us, and He has done so. The cloud has disappeared. The pillar of fire is no
longer in evidence. God said He would withdraw, and God has withdrawn.” There
is a consciousness and a realization of His displeasure. I defy you to read the
history of the revivals—you will find at once that without a single exception
this always happens.
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