Where is God when you are feeling lonely?

Maybe you're going through a tough time and you're facing uncertain an future, where is God in all of that? As you face perhaps a new avenue in life, where is God when you're perhaps afraid? We continue in Exodus 23: 20-33. If you've been following in the series in Exodus that we're going to skip verses 10 through 19, because they deal with Sabbath laws and the three annual festivals. We'll look at those topics later. Exodus 23:20-33 says:

“See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out.Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces. Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span. “I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land. “I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you. Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.”

Here we are looking at the great comfort that Jesus is always with us as His people. I don't know if you sometimes feel lonely. Perhaps you wonder where God is, especially as you encounter difficult situations. That is the context in which this passage arises. The people had left Egypt. They'd come to the Mountain of God. God had given them the laws that He wanted them to have as they went into the new land. They were preparing to go where God was sending them. However, there was this uncertainty: how would they go? What would it be like? Are they alone in this whole process?

God immediately addresses those fears and He reminds them that He will send His angel with them. He promises to be with them always, just like Jesus did when He left us. He promised never to leave us, nor forsake us. He promised to be with us to the very end of the age (Matthey 28:20). Here we see a pe-view picture of the fact that Jesus is always with God's people.

It starts off speaking about the angel of God. God promises to send His angel ahead of His people to the Promised Land. An angel is a spirit that ministers and serves God, as well as us sometimes. God sends them to help us. We are told here of an angel that comes to lead the people. If you remember in Exodus, we have already encountered the angel of God in Exodus 3, when God called Moses. Once again, in Exodus 14 the angel of God again dealt with the enemies of Israel. We see the angel of God, in this passage. Here we see a picture of what he does for us, for the angel of the Lord is virtually equivalent. God says, “When I'm with you, my angel is with you, and what he says you must listen to because I am speaking to you.” God's presence with His people, is constantly linked to the angel of God. The appearance of this angel reminds us of God's faithfulness in bringing His redemption to a conclusion. These references about the angel of God in Exodus 14:19-20, are repeated in Exodus 23 here, where they are promised that the angel of God will go ahead of His people, like Jesus goes ahead of us. It is the angel of God's battle and for the sake of Israel He will redeem them as He has redeemed them out of Egypt. He will once again redeem them and take them into the promised land. The angel goes ahead of them to guard them and to bring them safely into Canaan. The angel of God, is God himself with them - to guard and guide them.

The three places where the angel of God is mentioned in this passage in Exodus 23:20-33 is unique. Here God introduces the whole notion of obedience to this Angel. This angel of God is a constant abiding presence of God with the Israelites, and he is there to increase their knowledge of God as well as to guide them. The angel reminds them that God never gives up on His people. In the Old Testament, we repeatedly see the story of God's persistence with these people, even when they failed and disobeyed Him. God continues to work with the rebellious and thankless people. He desires to get to their hearts, to change them into His people. The Old Testament tells us of a God who initiates a relationship with His people and He calls them His own people, the people of God. He will never leave. So, if you're feeling lonely or feel God has left you in uncertain situations. You need to hear the promise of God again, that God will never abandon you. As the angel went ahead of His people, in the same way He promises to be with us.

If you read through the book of Exodus and into the book of Numbers, you will notice there's another picture that's given to us here. That's the picture not only of the angel of God, but of the cloud of God. We also need to look at the cloud of God in the story. There is this picture of a figure of the Angel leading them and the cloud being visible ahead of them. When the cloud rose, they were to follow, and go where the cloud led. The cloud was a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. As the angel moved, so did the cloud of God. God goes with them and the angel moves ahead of them, even as the cloud moves ahead of them and leads them all the way through the desert.

As Israel's story continues, we see even a third figure coming into the picture. Not only is it the Angel and the cloud but the third figure is speaking to His people from the Ark of the Covenant. There from between the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant, God speaks to the people. We have those three images given to us in the story: beautiful pictures of God’s presence with His people. We are reminded that the Ark is the meeting place from which God speaks. It's the place where God gives His commands to His people. The Ark and the Angel both give commands that the people are expected to obey, and both are vehicles through which God speaks to His people. There's the angel, cloud and the Ark of the Covenant and they go ahead of the people. The cloud and the ark are both involved in Israel's continued progress towards Canaan. The ark is closely identified with God Himself, and the ark is a concrete manifestation of God's presence with His people. The Angel, the Ark and the cloud form this complex of figures that share similar roles in Israel's journey. They are a tangible reminder of God's presence with them. The main point is that God goes with them and He is not just with them, He is among them and He is the dominant presence. The pillar of cloud, the Angel and the Ark of the Covenant journey on, so that God's people fulfilling God's plan, all to His honour. Even through a series of misadventures. Finally, we read that the Ark of God comes to rest in the temple that Solomon would build, that is found in 1 Kings 8. That means that the people have settled in the land and the land has been conquered. We constantly see those three pictures given to us, to point us ultimately to Jesus.

A very important issue before we get to look at Jesus, is the issue of obedience. Obedience to the angel refers to Israel's obedience to God in following the angel. Exodus 23:22 says: “If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you.” In other words, what God says and what the angel says are the same. Obedience to the angel is more than simply an issue with the Israelites breaking camp and stopping for the night. The ark, angel and the cloud are all a tangible sign of God's presence with these people, and they are equated with God. When we see them, we're seeing God at work among them. What we see when we come to the issue of obedience is that God blesses obedience and God punishes disobedience. God requires obedience of his people and disobedience will lead even to death. We need to remember that obedience is not a condition for salvation, but obedience is expected of those who are saved. Just as the people were rescued out of Egypt and given the commands, as we've read in the last two weeks. In the same way, now that they are the people of God and have been saved by God, they are to obey. If they disobey then there are going to be consequences, because disobedience will be punished by God. We need to see that that He has an intention to build up His people and if He has to do that through discipline, He will do that as well. Israel will be punished as we will later see in the history of God's people with an exile to Babylon, where Daniel and Esther were. However, God brings back that small shoot, the branch and stump of a nation and again rebuilds His nation of obedient people, the people of God. Obedience is tied with this picture of the angel, the Ark and the cloud.

The second thing I want us to look at in this passage is that all of these three tangible signs point us to Christ Jesus. Christ is like our Angel. He is the One that goes ahead of us like a cloud. He is the One that speaks to us the very words of God, like God spoke from the ark. The angel is still with God's people not just in bygone days in the Exodus story. Jesus is with us, as the Spirit of the risen Christ Jesus who rose from the dead on the third day. Jesus promised never to leave us nor forsake us. Remember that promise in Matthew 28:20 where He said: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Christ now does what the angel did in this passage. This passage is pointing forward to the coming of Jesus. We are reminded that just as the angel was involved in redeeming the people of God, keeping and leading them. Jesus is also involved in redeeming, keeping and leading us. Jesus died for us, in order to save us. Jesus leads us and is with us always and will never leave us. Remember that He guards us and He guides us to this day.

People sometimes use that image of Jesus being our co-pilot, but that's a poor image of Jesus. Jesus is not the co-pilot. Jesus is the pilot of the plane. He is the one flying. He is ultimately responsible. He saves us. He directs and guides us. We are the co-pilots. We sit beside Him and He shows us which knobs and buttons to press, but He is the pilot and we are the co-pilots flying with Christ and soaring on wings like eagles as we go forward. We are to know that He guides us. He is a powerful and capable Saviour. He is a compassionate angel of the Lord to us. He is the wise and wonderful One that is in control. Jesus is your pilot and mine and we need to get out of the Pilot's seat and let Jesus fly and take us to new heights as we trust Him completely.

The reality is we're all facing a great enemy and the enemy is death. Death is sure. Death is the hated enemy, but Christ Jesus has conquered death. To know Christ as our Angel, is a source of an ever deepening comfort for us, so Christ speaks to us as well. Jesus is like the angel in this passage. He is the one that teaches us what God wants us to know. He is not just seated on an ark in a temple, he now is in us by his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit writes God's will and His Covenant law on our hearts that we might know the way of God. The Holy Spirit's role is to maintain that tie between Heaven and Earth - between the Father and you. The Holy Spirit is the One that lives in every single believer. It's the Holy Spirit who calls you His temple in 1 Corinthians 3:17. The Israelites were expected to obey the angel of the Lord, just as you and I are expected to obey Jesus Christ who has saved us. Jesus expects full obedience from us. Christ's obedience on the cross means that our disobedience has been undone and has been forgotten and forgiven, so all the blessings of Jesus’ death become ours. Since we benefit from Christ's obedience now that we are saved by Jesus, we are commanded to obey Jesus.

Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey My commands.” We are commanded to obey as the people of Israel were to obey. They were commanded to obey the angel of God because we are already redeemed. To illustrate let us use the example of anger. If you've been saved by Jesus, yet, you keep having anger issues. Maybe you try anger management courses. God speaks to you, and you excuse it and say: “I'm just a redhead, that's just my nature.” and God says: “No - I’ve come to give you a new nature - to give you a new heart.” He calls you to obedience. If you listen to Him and you cry out to Him, He saves you from anger and gives you peace in the place of anger. You’ll then be victorious. However, if you say: “I can't do anything about it, I've tried all this anger management.” That continued anger can lead to hatred. That hatred leads to road rage perhaps or some issue where you may even murder somebody in a rage and end up in prison. Those are the consequences that go with that anger. God says: “Start at the very beginning, turn from your anger - get rid of all wrath, rage and brawling in your life. Turn to the living Saviour Jesus.” There is no human cure for sin, only Jesus can save us and only Jesus can save us in every area of obedience that he calls us to, whether it's something as simple as nicotine dependency or something like drug addiction, anger issues, jealousy or gossip. Whatever it may be, Jesus calls you to turn to Him and to be obedient to Him as His child. Then the blessings of a long life as this passage says will be yours. That's why the New Testament is full of admonitions to us as Christians to obey. Obedience is the proof that you are a Christian.

There’s a warning in Hebrews 6:4-6 it says: “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.” That's a very sobering verse in the Scriptures We need to remember that true Christians cannot lose their salvation. However, this verse warns us that there is the potential of us falling away and that is a real option in our lives. What should be our response when we encounter sin in our own lives or encounter sin in the lives of others? Should we say “Don't worry, just keep going. You know God loves you. He'll never leave you.” He won't leave you, but He will discipline you. We need to speak sternly to our own hearts, speak sternly to the hearts of others and warn them that they are within a hair's breadth of Satan's hands. We must realize that there is forgiveness of sins and there is never a point of no return, but there is a season for the warnings of God's word. This is a dire warning in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews is written by a pastor with a heart for his church warning them that they are in great danger. The warning of Hebrews 6 is very real, and indeed God's grace abounds to us but God is calling you to obedience.

Perhaps today you know the Holy Spirit's been touching on an issue in your life repeatedly. Don't put it off today. Run to Jesus. Cry out to Him and say: “Save me in this area. Save me from anger. Save me from this addiction. Save me, Lord Jesus that and I may not be destroyed by my own sin and may have a long life and a blessed life even as I eat and drink in this day and age.” We need to see that Christ is like our Angel, He is the one that now ministers to us by His Holy Spirit. He is in every believer and He will never leave you. He will even discipline you if you disobey Him.

Before we leave this passage, I just want to touch on one other issue- the issue of the country promised there. This land that is promised in Exodus 23:31-33, will reach from the river of Egypt in the South, all the way to the river of the Euphrates in the North, from the Mediterranean in the west, to the Jordan and Dead Sea in the east. God will give them all that territory. If you know your history, it took God's people many years to achieve that. The only time in Scripture that we read that territory was part of Israel, was during the reign of Solomon. Soon after the building of the temple, there was a brief period when all of those nations were subject to Solomon as a great and wise king. The Israeli Empire reached from far in the north, to far in the South, and Solomon achieved what God had promised. We know that as they disobeyed, their territory shrank until it was basically Jerusalem. Then they were carried off into Exile and never again to rule that territory, until recently.

We have Israel today, but we need to remember that God has now called us to a new territory. In the New Testament, we read that to the people of Israel that were looking forward to Israel being reinstated, Jesus said: “No I've not come to reinstate Israel as a physical country anymore, I've now come to send you out to all the nations.” We are told to take the good news to everyone. We are to now to leave the promised land, and go to the ends of the Earth, to make all nations part of His kingdom. It's not just a promise in a physical geographical land, this is now a promise that includes the whole world, everywhere. We are to present all the nations to Jesus, who will one day rule all Nations here on Earth. We are to take this message not only to South Africa, but to the ends of the earth to fulfil God's plan to make all nations; His Nations. The whole world belongs to God and we have an obligation as the church. You and I, are the new Israel. We are no longer geographically based. Yet the church is everywhere, in every village, town, city and country of the world. We are to shine for Jesus as His people even to the ends of the Earth. Jesus will come back for us. Every nation is called to bow their knee to Jesus. We need to follow Jesus, listen to His Spirit and obey Him in all that He says. We are being led by a guiding Angel. Jesus Christ by His Holy Spirit is in us, directing us daily. Jesus says in John 14 that He has gone ahead of us to prepare a place for us. We will have a new Heaven and a new Earth, with a the New Jerusalem that will come down from Heaven, and we will dwell with Jesus in that place.

In conclusion we can say that Jesus is the most concrete sign of God's presence. Jesus is the word of God who dwelt among us and we beheld His glory - the glory of the only begotten Son of God. Jesus is God with us. Jesus is now with you by His Spirit. Jesus is come to not only save you through His death on the cross, but to lead you as well. He's the pilot. He's the One directing your path, and he's leading you into a new kingdom. You're in His kingdom already. The kingdom is invisible now. You are like His secret agent in a foreign land. One day we will be with Him in a new Heaven and a new Earth forever. He is the One that's calling us to obedience, and obedience is expected of each and every one of us. We alone need to focus on listening to Jesus and obeying him and his commands. We shouldn’t see his commands as burdensome. His yoke is light, and we are to realize that if we disobey Him, He is going to discipline us. We will get the hiding of our lives if that will bring us to our senses. We are to turn to Jesus, like the angel, Christ guides us and leads us into salvation and from salvation to obedience daily.

Likewise, we now share in the benefits of what Jesus has done. We are saved now, we are to be a greater blessing by obeying what He has said. We then experience a resurrection power, a power that takes a dead body and brings it to life. It is the power that takes our sinful nature that keeps veering off in the wrong direction and gives us the power to obey. He takes our anger and gives us peace. He takes our disobedience and gives us a heart that wants to obey. He changes us, transforms us daily. The kingdom of God is coming and it is coming for you. Jesus invites us to know that He is with you always, no matter what you feel, He will never leave you, nor forsake you. Now obey Him.

Let us pray together: “O Lord Jesus, thank You for what You've done. Some of us need to cry out, “Jesus save me. Save me.” Perhaps for the very first time or save me in a particular area where I've been disobeying You. Transform me today, Lord Jesus. Lord, be the pilot. Fly me to greater heights. Lead me to more wonderful blessings as I go ahead to a full and rich life. Lead me, Lord Jesus I pray, for I ask this in Your powerful name - the name of Jesus. Amen.”

May God bless you, and may you live your life to the glory of God. May He add to you His Spirit of peace, joy and love. To Him be all the glory, now and forevermore, Amen.