My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
God’s presence giving rest
This is a word in season to every one who is weary.
I. In what sense has God said, “My presence shall go with thee”? He is present to the believer as a Friend whose love has been accepted, and whose conversation is understood with all the intelligence of a kindred nature.
II. In what sense does the presence of God give rest?
1. It tends to give rest from the terror incident to a state of condemnation.
2. It gives rest from the anguish which springs from a discordant nature.
3. It gives rest from the cravings of an unsatisfied spirit.
4. It gives rest from the distraction felt amidst uncongenial scenes and associations.
5. It gives rest from the disquietude which results from want of human sympathy.
6. It gives rest from apprehensions regarding the future.
7. The presence of God with us now is the pledge of perfect rest in the next life. (C. Stanford, D. D.)
The pilgrimage of a true life
I. The path of a true life.
1. From captivity to freedom.
2. From scarcity to plenty.
II. The companion of a true life. God’s guiding, succouring, and protecting superintendence.
III. The destiny of a true life. “Rest.” Not inactivity. Harmonious activity is the destiny of the good; activity in harmony with all our powers, with the order of the universe, and with the will of God. (Homilist.)
A gracious promise
I. “My presence shall go with thee.”
1. By the presence of God, we are sometimes to understand His essential presence or ubiquity, which pervades all matter and space, and without which nothing could exist.
2. There is also the providential presence of God, by which He sees the wants, and provides for the necessities of His numerous family.
3. By the presence of God here is meant His gracious presence which He mercifully condescends to manifest in His house, and to reveal to His people.
4. The gracious presence of God is essentially necessary to His people, in order to show them the right way and enable them to walk therein.
5. The gracious presence of God is indispensable to His people to purify them, and make them ready for the heavenly Canaan. If ever we be made “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,” it must be “through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth.”
II. “I will give thee rest.”
1. The rest here mentioned has, undoubtedly, a primary reference to the land of Canaan, in which the people of Israel rested, after the toils, dangers, and fatigue of the wilderness. But then, there is something more implied in the word than this.
2. The people of God enjoy a comparative rest in this present world, inasmuch as they are delivered from the power and pollution of sin, and possess that kingdom of grace which consists of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
3. But there still remaineth a rest for them beyond the confines of the grave, in the participation of that felicity which is at the right hand of the Most High. (B. Bailey.)
God’s presence and rest
I. The journey. The people were in a journeying condition.
1. They had come from Egypt. A land of toil and oppression and misery.
2. They were journeying in the wilderness. A land of drought, sterility, and dangers. They had many trials and enemies. A true picture of the world through which believers are travelling.
3. They were travelling to Canaan. A land promised to their fathers; a land of freedom and rest, of plenty and happiness.
II. The presence. “My presence shall go with thee.” This presence was--
1. Divine.
2. Visible. Pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.
3. Efficient. Not merely Divine recognition and observation, but with them to do all for them they required.
4. Continued. “When flesh and heart fail,” etc. “This God is our God for ever and ever,” etc.
III. The rest. “And I will give thee rest.”
1. The rest of triumph after the conflicts of life.
2. A rest from the toils of wilderness journeyings.
3. A rest from the fears and dangers of the way.
4. A rest from the sufferings and afflictions of life.
5. A rest of eternal and heavenly glory. (J. Burns, D. D.)
God’s gracious presence with His people
I. The nature of the presence. God’s gracious presence with His people is more than His natural attribute of omnipresence.
II. While, however, God is constantly present with His own people, there are certain times in which His presence is specially manifest.
III. The mental states which precede the gift of God’s presence.
1. Earnest prayer.
2. The spirit of mourning and humiliation. (D. Macaulay, M. A.)
God’s presence promised
I. The need of refuge in God from the lives of others. Even in human society at its best the heart has no safe refuge.
II. The prayer of Moses suggests the need of one worn by well-doing. That well-doing brings exhaustion and despondency and so specially needs God’s aid is a fact which we sometimes forget.
III. The prayer of Moses expressed the need of one weighted by the sense of responsibility. He had a great work to do. He who feels little need of God has a low sense of personal responsibility. But he who faces all responsibility and tries to see his life as he will see it when the end of all things has come, has great need of God. To him life becomes a serious thing. For help he will often “lift up his eyes unto the hills,” and will take help from no lower source.
IV. This prayer of Moses received a gracious answer. It was the vision of God. (Willard G. Sperry.)
God’s special presence distinguishes His own people
I. The promised presence of God with His people will, so long as they are favoured with it, produce a wide difference and separation between them and all other men. When God comes to dwell in the soul, He imparts to it a portion, not only of His own views, but of His own feelings. He not only illuminates the understanding with His own light, but, as an apostle expresses it, sheds abroad His love in the heart.
II. That in proportion as God withdraws the manifestations of His presence from His people, this difference and separation between them and other men will diminish. God is the Sun of the soul. When He favours it with His presence and exerts upon it His influence, it is enlivened and enlightened, and made to glow with love, and hope, and joy, and gratitude. But when He withdraws and suspends His influences, spiritual darkness and coldness are the consequence. Then it is night, it is winter with the soul. In proportion as He thus withdraws from His people, they cease to view Him as a present reality; they cease to have those views, and to exercise those affections, which constitute the grand essential difference between them and other men. Nor is this all. As holy affections decline, sinful affections revive. It remains only to make a suitable improvement of the subject.
1. With this view, permit me, in the first place, to say to each individual in this assembly, Do you know experimentally the difference between the presence and the absence of God?
2. Let me improve this subject, by inquiring whether this Church now enjoys the peculiar presence of God, as it once appeared to do? (E. Payson, D. D.)
God’s presence realized
Since God is everywhere, in what sacred and peculiar sense is He present to the believing heart? “Lord, how is it that Thou dost manifest Thyself to us, as Thou dost not unto the world?” The principle on which He does so is illustrated by some of the common facts of life. A man is present to his friend, as he is not to a stranger, though he may be at the same moment speaking to both. The light which floods the landscape with a deluge of beauty is present to him who sees it, as it is not to the blind man walking at his side. Music, though it may ripple round the deafened ear, is only present to him who hears
2. The discourse of the naturalist on his experiments, of the scholar on his books, of the mathematician who is talking with raptures on the beauties of a theorem, will bring things into the presence of initiated listeners, which are still remote from the minds of those in the very same company who have no sympathy with the theme. So, “two women may be grinding at a mill”; “two men may be in the field”; one a believer, the other an unbeliever; and although the Great Spirit is near to them both, there is a sense in which He is present to the one as He is not to the other; for, in the case of the believer, the causes of estrangement have been taken away, a new relation exists, a new life has been born, and God is present as a Friend, whose love has been accepted, and whose conversation is understood with all the intelligence of a kindred nature. Everything we need to secure that peace which the world cannot give is secured by the promise, “My presence shall go with thee,” for that tranquil presence does not merely attend us, it enters the very soul, and sheds its benediction there. Plato seemed to have a glimpse of this glorious truth when he said, “God is more inward to us than we are to ourselves.” What was to Him a beautiful speculation is to us an inspiring reality; for we are the “temples of the Holy Ghost.” He dwells within us as a pitying, purifying friend, to kindle celestial light in our darkness, and by removing the cause of discord, and restoring the equilibrium of the soul, to give us peace at the very seat of life. Ignatius, from his eminent devotion, was called by his companions “The Godbearer”; and when Trajan said to him, “Dost thou then bear the Crucified One in thy heart?” his reply was, “Even so; for it is written, ‘I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’” This honour have all the saints, yet all do not seem to be fully conscious of it. Only let us feel it; only let us own that inward authority, and listen to that inward voice; only let us act in obedience to the suggestions of that “Power that worketh within us to will and to do of His good pleasure,” and we shall find that in proportion as we are actuated by the life of God within us, shall we feel “His peace.” (C. Stanford, D. D.)
Choice food for pilgrims to Canaan
I. What are the benefits of the Divine presence which is here promised?
1. The acknowledgment of the people as being peculiarly the Lord’s.
2. Preservation and protection.
3. Direction and guidance.
4. Real worship in the wilderness. What is bread, what is wine, and what is the table, if the King Himself be not there?
5. Communion with God. He is always ready for fellowship with His people.
II. What are the demands of this presence ?
1. That we rely upon it. Away with fear and melancholy. Treat it as a matter of fact, and be filled with rest.
2. That we use it. Exercise faith in God.
3. Do not lose it. Oh, how reverently, cautiously, jealously, and holily ought we to behave ourselves in the presence of God!
4. Glorify Him all that you possibly can. Seek out those who have lost His company, and go and cheer them.
III. What is the choice blessing which is appended to this presence. “Best”--both now and hereafter. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Alone: yet not alone
I cannot see that this choice of Moses, to walk in God’s way, if but assured of God’s presence, differs in anywise from the choice which that people was called on to make at that moment, and which God is ever pressing upon us all. In considering it in its broad human aspect, I observe--
I. Here are two ways on which the choice is to be exercised--two paths, which very plainly diverge. It is the old, old choice--worldliness, godliness--duty, pleasure--God’s will, self-will--the passions and appetites of the flesh or of the mind, the convictions of conscience and the Word of God.
II. The cry of the human spirit for rest. The longing of man’s spirit amid all these strifes, discords, and confusions, is for rest. Nothing can eradicate man’s conviction that strife and discord have no right in the universe; that they are abnormal; that the normal condition of things and beings is harmony, and that harmony is the music of rest. God must rest--rest even in working; and all that is of God and from God has the longing and the tending to rest.
III. The Divine assurance which was to Moses, and should be to us, an all-sufficient warrant to leave the world and the pleasures of sin and commit ourselves to the desert under God’s guidance, as the path to the heavenly rest. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)
Two kinds of rest
There are two kinds of rest, or rather what goes by the name of rest, within reach of man. The secret of the one is, escape from trouble; the secret of the other is, entering into life. Life is the harmonious balance of conflicting forces, the calm control of all opposite powers. Escape from trouble is not permitted to man, though he thinks it is. It is a wonderful feature in man’s constitution that he can find rest only in his highest, in the full culture and activity of all his powers. He tries to rest in a luxurious home, in a feverish orgy, on a wanton’s breast. But who shall paint the anguish of the rest of the wicked? How many a man has gone out from a scene of uproarious merriment, to blow out his brains, in blank despair! There is no rest but in God. Man rests only in the fulness of his existence, in the completeness of his life. Moses found no rest in communion with earthly natures, but there was rest for him--it bathed his soul like the dewy moonlight the flowers--when he entered into that which is within the veil, and talked “of things unspeakable” with God. Having faith in the Saviour’s power and love, the spirit rests amid the severities of discipline, yea, sleeps sometimes, as Jesus did while the storm was highest; for ever when the danger is imminent, and the foaming surges are parting to engulf their prey, the Divine presence within shines forth around, and immediately there is a great calm, and the spirit rests still. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)
The Divine presence
I. Help comes when most needed. The idolatry of Israel discouraged Moses. So the trials which bring us to God in dependence and prayer, bring the Divine presence and blessing to our aid.
II. The desire of the spiritual mind is the presence of God. “ If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hither.” “Leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.”
III. God supplies this want. “His name shall be called ‘God with us.’” “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” “He shall give you another Comforter that He may abide with you for ever.” The experience of this presence is a joy to be sought and found only in fidelity to God. It restrains from evil and inspires to good works. It gives rest from the uncertainties suggested by unbelief and doubt. It supplies the happiness of assurance and the calmness of peace. (E. W. Warren, D. D.)
God’s presence our rest
Rest must be sought deeper down than in circumstances. It must begin at the centre of our being, and in its accord with the being of God. His presence must be welcome to us and accompany us, or rest is a vain dream.
I. The circumstances by which this assurance was called forth.
1. Moses was a very lonely man. Perhaps more lonely in the midst of the two millions of people whom he was leading as a flock than he had been amid the solitudes of the desert tending the flock of Jethro. The very contrast between his lofty enjoyment of Divine communion and the people, always set on sensual pleasure, must have lent intensity to the isolation of his spirit, which reared itself amid their sensual longings, as the peak of Susafeh above the lower ranges of Sinai. In this his loneliness he has been compared to Elijah at Cherith or on Carmel; to Paul standing aged and friendless before the tribunal of Nero; to Alfred when, in the words of the old chronicler, he “ lived an unquiet life in the woodlands of Somerset”; to Columbus when, with his great secret locked in his heart, he still prosecuted his quest over the weary waste of waters. Jesus was the most lonely man that ever lived. He drank the cup of loneliness to its dregs. And Moses said unto the Lord, “See, Thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and Thou has not let me know whom Thou wilt send with me.” Note that last clause, “whom Thou wilt send with me.” Do they not contain a sigh for a comrade, a companion, a friend in whose sympathy and judgment he might confide. In the physical world we are told that in the most solid bodies the atoms do not touch; and how often, though the crowd throngs us, we are not conscious that any one has touched us. It is to that state of mind that the assurance of the text is given.
2. In addition to this, the hosts were soon to leave the mountain region of Sinai, with which Moses had been familiar during his shepherd life, in order to take the onward road through unknown deserts, infested by daring and experienced foes. Such a summons to arise and depart is often sounding with its bugle-call in our ears. We are not like those who travel by the metal track of the railroad, on which they have been to and fro every day for years, and are able to tell exactly the names and order of the stations; but like an exploring expedition in an absolutely unknown district, and even the leader, as he leaves his hammock in the morning, does not know where it will be slung at night.
3. Still further difficulties had lately arisen in connection with the people’s transgression. From a careful study of the passage it would seem that a change was proposed by their Almighty Friend. Hitherto He had gone in the midst of them. Now He avowed His intention of substituting an angel for Himself, lest He should suddenly consume the people because of their stiff-neckedness (Exodus 33:3). But now it seemed likely some sensible diminution of the evidence of the Divine presence and favour was about to take place; and the fear of this stirred the soul of the great leader to its depths. Are there not times with many of us when we have reason to fear that, in consequence of some sad failure or sin on our part, the Lord may be obliged to withdraw the conscious enjoyment of His love? Supposing He should be compelled to leave me to myself, to withdraw His tender mercies, to shut up His compassions. Supposing that I should be like a sledge abandoned in Arctic snows, or a ship abandoned by its crew in mid-ocean.
II. The place where this assurance was given. The earlier intercourse between the servant, faithful in all his house, and Him who had appointed him seems to have been on the mountain summit. But after the outburst of the people’s sin a change was made which did not necessitate such prolonged or distant absences from the camp. Indeed, he was absent for only one other period of forty days till the time of his death, some thirty-eight years afterwards (Exodus 34:28). During the prolonged interview which he had been permitted to enjoy, God had spoken to him much of the Tabernacle which was shortly to be reared. He at once saw the blessedness of this proximity of the shrine for worship and fellowship, and his ardent soul seems to have been unable to brook delay. It was no longer necessary for him to climb to the mountain summit, entrusted with errands on behalf of the people, or eager for advice in difficult problems. He was able to transact all necessary business by going out to the tent. Thus the Lord spake with Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend; and Moses spake to his Father, who is in secret, with the freedom of a child. And as the people beheld that wondrous sight of God stooping to commune with man, they rose up and worshipped, every man at his tent door. It was as if he said, Wilt Thou Thyself be my Comrade and Companion, my Referee in difficulty, my Adviser in perplexity, my Friend in solitude? Thine angels are strong and fair and good, but none of them will suffice me, nothing short of Thyself. Without Thee, it were better for me to relinquish my task and die; but with Thee, no difficulty can baffle, no fear alarm, no obstacle deter. And God’s answer came back on his spirit with music and balm, “My presence shall go with time, and I will give thee rest.” Nothing was said as to the people. But faith gets bolder as it mounts. Each answer to its claims makes it claim more. We may seriously question whether our faith is of the right quality if it is unable to compass more in its hand to-day than it did a year ago. And, therefore, Moses not only took the assurance of the Divine presence for himself, but asked that it be extended to include the people. “Wherein now shall it be known that I have found grace in Thy sight, I and Thy people? Is it not that Thou goest with us, so that we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.” In this respect also he was successful. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken, for thou hast found grace in My sight. There are moments of holy intercourse with God, rapturous, golden moments, in the lives of all His servants; when next they visit us, and we would make the most of their brief, bright, rapturous glow, let us plead, not only for ourselves, but for others, asking for them an equal blessedness.
III. The blessedness which this assurance guaranteed. There was, first, the Divine presence; and there was, secondly, the premised rest; not the rest of Canaan, for this Moses never saw, but a deeper and more blessed inheritance, which may be the portion of all faithful souls. But at their heart these two are one. The Divine presence is rest. Of course the conscious presence of God with us is only possible on three conditions. Firstly, we must walk in the light, as He is in the light, for He will have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, or turn aside to go with us on any crooked path of our own choosing. Secondly, we must recognize that the blood of Jesus Christ His Son goes on cleansing us from all sin, not only that which we judge and confess, but that also which is only seen by His pure and holy eyes. Thirdly, we must claim the gracious aid of the Holy Spirit to make real that presence, which is too subtle for the eye of man, unless it be specially enlightened. And, above all, we must remember that for us, at least, that presence is localized in the man Christ Jesus. For us there is no attenuated mist of presence, though a mist of light, but a Person in whom that presence is made real and touches us.
1. God’s presence is rest from the conscience of sin. “I will remember their sins no more.”
2. God’s presence is rest from anxiety. The future is dim and we are apt to strain our eyes as we peer into its depths. Now we are elate with building castles of light, and again we are immured in dungeons of foreboding. We cannot rest tossed to and fro like this, but when we can look from the mist to the face of our Guide, who goes with us, such wisdom and kindness mingle there that we are at rest.
3. God’s presence gives rest to our intellect. The mind of man turns sick before the trifles and frivolities with which men, for the most part, seek to satisfy its insatiable appetite, and craves eternal truth, and this alone can be found in God.
4. God’s presence is rest to our judgment. This regal faculty is constantly being called into play to select out of one or two paths which offer themselves that which we should follow. It is left for Him to choose, and to make known His choice, whilst the soul waits, exercising careful thought indeed, but concentrating its whole power in seeking to know the Divine will.
5. God’s presence is rest to our will. The will of the self-life, which chafes like an unquiet sea, can only come to rest in the will of God, compelled by the powerful attraction of His near presence, just as we might conceive of a body passing from the earth to the sun, increasingly losing the attraction of the planet as it feels the pull of the mighty orb of day.
6. God’s presence is rest from weariness. There is in each of us a fund of natural energy, determined largely by health or temperament, or favourable circumstances. But at times this is crushed by disappointment and failure, and the sense of its inadequacy for some great task. But when God is near it falls back on Him like a tired child on a father’s strength, and is at rest.
7. God’s presence is rest to our heart. Who is there that does not pine for love? But to know God, to love God, to be loved by God, to delight in God’s perpetual presence--this is rest. I have a vision of a woodland glade. A group of tired, frightened children are cowering around the bole of an old tree, dropping the fragile, withered flowers from their hands and pinafores, as the first great drops of the thunder shower, which had been darkening the sky, begin to fall. They have lost their way, they sob bitterly, and crowd together. Suddenly through the wood there comes a quick step, beneath which the twigs crackle and break--father has come, and as he carries some in his strong arms through the storm on the nearest track for home, and the others run at his side, they have learnt that there is a presence which is rest. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)