Daily Thought

Arrangements are made by God for the replacement of the broken tables of the law. Moses is instructed to hew out two tables of stone and to carry them up the mountain where, says God, ‘I will write the words’. Interestingly, later, God tells Moses, ‘Write thou these words’, v. 27, thus picturing how the Bible was inspired by God, yet written by men. Moses is told to go alone to God at the top of the mountain. These are perhaps the circumstances best suited to prayer, in God’s presence, and alone with Him.

As Moses, early in the morning, ascended the mountain, ‘the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there’. The Lord passed by before him and thus the promise of chapter 33 verse 19, ‘I will make all my goodness pass before thee’, is fulfilled. What is His goodness and His glory? It is described by God to Moses in the following terms, ‘The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth’. In this we see the kind of God Moses knew, and He is ours too. He is a God who will show mercy even unto the thousandth generation of His people. At every opportunity He delights in blessing those who belong to Him, and in forgiving theiriniquity, transgression,and sin. He is,however,also described as One who will by no means clear the guilty.

On seeing this goodness of the Lord God, Moses bows his head in awe and reverence, and worships. The glory of God demands worship and we too delight to worship as He reveals Himself to us. Moses now prays, ‘I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people’. Moses was only too well aware of the sins and stubbornness of the people. He had seen compelling evidence of this ever since they left Egypt, yet He realizes that this God is precisely what the people need - merciful, gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.

We, too, knowing the frailties and stubbornness of our own lives, desire the presence of such a God. One who is not quick to mark iniquity but One who, through His Son will bless us and lead us on to better things. Today, we pray this prayer of Moses, ‘I pray thee, go among us’. When God is present in the midst of His people then they go forward with Him, make progress, and spiritual blessings ensue. May our God lead us on in His goodness.