Everyday Gospel: A Daily Devotional Connecting Scripture to All of LifeExemplo

The present and future hope and security of the people of God is found in one thing: the presence of the Lord.

Moses had the theology of his identity and security right. There was much that Moses didn’t know that we now know as the children of God because we have access to the complete Scriptures. Yet, in the following conversation with his Lord, Moses reveals that he knows something of profound and life-shaping significance:

And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” And he said to him, ‘If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” (Ex. 33:14–16).

Before I unpack Moses’s insight, let me ask you a few questions.

Where in life do you look for identity?

Where do you look for hope and rest of heart?

What makes you feel secure?

What makes you feel distinctly known or cared for?

Moses understands that there is no hope for Israel and no reason for Israel to travel further if God doesn’t go with them. And he also understands that what makes Israel distinct is not their national or ethnic identity, but the fact that they are the people with whom God has chosen to dwell. As a nation, the single thing that makes Israel distinct from every nation on earth is the presence of the Lord. It is the Lord who picked Israel out from the mass of human nations, set his love on them, blessed them with his covenant promises, protected them from extinction, delivered them from slavery, provided for their physical needs, dwelt with them in his tabernacle, blessed them with the promised land, and from them would provide the long-awaited Messiah. The people of Israel could not have done one of these things for themselves.

So it is with each one of us. Our security is not found in the size of our house, how much we are respected by others, the power of our position, the amount of money we have, our family history, our human leaders, the number of our personal gifts, or our strength, wisdom, or righteousness. Our future hope does not depend on the quality of our education or the wisdom of the choices we have made. It is humbling to confess that no matter how wise and successful we are, our hope and security rest on this: God has placed his love on us and, because he has, he is with us in glory and grace forever. He will go with us wherever we go and will do for us what we have no power to do for ourselves—not because we deserve it, but because he is generous in love and mercy. It really is true that he is everything we need.

For further study and encouragement: 1 Peter 1:13–21