Repentance is the Way!

The Israelites had failed in their walk with the Lord. They constructed a golden calf during the absence of their leader (Moses) and began to worship it. Exodus chapter 32. When confronted with their sin, they repented. Chapter 33:4. Moses (who is a type of Christ) pleads on their behalf. In verse 15 Moses says "If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here". The Lord listened to Moses as he interceded for the people. He grants Moses' request. The end result being established in Exodus 40:34. 

Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting, because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was above the tabernacle by day, and fire was over it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.

We need God's presence in all of our journeys. Pray always the He would go before us and make the way for us to go. Open doors, close doors, but always keep us on the path that He has established for us personally. Amen.

Moses' Shining Face

The law, the tablets of the Testimony, were given to Moses up on Mt. Sinai as He communed with the Lord. It was an etched stone Testimony of God's terms of relationship with His people. As Moses returned to camp, he found the people had corrupted themselves with idol worship. (Exodus 32.) The people had broken their relationship with the Lord. The tablets were smashed, the idols were destroyed, and the Lord declined to walk with His people anymore lest they should be destroyed by His presence! This is what the law says.... "You sin, you die, period!" 

The people mourned and repented of their sins. (Exodus 33) Moses interceded on their behalf. (Moses is a picture, a type, of Christ. 

New tablets were issued. (Exodus 34.) The covenant relationship was restored. This time the people got a glimpse of God's true nature. The new set of the tablets of the Testimony were given as a result of God's mercy, grace, and forgiveness!  Moses' face glowed with the glory, mercy, and grace of God after he came down the mountain with the second set of tablets. The people were afraid to come near him. Then Moses put a veil on his face. 

The veil covers God's true nature and makes it impossible to have a relationship with Him. Christ removed the veil when He died on the cross. Matthew 27:50 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. 51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; 52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

The only way to experience a true relationship with God is to remove the veil. This is done by repenting and trusting in the One that He sent, Jesus Christ. Jesus will remove the veil and you will experience a new and wonderful relationship with the creator of the universe. You will come to know His mercy, His grace, His love, His care, His peace, His guiding hand.

The True Nature of God

Moses is again interceding for the people. Moses is a picture (type) of Christ who intercedes for the people. Exodus 34:8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. 9 And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it [is] a stiff necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. 

The Lord accepted Moses' petition  because in Exodus 34:5, the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin...

But, that will by no means clear [the guilty]; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

So those that do not accept God's plan of Salvation will be rejected. We must repent, turn and confess our sins and accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and then and only then will God's true nature be revealed to us!

Is repentance necessary to be saved?

Exodus Chapter 33. The Lord told Moses to take the people and leave Sinai. He told them to go up to the land of milk and honey, the promised land. But, He said that He would not go with them. In the previous chapter the people had turned away from the Lord and put their trust in a cow. Hard to believe but people will be people. The Lord was still a bit perturbed over the whole matter. He called them a stiff-necked people and said that He could come into their midst and consume them in one moment. 

Moses, who is a type of Christ, reminded the Lord of His contract with the people of Israel. The Lord said that He would honor His contract because of Moses. He also wanted to see an attitude of repentance. 

Israel did repent. Exodus 33:4. And when the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you. So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb. 

Our relationship with the Father is contractual and rock solid. If we repent and trust in Jesus, we will be saved. Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Our relationship with the Father is also conditioned upon a repentant heart. Revelation 2:5. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.