9 And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord,
please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked
people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your
inheritance.” (Exodus 34)
Moses knew the people to whom the Lord had called him. He understood
the hardness of their hearts. He saw how they did nothing but complain day
after day. He saw how quickly they could be lead astray into sin. For this
reason, he cried out: "Lord if you love me, if I have found grace in your
eyes, if you are at all concerned about me, then walk with me, I cannot do it
without you." Moses was in constant need of the Lord's wisdom, strength,
and patience. He did not want to be, for a second, separated from the
enabling presence of the Lord.
The presence of the Lord in him, like the flames that blazed in the burning
bush was his strength for the task. While Moses was powerless to deliver
the people, with God's presence in him, nothing was impossible. When God
sent Moses, He went with him. It was God's strength and wisdom in him
that empowered him to do the task. Controlled by the indwelling Spirit of
God, Moses was able to accomplish the mission to which God had called
him. Moses was the lamp but God was the flame that burned in the lamp.
Moses was the body but God was the life of the body. They were intimately
associated.
The New Testament uses the illustration of the vine and the branches:
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by
itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide
in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me
and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you
can do nothing. (John 15)
I believe that the secret of success in the ministry of Moses was the fact that
he understood this vital principle of the vine and the branches. Apart from
God he could do nothing, but with the sap of God's life flowing through
him, nothing could stop him. He did not dare count on his own resources.
Nothing short of the presence of God in him would do. Without the