The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”

When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. Exodus 33: 1-4 (ESV)

God told Israel to go up to the land he’d promised them. He would drive their enemies out as he had promised.  It would be a delightful land –  flowing with milk and honey. You would think they would have celebrated.  Their own land, their enemies defeated, peace, milk, honey, what more could they want? Yet something about what God said made it a “disastrous word” which caused them to mourn.

What was this “disastrous word”?

“I will not go up among you.”

God had had it. This conversation with Moses takes place right after God has given the 10 commandments and while Moses was with God the people were making a golden calf to worship. How quickly they forgot their liberation from Egypt. Their sin, their unbelief, their idolatry, their whining and complaining. Yes, God would keep His promise of a land. But He would withhold something greater.

God knew if his presence went with Israel, in his holiness he would have to punish their sins and they would be destroyed. He will not tolerate sin. He loves His people and is committed to keeping His covenant to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all Israel. So he says you can have the land, peace, and bounty, even a heavenly escort. But you won’t have me. And the people recognized that having all God’s blessings without having God himself would be disastrous.

Moses then says to the Lord: “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?” (15-16)

Moses goes to God on behalf of the people and pleads their case. Moses reminds God of His graciousness. Here is the heart of Moses’ plea. If God is not with us we are no different than any other nation, tribe or people. There is no reason to continue if God does not go with us.

It is the presence of the Lord that makes Christians distinct.

Right now Jesus mediates for us. Jesus pleads for us. Jesus stands before God and says yes, they are stiff-necked, and stubborn and slow to learn.  But I plead for them. Make them stand out. Make them distinct. Go with them.

Believing in a god and even going to church does not make us distinct. Neither does helping the poor or having a particular political views.  We are not distinct because we don’t use drugs or curse or watch certain kinds of movies.

We are distinct from all the peoples of the earth because we have the very presence of God with us, and because we have the distinct good news of God’s grace through Jesus.

The truth is there are many good people doing good things like feeding the hungry, adopting children and things like that. Those are not distinctly Christian activities.

How about attending church services? What should make a church service a distinct activity? You could go out on a Sunday and spend time with friends, share a meal and even listen to some music and a motivational speaker. So what makes the Christian church different than an Elks Lodge, the local food pantry or a series of speakers at the local library?

What would compel Moses and the Hebrew people to leave Egypt travel the desert and go to a land they had never seen, but only heard of? Sure slavery was hard but what was the appeal to leave? I AM. The presence of God Himself would accompany them.

As we approach Christmas (I am not one to push Christmas before Thanksgiving) we need to remember Christmas is all about Immanuel, God with us not Santa and snowmen. And what are the implications of God with us? Millions of people, Christian and non-christian alike will put of trees, sing songs, spend time with family take some time off from work and share gifts. They will all talk about the blessings of gifts of God but none of those things are distinctly Christian.

Look back at Moses. He was promised a mighty angelic escort. The people were promised many good gifts. We’d all like those kind of gifts. The angel armies would go with them. And Moses and the people say the gifts are not good enough. The gifts are not what we need. We want the God of Angel Armies not just the army. We want the giver more than we want the gifts.

Shouldn’t that make all the difference in the world. Yes, Christians should adopt orphans and feed hungry people and love their spouses and pay their bills. But so do agnostics, atheists, Muslims and Buddhists.

What makes us different. We are the only people on the face of the earth to ever be able to say God with us. Not watching from a distance but in our very midst.

How is God with us? In the preaching of His Word, the sharing of the bread and cup and the indwelling Holy Spirit. He is there with us because of Christ. Moses had to plead for the people before God and God agreed to go with the people. Today Christ pleads on our behalf. He presents His own perfect sacrifice as the payment for our sin. And God is now present.

The next time you are in church, if the Bible is not preached and the Holy Spirit is not present, you don’t need to be there. Go to the mall. Grab dinner with friends. Volunteer at the library. Go ahead and join lots of good people doing good things.

But if we want to be different, if we want to be distinct, if we want to be followers of Christ there is one and only one thing that makes it real. The very presence of God. If God is not going to be present, don’t waste your time.

We praise God for the blessing of his presence with us. Of all the blessings we could have, there is none like this. If we have Jesus we have all the riches of God.  Let’s ask Jesus to manifest his presence through the Holy Spirit in our churches and lives.

May it be the presence of Jesus that makes us distinct.  If he doesn’t show up in our meetings, it won’t matter if we have the best musicians, the nicest building, the most articulate inspiring messages.  Every time we get together on Sunday or in other contexts, may we say surely God is in this place through the faithful presentation of His word through His spirit.