The Comfort Of God's Guiding Presence
- Reader
- Date
- Sept. 18, 2022
Passage
Description
The theme of the Book of Exodus is the freeing of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt and their journey towards the land God had promised to give them — the land of Israel. However the journey was to take them a long time - 40 years in all! This was not because the distance between Egypt and Israel was very great, but because God had many lessons to teach the people along the way. The people were not always easy to teach and were often disobedient to God.
In spite of this, there was one constant reminder of God's care and love for his people even in their times of disobedience — his presence was among the people guiding and protecting them - "the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people." God was always there.
This must have been a great comfort to the people, especially as they had no experience of the conditions of the territories they were passing through or the peoples they encountered. But God knew and protected them. In the same way our Lord Jesus has promised: "Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). God is still watching over his people just as he did in the days of the Exodus. What a comfort his presence is to lead and to guide us!
Prayer
Dear Lord, please help me to know the comfort of your presence and to be willing to be guided by you. Amen.
Transcription
[0:00] The 18th of September. Traditions. Jesus said, You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. Mark 7, 8.
[0:12] But we have always done it this way. That is a common reply when someone suggests we do things a bit differently, whether it is in church, at work, or at home. Of course, there are usually good reasons why people did things the way they did. The great reformer John Calvin wore a hat in church, because it was drafty, and there were pigeons in the building. That didn't start a tradition, but many other things that well-known and loved church leaders have done have come to be the way everyone does them, and so trying to change this can cause trouble. Jesus found this to be true when he and his disciples did things differently from the way the religious leaders of his time did them. And these leaders made their traditions, however good they may have been when they were started, to be more important than the teaching of the Word of God itself.
[1:03] The danger is still with us. Sometimes the way we do things was started long ago and for a good reason, but it may no longer be necessary in our day. We must never allow tradition to get in the way of the Word of God, but at the same time, we must not trample tradition under our feet simply because it is old. We have to be sensitive to those who have always done things this way, and we need to have a good reason for changing things. A prayer. Dear Lord, help me to see how best we can worship you in our situation now. Amen.