The Promised Land Isn’t What We Thought

LESSONS IN THE WILDERNESS 

S2:E4 The Promised Land Isn’t What We Thought

Exodus 33:12-17

Two Views of the

Israelites: The Promised Land Is a

Exodus 3:7-12 (NIV) —“The LORD said, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt . . . So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey’ . . . And God said, ‘I will be with you.’”

Exodus 6:6-8 (NIV) —“Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians…I will take you as my own people and I will be your God…And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.”

Genesis 17:8 (NIV) —The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”

Moses: The Promised Land is a

Exodus 33:13 (NIV) —“If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.

Exodus 33:15-16 (NIV) —Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” 

For Moses, the presence of God was the Promised Land.” — Ruth Haley Barton

Two Views of the

The Door is Locked from Side

Exodus 33:14 (NIV) — My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. 

Exodus 33:17 (NIV) — And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” 

Hebrews 10:19-22 (NIV) — Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body…let us draw near to God. 

The Door is Locked from OUR Side

“the blindness of our natural hearts and the intrusive ubiquity of visible things.” – A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God