God with us

"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?" (Exodus 33:15-16)

This theme of God "with us", God in our midst (Exodus 25:8), is part of what Matthew is drawing on in his account of Jesus the Messiah as the one who is God in our midst (18:20) and "God with us" (1:23; 28:20) as the distinguishing mark of God's people from every other people on the face of the earth.

However, when the blessing of "God with us" becomes drawing lines and saying "who is on the Lord's side? Come to me" (Ex. 32:26-28), a very serious problem is exposed. God's presence, which actually at that point was not with them (eg. 33:3), became some kind of commodity ("we have God with us and he's against you") to determine who was in and who was out so that violence could be justified in the name of God.

The little parenthetical comment in 32:25 is interesting: "And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies)." Breaking loose? And what enemies? Where is this comment coming from? I suspect it's a reflection (perhaps written back into the text from a later time) that even those who were outside of or against Israel recognized that Yahweh was not in their midst, that they had broken loose from serving him, obeying and honoring him.

We see clearly in Jesus that "God with us" is no justification for violence, or even self-righteously boasting that we are on the Lord's side and those "sinners" are not. Rather it is the occasion to pray for and bless those outside of us or against us. On the one hand, none of us is on the Lord's side - we have all sinned and fashioned idols of our design. And on the other hand, in humility and brokenness and repentance we do find "God with us" in our midst drawing those who are far off or separated being drawn near to healing and grace and truth.

May God have mercy on us, that we would not grieve his Spirit in and among us; that we would live according to the pattern he has revealed, using the resources he has supplied, according to the skills and abilities he has given, and in the power of hearts stirred by his Spirit.