Our True Need of God

“And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.” (Ex 34:9 AV)

This is a great and honest request.  Moses is not asking God to be their God because they have proved to be an obedient and faithful people.  He is asking for just the opposite reason.  He is asking the LORD to be among them not because they have followed with their whole heart.  He is asking for the LORD to be among them because they are stiffnecked and wicked.  One might see this as odd.  I certainly did.  At least at first.  In reflection though, there is a great amount of humility and wisdom here.  Wisdom and humility which the child of God would be wise to emulate.

It takes a lion’s share of humility to admit that one needs help and correction because we are otherwise helpless.  Several years back, I had shoulder surgery.  Part of the recovery process meant I had to go through therapy.  Some of it felt really good.  Those parts that required stretching.  In particular, I enjoyed the cords on a pulley.  Simply using the opposite arm as a counter-weight, rising and lowering each side respectively, felt really good.  But there was another exercise which I absolutely despised.  Placing a large ball against a wall, I had to trace the letters of the alphabet using the bad shoulder.  The turning and rotating of the rotator cuff was excruciating.  My therapist was relentless.  She would not allow me to quit.  She would not allow me to whine about it.  She pushed me because she knew her discipline would cure my infirmity.  To admit that I needed this took honesty, submission, and gratitude.

We do not need God because we are right.  We need God because we are not right.  We do not desire God because we are perfect.  We desire God because we are not perfect.  Moses’ request here for God’s presence is profound.  He is asking for God’s mercy in forgiveness, but he is also asking for God’s presence that the nation of Israel may conquer the rebellion seeped deep in their heart by a miraculous work of God’s hand.  I don’t need God because I have attained.  I need God because of my own faults and sin.  I do not ask for God’s presence because I have been successful in obedience.  I ask for God’s presence and work in my life because I have fallen woefully short of His glory!  We need God because of our wickedness.  We do not need God because we have earned Him.