Exodus 33:1  And the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it:
2  And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:
3  Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way.
4  And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments.
5  For the LORD had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.
6  And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.

Since the fall of man, life was made difficult for man due to his sin. Work was never sin. However, work took on a totally different meaning after the fall. In our text, the children of Israel had been kept in one place for the past forty days and nights. They were not farming or doing anything else. They had not used their time wisely. They had schemed and came up with the wicked plan to develop a false religion. They were even able to convince God’s chosen high priest to join them in their wickedness.
Aaron was a poor specimen of a man of God. Rather than living by Godly convictions, he was a puppet willing to entertain the people. As we have noted before, he would fit well into most pulpits today. The people rule the show and the “pastor” who is more like a facilitator, tries hard to remain relevant among a group of rebels. It must be quite difficult to be a pastor in the majority of churches today. The person, it does not even need to be a man in today’s corrupt churches, has to have a hardened heart and a seared conscience. He cannot allow the Holy Spirit to convince him of what is right and true. He reads self-help books and studies other heretics to learn how to hold people in his sway.
In our text, the LORD commanded Moses to get the people moving. They needed to move on toward the land that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God often pointed back to those three men. They were important in the formation of the nation of Israel. They were all chosen by God and they all served God to a degree.
In verse 2 we read that God promised to send an angel before Moses and the people. This was important. The children of Israel would never succeed if they were left on their own. Moses was a man of God, but he did not have the respect of the people. There would have been fighting amongst the people and they would never have made it into the land of Canaan, if they were left to themselves. Thus God promised to send an angel to lead them.
God also promised to drive out the current inhabitants of the land of Canaan. Israel could not co-exist with those pagan nations and succeed. Separation from the world is essential to growing in the Lord. We are too easily distracted by the sins of the world. God knows we have a certain time period to live in this world. He also knows that He wants His children to be a light in a dark and dying world. You cannot be that light, when you follow the ways of the world. Separation does not mean moving to some isolated place and having no contact with the world. Biblical separation is to know Him and set up your own life in a way that glorifies God. The local church must be under the sure direction of the Lord Jesus Christ. The home of the saved person needs to be established according to God’s order. As those who are saved interact with the world, they seek to live holy lives that can be a blessing to others. Many times the lost do not appreciate a true blessing. They cannot identify a true blessing. God’s Word shows us what a true blessing is.
God knew the wickedness the children of Israel had just been involved in. Their enemy was not some foreign nation. Their enemy was within them. God would raise up priests and prophets who were to remind the people of God’s way. We know that it did not take long for there to be corrupt priests and prophets. However, the truth was always available to them.
In verse 3 God reminded Moses that He had promised them a land flowing with milk and honey. That is quite the promise and quite the description. The nation had never witnessed such a bounty before. God was certainly intent on blessing the children of Israel in a mighty way. He wanted the nations around them to know that success could only be found in knowing Him.
God warned Moses that He would not go up in the midst of the people. They were a stiff-necked people and His holiness could not dwell amongst such a crowd. His holiness would destroy them. They were not willing to submit to Him and He was not going to just allow His people to corrupt His holy name.
In verse 4 we read that the people knew they had done wrong. They did not admit they had sinned against a holy God. They had some time to reflect on how they arrived at their current location. They knew that it was only by God’s mighty hand, that they had been delivered from Egyptian bondage. God wanted to deliver them from their spiritual bondage, but they were not interested in that.
The people mourned when they heard what God had told Moses. They did not want to follow God, but they also knew that He was the key to their success. For a short period of time, the people sobered up. They reflected on what God had stated. They were not interested in copying the world for a short moment.
In verse 5 God commanded Moses to remind the children of Israel that they were a stiffnecked people. God warned them that He would come down to them and consume them in a moment. God is never irrational or out of control. He is holy. He created man by using some of the dust of the ground that He had created earlier. Man would never exist without God’s Work in creating him. In the same way, Israel would never even exist if God had not chosen Abraham. The nation would never have developed unless God gave Abraham and Sarah a son and then blessed that son with another son, etc. Eventually the nation grew quite rapidly. However, the most important aspect of the nation needed to be their spiritual health. That was the least of their concern, but it was the greatest of God’s concern.
God commanded the people to put off their ornaments. They needed to get rid of the distractions they had adopted for themselves. He saw right through all of that. None of that impressed Him. God is pleased with obedience to Him.

I Samuel 12:22  For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.

God made the nation of Israel. He required that they submit to Him. God is always pleased when His child walks humbly with Him. In our text God commanded the people to take off their ornaments. He wanted to see them as He had designed them. We mentioned before that God did not make man with ornaments around the neck or in the ear or anywhere else. He made man good without all that outward clutter.
In verse 6 we read that the children of Israel listened to God for a change. They stripped themselves of their ornaments. For a brief moment, they were willing to listen to Him. As we noted already, they were a stiff-necked people. It was a rare thing for them to submit to Him. Keep in mind that God had already struck them with a plague. He also promised to destroy those who were hard-hearted. God is longsuffering, and He is gracious. He allows man to live in rebellion against Him for a time. He allows some of them to live a long time. However, without knowing the true God, there really is nothing to rejoice in. The lost need their vices in order to dull the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. The saved are content to dwell in the house of the LORD.
It is important to know the true God. Moses was a man of God. He was learning how to serve God more faithfully. Aaron needed to learn how to serve God as well. Every person needs to be saved first of all and then with the guidance of the indwelling Holy Spirit, he needs to grow in the Lord. The worldliness of modern day average Christianity is not pleasing to the Lord. Many souls are being deceived by false belief. There is a tug of war with regard to who is right and who is wrong. God is right. God has given us His preserved and inspired Word. Don’t settle for a corruption of that. You and I need the truth. The truth shall make you free.
Pastor Bartel