Presence and Rest My presence
shall go with you, and I will give you rest.—Exodus 33, verse
14 Moses asked to be shown the way. Here is the answer. The way is
not shown. But better than this, God says,
trust me, I will go with you. Afflicted one, hear the voice
addressing you from the cloudy pillar. It is a wilderness promise
which the God of Jeshurim speaks to his spiritual Israel still. He who led his people of old,
like the flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron, will manifest
towards you the same shepherd love. The way may be very different
from what we could have wished, what we would have chosen, but
the choice is in better hands. He had his own wise and righteous
ends in every diverse turning in it. Who can look back on the
past leadings of God without gratitude and thankfulness? When
his sheep have been conducted to the rougher parts of the wilderness,
he, their shepherd, has gone before them. When their fleece
was torn, and they were foot-sore and weary, he has borne them
in his arms. His presence has lightened every
cross and sweetened every care. Let us trust Him for an unknown
and checkered future. Other companionships we cherished
may have failed us, but one who is better than the best goes
before us in His gracious pillar-cloud. With him for our portion, take
what he will away, we can be happy, we can rise above the
loss of the earthly gift, in the consciousness of the nobler
possession and heritage we enjoy in the Great Bestower. He may
have seen fit to level clay idols, that he, the All-Satisfying One,
might reign paramount and supreme. He may have seen to take earthly
presences away, To cause us to breathe more earnestly the prayer,
If your presence go not with us, carry us not hence. He will not allow us to rear
havens on earth, And to write upon them, This is my rest. No, tenting time here, resting
time yonder, But, fear not, he seems to say, you are not left
without a friend or without solace on the way, pilgrim in a pilgrim
land. My presence shall go with you,
in all your dark and cloudy days, in your hours of faintness and
depression, in sadness, in life, and in death. And when the journey
is ended, the pillar needed no more, I will give you rest. The pledge of grace will be followed
with the fruition of glory.