Word of Encouragement (09/07/2022)

Moses said to the LORD, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people." (Ex. 33:12-13)

This prayer is Moses’ attempt to “change God’s mind” about not going up to the promised land with the people of Israel. Yesterday, we dealt with the first part of this prayer—Moses’ complaint. That complaint is followed by Moses “reminding” God of His words to him: “I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.” He uses this to launch into his petition, which is given in v. 13.

We don’t have any account of God saying these words to Moses. This is another reminder that the Bible does not record everything that happened and every word that was spoken by God. Not everything God said or did in redemptive history is canonical (that is, something that should be included in the Bible for all of God’s people to know). John said this about Jesus’ ministry and teaching as well (John 20:30-31, 21:25). Even though we don’t have the account of this conversation between God and Moses, we have a recounting of it in v. 12.

What does Moses use as the basis of his ensuing petition? What God said to him: “I know you by name....” Some may think that this is nothing special. Isn’t God supposed to be omniscient? If so, doesn’t He know everyone by name? But when God applies something to certain people that which seems universally applicable to all, it takes on a covenantal significance. One example is God’s presence. When He told Moses, “I will be with you,” He was not speaking of His omnipresence but His covenantal presence of favor and mercy. When we are told that Jonah fled “from the presence of the LORD” (Jonah 1:3), it was not speaking of God’s omnipresence, for it is impossible to flee from the omnipresence of God; it was speaking of God’s covenantal presence.

In the same way, when God assured Moses that He knew him by name, He was not speaking of His omniscience; He was speaking of His covenantal knowledge of him. It is the kind of knowledge that brings someone into a special and loving relationship with God—“I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.” It is the kind of knowledge that makes someone stand out among all those, whom God knows merely by His omniscient knowledge. We can say with gratitude, then, that God knows all His elect people by name. Each of us is special to Him. We are His treasured possession (Ex. 19:6, 1 Pet. 2:9). What was true of Moses is true of us.

Even so, insofar as Moses was God’s chosen mediator between God and Israel, there was a sense in which God’s “knowledge” of Moses was more special than His knowledge of the people of Israel. But what is amazing is that there is another sense in which God’s knowledge of us is even more special than His knowledge of Moses (redemptive-historically speaking)! This is because God knows us through the new covenant in Jesus Christ and the new covenant is greater than the old covenant. So, Jesus said regarding John the Baptist, “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matt. 11:11). (Of course, God knows all His elect people [including the Old Testament believers] “equally” because they were all chosen before the foundation of the world in Jesus Christ [Eph. 1:4]. But redemptive-historically speaking, we can speak of those under the new covenant as “greater” than those under the old covenant, as Jesus said.)

If God should know us by name and we have found favor in His sight, what shall we fear? How secure we are in this condition because Jesus’ precious blood and perfect righteousness are the reasons for the favor we have from God! They are also the reasons that we can bring our petitions to the Lord with confidence! How can we not pray?

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