To be Distinguished - Exodus 33:15-16

Moses was having a discussion with God about going up into the Promised Land. He wanted to be sure that God was going to go with them especially after the Israelites idolatry in the previous chapter.

Then Moses said to him, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?" Ex 33:15-16 NIV

The Hebrew word used for "distinguished" is

palah --to be distinct, marked out, to be separated, to be distinguished
(from The Online Bible Thayer's Greek Lexicon and Brown Driver & Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, Copyright (c)1993, Woodside Bible Fellowship, Ontario, Canada. Licensed from the Institute for Creation Research.)

We can see this same word used in these verses as well.

But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any man or animal.' Then you will know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. Ex 11:7-87 NIV

Know now that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself;the LORD will hear when I call to him. Ps 4:3 NIV

What Moses is saying to God in Exodus 33:16 is, "Unless you go with us, unless your presence is with us and manifested or clearly recognizable, there will be no way to tell us apart from the rest of the nations." In other words, how will the nations know that we belong to you unless there is some mark of ownership.

To explain this further, we have to go back to an old fashioned word, a word that is rarely used and even still even more rarely applied - sanctification. To be sanctified is to be set apart. Paul put it this way,

I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. Rom 6:19-20, 22 NIV

We are not our own but we have been bought with a price - the blood of Jesus. (1 Cor. 6:18-20)

As I mentioned in an earlier post (The Gospel According to Nixon), we are to be holy because He, our Father is holy. (1 Peter 1:15-16) However, holiness and sanctification too often quickly become just an outward show. We clean up the outside by cutting our hair, or shunning make up or wearing drab clothing and, of course, maintaining the obligatory scowl on our face while the inside is a filthy and putrid as ever, if not worse!

John the Baptist confronted this issue with the Pharisees - the religious leaders of his day.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. Matt 23:27-28 NIV

They had all the right moves - the clothes, the words, the air of piety, but were full of hidden agendas, gossip, backbiting and self-righteousness.

I heard a teaching once explaining wickedness. Jack Hayford, of Living Way Ministries, illustrated it this way. The word "wicked" has the same etymology as the word "wicker", where we get wicker furniture. Wicker furniture is made by soaking reeds until they becomes pliable and can be twisted. In a similar manner wickedness can be defined as "soaking in your own juices" long enough until you can be bent or twisted into an unnatural shape - emotionally, behaviorally, mentally.

On the other hand, holiness or sanctification is a result of a relationship with He who is holy. We cannot spend true, quality time with our Father and not come away changed. We become what we behold.

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Cor 3:18 NIV

As one fellow put it,

"If you do the dos, you don't have to worry about doing the don'ts"

In other words, if we pursue God with a whole heart, if we seek Him, if we do whatever He has commanded, if we will simply love Him - heart, mind, soul and strength - we will be distinguished!

No matter where we are - the grocery store, the gas station, the beauty salon, a restaurant - people will know that we are different. Not because we have a "Jesus saves" label pin or a "Honk if you love Jesus" bumper sticker but in how we treat each other, in how our kids behave, in how we respect others. They may not know why we are different but perhaps that difference will draw them into a conversation wherein you can share what God has done in and through you.

"Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don't you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." Mark 4:21-23 NIV