FEBRUARY 17, 2026 – MESSAGE OF JUDGMENT

READ: Ex. 33:1–11: … I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people … The LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend …

The LORD assures Moses that He will keep His oath to the patriarchs. When Moses receives the command to lead Israel to the promised land, the LORD says that He will send an angel before them to drive out the nations, but that He Himself will not go up in their midst.

As the reason, the LORD states: “because you are a stiff-necked people, and I would otherwise destroy you along the way.” This means that the covenant, as a covenant of love, has not yet been fully restored and that God’s wrath has not yet been turned away.

The LORD emphasizes that it is not self-evident that everything will return to its former state in the covenant relationship. He desires genuine humiliation from the people, and this is precisely what He brings about when they hear the message of judgment. They mourn and, at the LORD’s instruction, remove their ornaments.

Moses then sets up a tent of meeting outside the camp, a kind of prayer tent where Israelites who wish to seek the LORD may go. There, outside the camp, the LORD is still willing to be found.

Moses enters the tent, and something remarkable occurs: the pillar of cloud, which had previously stood above the mountain, appears at the entrance of the tent as a sign of the LORD’s presence. The people then behave reverently: they watch Moses until he reaches the tent and then bow at the entrance of their own tents.

The conversation Moses has with the LORD is very special and intimate, as a man speaks with his friend. When Moses returns, Joshua acts as his assistant. Joshua, like Moses, had no part in the apostasy surrounding the golden calf.

Are there still reasons for mourning today? Which ones?
Sing: Ps. 106:11