Title: God in the Field of History
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Moses always took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the Tent of Meeting. All those who waited for the Lord went out to the tent of meeting. As Moses entered the tent of meeting, the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tent of meeting, and the Lord spoke with Moses, and when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the door of the tent of meeting, they all got up and worshiped, each standing at the door of the tent, and one spoke with his friend. Likewise, the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, and Moses returned to the camp, but Joshua, the son of Nun, his young attendant, did not leave the tent of meeting. /
I will make all my good things pass before you, says the LORD, and I will declare the name of the LORD before you; And he said to them, 'You shall not see my face, for no one will see me and live. Behold, there is a place beside me, says the LORD, and stand on that rock. When my glory passes, I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I pass by, and I will remove my hand, and you will see my back and not my face.
(Ex 33:7-11, 19-23)
According to Exodus 24:1-11 recorded before today's text, Moses went up to Mount Sinai with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 elders of Israel, leaving the Israelite congregation behind as God commanded. They saw God there (verses 10-11). And again, Moses went up the mountain alone, leaving the 70 behind, and stayed there for 40 days and forty nights, receiving the Ten Commandments. The commandments Moses received and the Word of God were very precious. But while Moses went up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, among the people of Israel at the bottom of the mountain, the exact opposite happened to what had happened on the mountain. According to 32:1 and below, when the people of Israel saw that Moses was slow to go up the mountain, they made an idol of a golden calf and worshiped the idol as God. Verse 4 says, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt'.
At the time Moses met God alone on the mountain, the congregation staying at the bottom of the mountain could not wait for Moses to worship the golden calf. As a result, Moses, who came down from the mountain, became angry and the congregation was severely punished. The stone stone that Moses received was also broken. In 33:1 ff, Moses again goes forward with the congregation of Israel. At this time, Moses placed the tent of meeting with God in the tent of the congregation and met God there. This tent was called the tent of the presence or tent of meeting. Because of this incident, Moses realized that God must be present in the congregation of Israel, and the congregation of Israel also came to believe that God must always be in the congregation of Israel.
We learned from this golden calf incident that when religion leaves the field of human history and life and becomes a religion on the mountain, in the field of history, sinful humans will create and serve another golden calf god. Therefore, from now on, we have set up the tent of the presence to put God in the field of history and human life and march together. However, in verses 33:18-23, it is said that in the field of history, you can always see God's face only from the back (back), but not the front (face). In the field of history, humans cannot see God face to face. The God in the field of history is always an invisible, hidden God and a silent God. During the time Jesus was dying on the cross, the sky was dark and dark, and God did not answer the cry of Jesus, "Eli, Eli, lama, sabachthani."
In the field of history, people always experience God's absence, God's death, and God's silence. Nevertheless, the confession that God lives here is possible only with a confession of faith. It is only possible by faith. God always comes toward me and visits the field of history. However, only after God shows His existence in the field of this work, fulfills His work, and passes by, people will see the back of God. People's confession of the reality of God is always evidenced in the past experiences of history and life.
The Apostle Paul realized only after a long time passed that God had chosen him to be an apostle from his mother's womb. Calvin's theory of predestination is not a logic that God did in advance of what He would do in the future, but a confession of faith that he confessed after seeing everything he had done in the course of history before today. In the recent history of Korea, we see the back side of what God has done and passed in the history of our people. We were anxious and anxious because it seemed that God did not exist in the field of history, and we wondered if God had forsaken us. Even when I call, there seems to be no answer, and even when I cry for help, I am seen as a God who just turns away. But today, we are able to confess more clearly that God is with us today and tomorrow and forever in our historical reality, near us, and continues to do His work. I hope that you will be able to live closer to God's will in closer communion with that God, every minute of every day, and thus fulfill His will.