WHEN GOD KNOWS PEOPLE BY NAME

“Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight.” (Exodus 33:12)
The Lord had just finished plaguing the people because of the golden calf they had made (32:35). God told Moses to take the people, leave that place, and go to the land He had promised to give them. He said He would send “an angel” before them to drive out the nations. God Himself, however, would NOT go with them, for they were “a stiffnecked people.” God would “consume” them if He continued in their presence (33:1-3). When this word got back to Israel, they “mourned, and no man put on any ornaments.” They did this because God instructed Moses to tell them, “Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee” (33:4-6). Men need to know God is completely intolerant of sin and obstinance. Moses then took the tabernacle and moved it far off from the camp, calling it “the Tabernacle of the congregation.” Everyone seeking the Lord would go to that Tabernacle outside the camp. When Moses went into the Tabernacle, the people got up and stood in their own tent doors, “looking after Moses until he was gone into the tabernacle” (33:7-8).
Our text took place on one of these occasions, when God was speaking with Moses “face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.” Moses recalls the Lord said He knew him “by name.” Moses knew that meant unique privileges belonged to him, and thus made a request of the Lord. “If I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee, that I may find grace in Thy sight: and consider that this nation is Thy people.” What follows shows the glory of God knowing a person “by name.” “And He said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto Him, If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence” (33:13-15). Though God’s presence would not be with Israel, it would be with Moses–God knew him by name! The Lord will not leave those He knows alone, even though they are in the midst of a “stiffnecked people!” One of the marvelous aspects of salvation is that “the Lord KNOWS them that are His” (2 Tim 2:19). He knows them “by name,” keeping them and walking with them. Those in Christ must learn to reason with God upon the basis of truth. Because God knows them, they can plead with Him, petition Him, and seek His blessing.