The Pentateuch: I Will Be With You

Introduction

Climbing Mount Everest is considered one of the greatest physical achievements.^[1] To do so, however, one must hire a local Sherpa to guide the climber to the treacherous peak from the Nepalese side. One of the guides, Kami Rita, climbed Everest twice in just ten days during the 2024 climbing season that typically goes from April to May. This extended his record for most Everest climbs to an impressive thirty total climbs.^[2]

While hundreds of foreigners will be celebrating their considerable accomplishment of climbing Everest on social media, at dinner parties, and even some building lucrative speaking careers as motivational speakers, these climbers would have never been successful if it were not for the guides who were with them. The source and significance of faithful Christian work comes from the God who promises to be with you always, including in your day to day work.

The faith and work movement has regularly appealed to the Pentateuch to make important observations about the nature of work being tied to the imago dei prior to the Fall (Genesis 1–2).^[3] Work, although touched by the Fall, is not a product of the Fall. This fact leads to discussions about the nature of work not only in relation to the present human condition but also the nature of redeemed work in the New Heavens and the New Earth.^[4]

Another passage from the Pentateuch that has received considerable attention is the way in which the Lord speaks of men being raised up to work with metals and wood to facilitate the construction of the Tabernacle (Exodus 31). This passage serves as an example of one of the ways by which God invites fallen humanity to participate in His work of facilitating His taking up residence among the people of God in ways that extend well beyond spiritual vocations. Further, it presents construction and working with one’s hands as God-ordained and God-glorifying vocations.^[5]

This paper, in some sense, bridges these two prominent passages discussed in the faith and work movement. One of the central promises that God makes to His people is His presence.^[6] In perfect fellowship with God, humanity was given the gift of work among God’s very good creation. Despite the Fall, sinful creatures are invited to participate in His work in communion with the Living God. The promise of presence marks an encouraging truth for the people of God but also comes with a warning. God’s dwelling among His people has implications for every type of work, and points forward to the ultimate goal of human existence and endeavor.

I Will Be With You

By Exodus 3, Moses had been a shepherd for forty years. This is sometimes treated as a failure on his part as he rushed ahead of God in Exodus 2:11–22. According to this position, Moses had to be humbled before he was ready to be used by God. Although humility is essential for service to God, the New Testament presents these events in Moses’s life in a very different light (Acts 7:20–53; Heb 11:23–28). Without placing blame on Moses, Stephen connects the Israelites’ rejection of Moses in Exodus 2 to how Stephen’s generation rejected Jesus (Acts 7). Similarly, the author of Hebrews treats the flight of Moses as an act of faith rather than one involving the fear of man (Heb 11:23–28), highlighting Moses’s desire to share in the sufferings of Christ rather than enjoying the riches of Pharaoh. Still, the result was the same. After fleeing Egypt, Moses became a shepherd in the wilderness for forty years.

Considering the rejection that Moses faced the last time he sought to lead the Israelites, his response to God’s call should come as no surprise. When God meets Moses in the wilderness in the burning bush, God calls him to go to Pharoah to command him to let the people of God go. Moses replies, “Who am I?” (Exod 3:11). If we were going to write God’s response to Moses, we would want God to remind Moses of his resumé. God could remind Moses that he was educated in Pharaoh’s household and was mighty in word and deed. According to Stephen, such a statement would be true (Acts 7:22). God could say to Moses that he has a lot of untapped potential. Moses just needs to dig down deep and go for it. God could have said that and, in one sense, it would have been true. But God does not say any of that; instead, God says, “I will be with you.” We can begin to approach the significance of this promise by noting the revelation of the name of Yahweh in Exodus 3:14–15.

Moses asks what he shall say if the people ask for God’s name (Exod 3:13). In Exodus 3:14–15, the name Yahweh is revealed to Moses, which will be proclaimed more fully in Exodus 33–34. While it is beyond the scope of this paper to treat the significance of this passage exhaustively, in “The Trinity, Expositions of Psalms 121, Sermon 6, and Sermon 7,” Augustine of Hippo provides an apt description of the revelation of the divine name in Exodus 3:14–15.^[7] Augustine describes how the declaration, “I am who I am,” is an attempt to articulate who God is in himself (Exod 3:14). The absolute name of God is that he is in se. Augustine uses numerous terms for this idea: idipsum (not comparable), ego sum qui sum (He is who He is), est (He is). In the absolute sense, Yahweh is the God who is beyond description. Exodus 3:15, however, includes the name given to humanity by which they are to know Him. He is Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In sum, Exodus 3:14 deals with the absolute name of God. He is who He is. But the name of YHWH is both absolute (He is who He is) and the relational and covenantal name whereby the unknowable, ineffable God becomes known. The God who is in se is promising to be with Moses. As such, the proclamation of the tetragrammaton (YHWH) in Exodus 3:14–17 and later in Exodus 6:1–10 roots the immeasurable greatness of the divine name in the relatable and understandable terms: “The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob” (Exod 3:16; see also Exod 6:2). The God who is beyond searching out is for His people. The God who spoke the world into existence is stooping down and drawing near to Moses and His people.

This promise of presence, however, is not just for Moses or for those who are called to vocational ministry. As stated above, in Exodus 31:1–11, Bezalel is described as filled with the Spirit of God to work with precious metals, wood, and stone. Oholiab is also appointed by God as Bezalel’s assistant (Exod 31:6). Further, God states that He is the one who gave men the ability to make all that was necessary for the construction of the tabernacle. The very task of taking things from the natural world and elevating them into something beautiful and shaping them for a higher purpose is clearly depicted as a gift from God. In this manner, God is offering His presence to fallen humanity to facilitate further communion with Him.

The promise of God’s presence is a central promise in the rest of Scripture. The solution that is consistently given to the inadequacy of God’s servants is His presence. God can give nothing greater than Himself. God can withhold nothing greater than Himself. When Jacob flees the wrath of his brother Esau and later goes to Egypt because of famine, God promises to be with him (Gen 28:15; 46:4). The Lord was with Jacob as he was a shepherd in Laban’s household (Gen 31:5). When leadership shifts from Moses to Joshua, God promises Joshua that He will be with Joshua (Josh 1:5). When the Israelites are to go to war, they are promised His presence (Deut 20:1). God encourages the people with His presence when speaking of restoration after the exile (Isa 41:8–10). When Jeremiah states that he is too young and unable to speak in response to God’s calling to be a prophet to the nations, God promises to be with him (Jer 1:8).

The promise is not really about success, however. It is about God being with His people on the good days and the bad. For example, the trials that the people of God will face in Isaiah 43:1–7 come with the promise of God’s presence. The Psalmist can even walk through the “valley of the shadow of death” and fear no evil, “for you are with me; your rod and staff, they comfort me” (Psa 23:4 ESV). Even more poignantly for the faith and work movement, the Lord was with Joseph, as he was sold by his brothers into slavery, falsely accused and imprisoned, and finally exalted in Egypt (Genesis 39–42). Through it all, the Lord was with Joseph. Whether administering Potiphar’s household, running the jail, or leading Egypt through a famine, the Lord was with Joseph.

It would be wrong to assume that God’s presence is only offered for those doing ministry; God was with Jacob, the shepherd, and Joseph, the administrator, through all the ups and downs of their lives, including the joys of success and the sorrows of their trials. The greatness of this promise, which was in shadows and types in the Old Covenant, becomes realized for every believer in the incarnation of the Son of God and the outpouring of the Spirit of the risen and exalted Christ. Indeed, the Apostle Paul calls the people of God to understand and live their lives in view of the fact that they have become temples of the Living God (1 Cor 6:19). This means that every facet of our lives, including our work, is lived in the special presence of God.

The Holiness of God

The comforting nature of this central promise, however, comes with a very sobering truth. When Moses turns aside to see the bush that was burning but not consumed, God warns him not to come near but to take off his sandals, for the place where he was standing was holy (Exod 3:5). Although God draws near to sinful people, this does not negate the truth that the Lord Most High is holy. So, the promise of presence comes with a warning and a responsibility. This reality is seen very clearly at the revelation of the Ten Commandments and after the Golden Calf worship.

Israel’s response to the terrifying theophany at the foot of Mount Sinai was to ask for Moses to mediate the word of God to them (Exod 19:1–20:21). Later in Deuteronomy 5 and 18, God states that the Israelites were right in their recognition of their need of a mediator. In Deuteronomy 5, God states, “Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and so keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever” (Deut 5:29 ESVUK). As such, the presence of God should not only bring comfort; it is attended with a responsibility to honor and glorify Him in every way (Deut 6:4).

But Israel failed to remember the warning of the terrible theophany. After the Golden Calf incident in Exodus 32, the Israelites receive the devastating word that God will not be with them as they enter the Promised Land (Exodus 33). God will keep His promise that He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give them the land, but He will send His angel.^[8] This devastating judgment is explained, as follows:

I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people. (Exod 33:2–3 ESV)

This judgment is of such consequence that it is repeated in Exodus 33:5 and is not resolved until mediation by Moses and the revelation of the glory of God, as God proclaims the name YHWH before Moses (Exod 34:1–9).

While the coming of Jesus Christ in the New Covenant brings “grace upon grace” (John 1:16–17) and freedom because of the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor 3:17), the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit comes with a calling to glorify God.

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Cor 6:18–20 ESV)

This truth causes one to reframe, perhaps, the idea of God-with-us. The idea of God being with you in your work can be seen as a tacit approval and blessing of everything that you do in your day to day lives, or at least in the broad strokes. These appear to be the sins that beset the generations of Israel leading up to the exile (Amos 5; Jeremiah 7). But the concept of God’s presence in every facet of your life, including your work, provides both comfort and places a great responsibility upon the Christian, because Christ purchased us with His blood. This should transform how you treat others at work, steward your time, pursue work, and even rest (Deuteronomy 5).

Worship

Just as the comfort that God gives to His people in the face of their inadequacies causes them to look beyond themselves to the Living God, the goal and end of our vocation is not ourselves. Moses was called to bring the people out of Egypt to serve God on the mountain (Exod 3:12). Biblical redemption is never about just being set free; it entails being set free from one thing to pursue another. The Israelites were being set free from Egypt to serve the God Most High. The language used in Exod 3:12 for worship is one of the two key words used to describe the task of the man in the Garden at creation, who was called to “work and to keep” the garden (Gen 2:15). An interesting facet of this calling is that the God who created all things of nothing and all very good, chose to invite humanity to participate in ruling and subduing, in working and keeping. It is the same with respect to our vocations.

Life in communion with God is to be ordered in every respect towards honoring and glorifying Him. This is true of life in the New Covenant as well. In Christ, you have been set free from slavery to sin to serve Christ (Rom 6:18). Just as your body is not your own, for it has been redeemed by Christ, so your work does not just belong to you. Even the most mundane tasks are to be ordered toward the glory of the God who made all things and who stooped down to be your God. As the Heidelberg Catechism Question 1 reads:

Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?

A. That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

This desire to live for Christ is not just tied to attending gathered worship or bible studies. Communion with God from the factory line to the C-suite enables the simple tasks of pursuing our work to become acts of worship directed toward the God who is seated on the throne.

Conclusion

When climbing Everest, the adventurers are trusting that the Sherpa not only plans their journey from start to finish, but they are also trusting that their guide will be with them every step of the way through all the twists and turns. God does not just set His people on a journey. Whole life discipleship is carried out every step of the way in the special presence of the God who has promised to never leave nor forsake His people.

It can be easy to feel like God is with us when things are going well but feel abandoned during trials. Although God never promises ease this side of glory, He does promise to be with His people every step of the way. Living and working conscious of being in God’s special presence, should lead to whole life discipleship.

Even the most mundane tasks are performed in the presence of the God who promises to be with you. God’s presence is a central and often overlooked promise in the Bible. It is a central promise in that it pervades all of Scripture and relates fundamentally to the twofold knowledge of God as creator and redeemer. This promise provides comfort to the people of God that no matter where they go or what they do, the God of the universe is with them. But the promise of presence came at a great cost. In the Garden, Adam and Eve were created for communion with the Living God. When they sinned by taking of the forbidden fruit, they attempted to hide from God. But in Genesis 3:9, the Lord God called them out of their sin, knowing full well it would cost Him His Son (Gen 3:15). It is not enough to simply add some Christianity to your work and assume that God will be with you. The promise of God’s continued presence came at a great cost with the implication that you are not your own for you have been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6).
______________________

[1] I wish to thank Michael Allen and Damein Schitter for the invitation in this colloquium. I am also grateful to Bryan Fowler, who offered some very helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article. Finally, I am thankful for the participants of the colloquium and their feedback to my work.

[2] Binaj Gurubacharya, “Sherpa guide Kami Rita climbs Mount Everest for his record 30th time, his second one this month.” AP News (March 22, 2024): https://apnews.com/article/everest-record-sherpa-guide-kami-rita-nepal-ad258465895a6b78c883527b5ac30a16 (Accessed Jan. 24, 2025).

[3] See, for example, Timothy Keller, Every Good Endeavor (London: Penguin, 2014), 33–43, and Tom Nelson, Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011), 19–31.

[4] See now Michael Allen, “First Principles and Last Things for a Theology of Work,” Reformed Faith and Practice 9 (2024), 46–54.

[5] See Jeremy Kidwell, The Theology of Craft and the Craft of Work (London: Routledge 2016), 32–39.

[6] The goal of this paper is less about offering a theology of work and more about considering how our theology informs our work. See Miroslav Volf, Work in the Spirit: Toward a Theology of Work (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2008), 76–79.

[7] For an excellent theological interpretation of the tetragrammaton, see Andrea D. Saner, “Too Much to Grasp”: Exodus 3:13–15 and the Reality of God (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015). This section benefits from the discussion by Saner. See, in particular, pages 226–228.

[8] Some commentators understand this to be in reference to the Angel of YHWH, who in other passages, such as Exodus 3, is equated with God himself. This interpretation, based largely on God’s declaration that He will not go and his later statement that He will go, fails to account adequately for the contrast between the presence of the Lord and the sending of an angel in Exodus 33 or the role of mediation in the passage.