Northgate Christian Community

While Moses is up the mountain before the Lord, Israel “sinned a great sin” (Ex. 32:31) by molding and worshiping a golden calf. Israel now faces a significant crisis of uncertainty: Will the Lord’s presence remain with them? Initially, the answer is bleak. God says, “I [the Lord] will not go up among you [to the promised land], or I would consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people” (Ex.33:3). In this precarious place in Exodus 33, Moses intercedes for Israel and the Lord changes his mind (vv. 7-17). Based on this text, Pastor Ted taught on the influence of intimacy.                In the first service, Pastor Ted emphasized that intimacy with God is contagious. Everyone likes to stop and watch a fire burn. When people are intimate with God, others will stop and notice. We see this when the Israelites see the pillar of cloud descend at Moses’ tent. They would stop and watch, each person rising and bowing down at the entrance of their own tent, as God “spoke to Moses face to face, as one speaks