Promises are important. The law mandates that people keep promises-in law school, we called it contracts. Even kids understand it and do the pinky swear thing. Middle-schoolers used to pinprick their fingers and mix blood signifying the importance of their promises. Everyone knows a promise is important. What is a promise?

1 a :  a declaration that one will do or refrain from doing something specified b :  a legally binding declaration that gives the person to whom it is made a right to expect or to claim the performance or forbearance of a specified act
2 :  reason to expect something ; especially :  ground for expectation of success, improvement, or excellence
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/promise

As Christ followers, we are told often about the many promises of God and further, instructed and encouraged to cling to those promises. Understood. I have said that many times to myself, and others, when going through trials and heartbreaking challenges. It is one of those tender admonitions that come to our heads and mouths frequently when the circumstances are inconsistent with what seems fair, right, just or loving.

Perhaps one of the greatest promises in history was the promise God made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and then repeated to Moses in Exodus 3:17: “And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.”  First part of the promise: God would take them out of their daily lot of misery in Egypt. Second part of the promise: he would bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey. This promise is repeated throughout the book of Exodus, numerous times, to Moses, and, through Moses, to the people of Israel. Of course, God had many opportunities to repeat the promise in the course of the Israelites wandering for 40 years through the desert on the way to that promised land.

After 40 years, the time came when God was about to take them to the edge of the Jordan River to cross into the promised land. But first, He called Moses up to Mount Sinai and talked to Moses for 40 days.  As He talked, God, with His very own finger wrote the law on two tablets He made. (Ex 31:18) Meanwhile, back in the valley, the people of Israel got bored-very bored-and so they committed a great sin.

Out of their boredom came evil thoughts about their leader Moses who had, by their assessment, gone up the mountain to do God knows what (literally) and about God, who, at the moment, seemed very far away. The people therefore went to Aaron, Moses’ trusty brother and helper, and asked him to fashion them a god who would go before them, who they could see and whom they could worship. (Ex 32) And so, Aaron did as the people asked.

 The Lord, though He was on the mountain talking to Moses, saw what was happening and said to Moses: “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.  They have been quick to turn  away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ “I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” (Ex 32:7-10)

Moses, however, was quick to remind God of His promise: “Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.” (Ex 32:13, 14)

God remembered His promise and relented of His anger, even though it was just and righteous. After all, the people of Israel had broken their promises to God, those promises which they repeated again and again to Moses, and through Moses to the Lord: “all that you have said, we will do.” Thus, even though the people had broken their promise to the Lord, God relented and forgave them their broken promise. However, though God forgave the people their broken promise, He said that there would be a punishment for the broken promise-there would be a price to pay for the broken promise. In Ex. 32:33 God instructed Moses “Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”

Moses expected God to keep His promise and therefore reminded Him of that promise. But certainly neither Moses nor the people of Israel could have imagined the price they would have to pay for God to keep His promise. Indeed, God was ready to give the people the land He had declared on oath to give to them, the promised land flowing with milk and honey. But keeping the promise would be at a price. What’s a price?

1 archaic :  value, worth
2 a :  the quantity of one thing that is exchanged or demanded in barter or sale for another b :  the amount of money given or set as consideration for the sale of a specified thing
3 :  the terms for the sake of which something is done or undertaken: as a :  an amount sufficient to bribe one b :  a reward for the apprehension or death of a person
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/price

“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.” (Ex 33:1-3)

The price to be paid for obtaining the promised land was that God’s presence would not go with the people of Israel into the promised land. They would have that which they had been promised, that for which they had waited a generation, that which they had wandered for 40 years in the desert to get to. They would get into the land flowing with milk and honey, but they would go without the very presence of God. What is the presence?

1 :  the fact or condition of being present
2 a :  the part of space within one's immediate vicinity b :  the neighborhood of one of superior especially royal rank …
4 :  one that is present: as a :  the actual person or thing that is present b :  something present of a visible or concrete nature
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/presence

They would get the place, the thing they had been promised, but without the presence of the Promisor. Was that a price they were willing to pay? Is that a price I am willing to pay? Do I want the great career, the success, the bells, the whistles of this life, the happiness, fame, the material stuff this world can offer me, and forego the presence of God Himself? Is that a price I am willing to pay for a promise fulfilled? Moses was not willing to pay that price.

Moses immediately withdrew into the Tent of Meeting and plainly said to the Lord: “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”  (Ex 33: 15, 16)

Having the things, not just the material things conjured up by the phrase a land flowing with milk and honey, but the intangibles like comfort, security, satisfaction, being free from pain, wane in comparison to the presence of God. Moses would rather have stayed in the desert with God’s presence than enter the promised land without it. The presence of God Himself is worth more than even the promises of God. 

Though I believe and remind God of His promises, I cling to His presence. All the milk and honey in the land of Canaan is not worth the promise without His presence.