Exodus 33:1-3

We shall have a lively sense of the awfulness of this message, when we call to mind what passed between God and his servant Moses in the Mount, when the Lord was giving him directions for the building and furniture of the tabernacle. This tabernacle was not begun; and, therefore, to bid the people go towards Canaan, before the tabernacle service was even set about, carried with it the strongest testimony of the divine displeasure. God will perform his promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; yet he will not grant them the visible tokens of his presence and favour. Reader! remark with me, that all blessings, in order to become blessings indeed, must be made such by the Lord himself sanctifying them, and making them sweet. See Deu_28:2-12; Deu_28:15-23.