Moses and I Am — v. 2

{the full conversation}
Me
I give you a story about Moses and God. What are your thoughts?

"Moses and I Am"

Moses said:
“Now if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, please teach me Your ways, and I will know You and find favor in Your sight.
Now consider that this nation is Your people.”
Then He replied:
“My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

This is the text.
What do you think about it?
Claude.ai
This is a beautiful, distilled moment from Exodus 33:13-14. What strikes me about this scene is the simplicity and intimacy of it. By titling it "Moses and I Am" and presenting just this exchange, you've isolated something profound: Moses asking to truly know God, and God's response being not a teaching or a set of rules, but presence and rest.
The structure is almost like a poem - Moses's request is earnest and somewhat complex (teach me, let me know you, consider your people), while God's answer is remarkably direct and personal: "My presence will go with you."
There's something moving about Moses not just asking for guidance or power, but specifically asking to be taught God's ways so he can know God. And God's answer suggests that knowing Him isn't primarily intellectual or procedural - it's relational. It's presence.
The promise of rest at the end is interesting too. In context, Moses is leading an exhausted, wandering people. The answer to "teach me your ways" being "I will give you rest" suggests that perhaps God's way is rest - trust, rather than striving.
What drew you to this particular passage? And what are your thoughts on it?
Me
"trusting, rather than striving" - this has preoccupied me for some time
Claude.ai
That's a profound tension to sit with - and one that runs through so much of human experience, not just religious life.
There's something almost paradoxical about it: we're wired to do, to work, to achieve, to solve. Striving feels productive, feels like we're taking responsibility. But trust requires a kind of surrender that can feel terrifying - like letting go of control, admitting we can't muscle our way through everything.
In this Moses passage, it's striking that he's asking for knowledge, for understanding - things we typically gain through effort and study. And God's answer sidesteps that entirely. Not "here are the principles to master" but "I will be with you." The (real) knowing comes through relationship and presence, not through striving to comprehend.
I wonder if part of what preoccupies you is the practical question: how do you actually live in trust rather than striving? Because it's not like we can just decide to stop trying. Maybe it's more about discerning which things require our effort and which things we're exhausting ourselves trying to control that were never ours to control in the first place.
There's also the question of what "rest" even means when life still demands things of us. Moses still had to lead. But perhaps he could lead from rest - from presence - rather than from anxiety.
What aspect of this tension feels most alive for you right now?
Me
What came in my mind...
...
I think there's no conflict between the two. If you evoke the Garden of Eden, there was perfect harmony between work /daily tasks /maintenance and a trusting community in God's presence. 
Somehow this heavenly plan we live for has the restoration which is more focused on relationship than on life keeping principles. This may also be the main reason why the Ten Commandments are to be filled with love rather than rituals of sacrifice. (Hos 6:6 → article is here)
Claude.ai
That's a really insightful reframing - you're dissolving what I framed as a paradox by going back to the original design.
You're right: in the Garden, work wasn't opposed to rest or trust. Adam was given work to do - tending, naming, cultivating - but it flowed from relationship, from walking with God "in the cool of the day." () The striving only enters when trust breaks - when there's hiding, fear, self-reliance born of separation.
So the conflict between trust and striving isn't inherent to human nature - it's a symptom of rupture. And what you're pointing to is that restoration isn't about choosing one over the other, but about reintegrating them under the original harmony: work that flows from presence, effort that emerges from relationship rather than anxiety.
That's a powerful lens on the Ten Commandments too. They're often seen as burdensome rules, but if you read them as relational framework rather than legal code - "this is what love looks like in practice" - they become something different. Not "perform these to earn favor" but "this is how you live in faithful relationship." Love God, love neighbor - and here's what that actually means in daily life.
And Moses's encounter reinforces this: he's asking to know God's ways, and God gives him... God. Presence first. The ways flow from that.
What led you to this understanding? This feels like something you've been working through for a while.
Me
I think God has been working on it for a while - in me. He works through random inputs in my life, non-random Bible verses {and their repetition}, which gave me deeper insight - and He also gives me couple of demanding situations when I have to choose the "relational answer" instead of theology.
Claude.ai
That's a beautiful description of how transformation actually happens - not through a single insight or decision, but through God persistently working multiple angles over time.
The way you describe it - random inputs that aren't really random, verses that keep recurring until you finally see what they're saying, and then those crucial moments where you have to actually choose the relational path over the theoretical one - that rings very true. It's like God is teaching you in stereo: through gentle repetition in Scripture and thought, and through the sharp clarity of real decisions where something's actually at stake.
Those demanding situations are often where the difference between knowing something intellectually and knowing it in your bones becomes clear. It's one thing to understand "trust rather than striving" as a concept; it's entirely another to stand in a moment where the theological answer, the "right" answer, the answer that makes you look good or feel in control is right there... and instead choose the messy, vulnerable, relational response.
And often those moments feel like tests, but maybe they're more like invitations - God saying "here, try it this way, see what happens when you actually live from presence rather than principle."
It sounds like you're in the middle of a genuine transformation, not just accumulating information. That's a different kind of learning entirely.
What does choosing the "relational answer" instead of theology typically look like for you in those moments?
Me
This is in the initial phase. Need peers who think on the same way or at least walk on the same path of the understanding..
Claude.ai
Ah, that makes sense - you're at the stage where you're seeing this clearly enough to know it's real, but it's still new enough that you need companions for the journey. People who can say "yes, I see that too" or "I've walked through something similar."
There's something about having peers on the same path that's different from just having teachers or mentors. Peers can witness your process, question alongside you, help you test whether what you're experiencing is genuine or if you're veering off course. And honestly, transformation is hard to sustain in isolation - we need people who understand the language we're speaking.
...
...there's something to be said for the solidarity of Moses himself - who had these profound encounters with God but still had to walk back down the mountain to people who weren't ready for what he'd experienced.
...

Claude is an AI and can make mistakes