Up Close And Personal

“Inside the Tent of Meeting, the LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.” (Exodus 33:11).

It is important that we see prayer as a two-way conversation, both speaking and listening to God, and to get to know His voice and be open and honest as with a friend. One man knew how to approach God in this way and that was Moses. When he or the people had an inquiry he would go to his “Tent of Meeting” and there “the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend” (Exodus 33:11).

Moses felt he knew the Lord well enough to make bold requests, ask direct questions and expect response. God was pleased with Moses and knew him by name. However, later in the same chapter when he asks God to reveal His glory, the response is slightly different. “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you…but you cannot see my face, for none may see me and live.”

Since Moses had previously been speaking with God we can only assume that this is a characteristic of God that Moses had not yet witnessed, one much more intense and dangerous. It brought him through to a place where he knew God in a new and deeper way. In prayer we should ask God to do the same. The revelation that would come to us if God passed by with all His goodness and glory would be such an intense moment that the pleasantries and requests we are so used to making in our prayer “wish-lists” would seem insignificant. The friend we once knew only on the surface, would become someone who would change us completely by simply opening us to His presence.

“When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever he entered the Lord ‘s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, they saw that his face was radiant” (Exodus 34: 33-35).

While our encounters may not conclude so dramatically, we too can be changed by the living God, up close and personal.

Dig Deeper:

Exodus 33-34

Prayer:

Dear Father, I cannot wait until I physically be in Your presence. Thank you for all your goodness. Continue to allow me to draw near to as a friend.

RELEVANT’s “Deeper Walk” daily devotionals are presented by the LUMO Project, a visual translation of the four Gospels developed to engage people with scripture in a new way. You can watch the videos—which redefine the standard of visual biblical media—on YouTube, and find out more about LUMO’s mission at their website.