Face to Face and Friend to Friend and Neighbor to Neighbor: God’s Heart to Meet with Moses. Exodus 33:7-13

Exodus 33:7-13 English Standard Version

The Tent of Meeting

⁷ Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. ⁸ Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. ⁹ When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord^[a] would speak with Moses. ¹⁰ And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. ¹¹ Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

Moses’ Intercession

¹² Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ ¹³ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.”

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

The biblical story of Moses is one which is marked by powerful personal, face to face, heart to heart encounters with the presence of the living God.

Moses was a man anointed by God to fulfill God’s heart for his children to be free from captivity and safe under his lordship.

From his birth into the indescribable harshness of slavery in Egypt, Moses was divinely set apart to lead God’s people back into right relationship with God.

And this lifetime calling was fulfilled because of God’s desire to consistently, personally meet with Moses and show up through his life in miraculous ways.

In looking at the life of Moses, two types of encounters with God stand out as especially transformative, illustrative of God’s heart to meet with his people.

As we look at these two examples of God meeting Moses, may Scripture fill your heart with desire to meet “face to face” with our heavenly Father as Moses did.

First, Exodus 3:1-6 gives us insight into the first real encounter Moses had with the Great I Am. Scripture says,

Exodus 3:1-6 GOD’S WORD Translation

Moses at the Burning Bush

3 Moses was taking care of the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. As he led the sheep to the far side of the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

² The Messenger of the Lord appeared to him there as flames of fire coming out of a bush. Moses looked, and although the bush was on fire, it was not burning up. ³ So he thought, “Why isn’t this bush burning up? I must go over there and see this strange sight.”

⁴ When the Lord saw that Moses had come over to see it, God called to him from the bush, “Moses, Moses!”

Moses answered, “Here I am!”

⁵ God said, “Don’t come any closer! Take off your sandals because this place where you are standing is holy ground. ⁶ I am the God of your ancestors,^[a] the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.

In the story of the burning bush, we see God’s grace and divine favor on the life of an undeserving man.

Moses fled the scene after murdering an Egyptian for assaulting a Hebrew man.

Forty years he had been hiding in the desert, living outside of any real earthly impact.

But God called Moses out of the wilderness into a life of deep, eternal impact.

Second, we see God’s heart to consistently meet with Moses in the Tent of Meeting found in Exodus 33:7-11 NKJV

Moses Meets with the Lord

⁷ Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord  went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp. ⁸ So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. ⁹ And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. ¹⁰ All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door. ¹¹ So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.

How incredible is the heart of our God that he would meet with Moses “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” 

If God would meet with Moses, a man who has not been redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus, how much more would he meet with you and me?

If God would show grace and mercy and forgiveness to Moses, how much more available is God’s grace to us who now have God himself dwelling within us!

Mark 15:37-39 New King James Version

³⁷ And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.

³⁸ Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. ³⁹ So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that ^[a]He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, “Truly this Man was the Son of God!”

You and I have full unfettered access to a relationship with God far greater than a face-to-face encounter like Moses had – because the veil between is shredded.

2 Corinthians 3:12-18 New King James Version

¹² Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— ¹³ unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. ¹⁴ But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. ¹⁵ But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. ¹⁶ Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is  liberty. ¹⁸ But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as ^[a]by the Spirit of the Lord.

We have God’s Spirit within us fellowshipping with our Spirit.

And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty.

We never have to leave the burning bush or the Tent of Meeting.

But we all, with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory …

True restored relationship finds its source in continual, unending encounters, face to face, as in a mirror, with God’s presence dwelling with us and upon us.

May we each fervently pursue the greater, the greatest portion of a face to face, friend to friend, neighbor to neighbor relationship with heavenly Father today.

May our Spirits come alive as we each grow in your awareness of God’s Spirit.

May we all have powerful, worshipful, mightily transformative encounters with God’s presence, on God’s Mountain, likened to that which Moses experienced.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

1. Meditate on God’s desire to meet with Moses. Allow the Words of Scripture to fill you with a longing to meet with God as Moses did.

“When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then he said, ‘Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ And he said, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.” Exodus 3:4-6

“When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.” Exodus 33:9-11

2. Where WILL you establish your tent of meeting? Where and when WILL you consistently encounter the presence of God and meet with your heavenly Father face-to-face, and friend to friend, and neighbor to neighbor?

3. Everyday, intentionally make time and take time to meet with God as Moses did. Open your sin sickened heart and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal his nearness.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” John 14:15-17

Having that consistent time and place to meet with God allows us to develop a rhythm by which we grow more mature in experiencing, facing, God’s presence.

2 Samuel 7:18-22 New King James Version

David’s Thanksgiving to God

¹⁸ Then King David went in and sat before the Lord; and he said: “Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that You have brought me this far? ¹⁹ And yet this was a small thing in Your sight, O Lord God; and You have also spoken of Your servant’s house for a great while to come. Is this the manner of man, O Lord God? ²⁰ Now what more can David say to You? For You, Lord God, know Your servant. ²¹ For Your word’s sake, and according to Your own heart, You have done all these great things, to make Your servant know them. ²² Therefore You are great, ^[a]O Lord God. For there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

To establish, to have our own Tent of Meeting is vital to Christian spirituality.

Choose a place and time that won’t get disrupted and will help you center your life around meeting with your heavenly Father – remembering His greatness.

Shredding every last vestige of our nonsensical notions of alleged greatness.

There is absolutely nothing more important or pressing upon our souls than seeing the face of God, being transformed by his love and nearness every day.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

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