By Eric Elder
Lesson 39 - Meeting With God
For me, one of the most encouraging things to read about in the Bible
is when people meet with God. It’s amazing to me that people not
only meet with God, but that God wants to meet with us.
One of those passages occurs in the middle of Exodus chapter 33 and
describes how Moses went about meeting with God.
“Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some
distance away, calling it the ‘tent of meeting.�?Anyone inquiring of
the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. And
whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at
the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the
tent. As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come
down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses.
Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance
to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to
his tent. The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks
with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young
aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.�?nbsp; (Exodus 33:7-11)
This passage is tucked in the midst of a very difficult time in the
life of the Israelites. God was really angry with them for what they
had just done, by turning away from Him. After God dealt with their
sin, He told them to go ahead of Him into the promised land. Then
God added, “But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-
necked people and I might destroy you on the way.�?(Exodus 33:3b)
The people were distressed to hear this. So Moses did again what was
apparently something he had been doing already on a regular basis.
He went out to meet with God in the “tent of meeting.�?/FONT>
I think many of us go through times when we feel like God is really
close to us, then go through other times when we feel He is far from
us. There are many reasons for this kind of ebb and flow in our
relationship with God. But I know for me, if God seems distant, I
want to make sure it isn’t because I have become “stiff-necked,�?like
God described had happened to the people in this passage. I want to
make sure my neck is well-lubricated and fully turned towards Him.
I remember an author who described a time in his own life when he was
feeling empty in the things he was doing for God. He realized that
he was using his own skills and abilities more and more to serve God,
but relying on God less and less. In order to regain His full
reliance on God in doing what God had called him to do, he realized
he needed to turn back to God again in a personal relationship that
was real and vibrant.
As part of his personal renewal, he made a commitment to himself to
write out his dialogue with God daily, filling at least one page of a
notebook per day. By intentionally carving out time to be with God
again, he was able to recapture the joy and fullness of serving Him.
We don’t have to deliberately sin to feel like God is distant. But
sometimes through our busy-ness, laziness, or plain neglect, we can
find ourselves farther and farther from the one true relationship
that matters most: our relationship with God.
God wants to meet with us. And when we put our faith in Christ, God
promises to send His Holy Spirit to not only meet with us, but to
live within us (see Romans 8:11), and to speak with us, too:
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all
truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he
hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.�?(John 16:13)
God wants to meet with you, too. Take time to meet with Him today.
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