I'm so thankful to be sharing another guest post with you today written by my Dad...
Forty
Years – Lesson by Lesson
Lesson
three – His Presence, Beyond the Cloud
For forty years, I have read the
Bible over and over again. Each
time, a passage that I have read many times before arrests me for the first
time. It becomes a new discovery
with extraordinary meaning. There are,
however, two passages that are always scintillating to me. As I approach them I anticipate their
arrival. When upon them, I slow my
reading and allow the vivid images to saturate my thoughts. The first occurs in the book of Exodus,
chapter thirty three, beginning with the seventh verse. The bible records that over six hundred
thousand men over the age of twenty were lead by Moses out of Egypt. Including the elderly, women and
children, the Hebrew exodus numbered well over a million people. As you read this, imagine you were
there, a witness, among hundreds of thousands of families grouped together in a
desert encampment.
Now Moses used to take
the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance 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. And it came about,
whenever Moses went out to the tent, that all the people would arise and stand,
each at the entrance of his tent, and gaze after Moses until he entered the
tent. Whenever 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. When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the
tent, all the people would arise and worship, each at the entrance of his tent.
Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man
speaks to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, his servant
Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.
The second passage confirms the
special standing Moses had with our Lord.
Aaron, the high priest and trusted colleague of Moses, had questioned the
authority of Moses. Aaron, his
wife Miriam and Moses were called to stand before God. God addressed Aaron and Miriam firmly (Num
12:6-8):
He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet
among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. “Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My
household;
With him I speak mouth to mouth, Even openly, and not in dark
sayings,
And he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid
To speak against My servant, against Moses?”
Oh to be as Moses, to be able to
enter into the very presence of God, to talk with Him face to face as a man
speaks to his friend, to hear His voice, to observe His form, to be upheld and
defended with absolute authority.
I read these passages with awe and envy, that is until I learned of the
promise He made to us.
Each of us who loves God is blessed
to live in His presence. Do you
really believe He is here? In John, the fourteenth chapter,
Christ teaches that He and the Father are one (John 14:7) and that a “Helper”
otherwise known as the “Spirit of truth” will be sent to be with us and within
us forever (John 14:16). Jesus
defines the presence of this “Spirit” as the fullness of God when He says: “If
anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will
come to him and make Our abode with him (John 14:23).”
The disciple, Thomas, wouldn’t
believe our Lord was present until he stood before Jesus and touched His wounds
(John 20:27). Can we be blamed for
looking past our Lord whom we don’t see?
May it not be! Jesus said:
Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed” (John 20:29). We are empowered and blessed as never
before as we acknowledge and honor our God who remains with us and in us always.
Before we awake each morning, He
hovers over us waiting for our eyes to open. As we arise to start our day, He is present, hoping to be
remembered. In the midst of our
day He stands next to us waiting to be acknowledged and honored. He never leaves us while always
listening, observing, ready to respond, wanting to guide and to give strength. When we kneel to pray, He stands before
us and knows every word before they are spoken. No burning bushes or descending clouds are necessary to
announce His presence. He promised
He would be with us, with you, with me.
He is here.
So beautiful, and true.
Thank you for the reminder.