I apologize for losing the blog post on Monday morning. I'm not sure what happened but we were getting a thunderstorm at the time I was writing it and I think maybe my internet connection flickered off just as I clicked the "Publish" button because as soon as I did the whole thing vanished. Thank you for your patience and we will hope nothing like that happens again.
At this point in Exodus the Lord has removed the fullness of His presence somewhat from the people (following their sudden downward slide into idolatry) so they can test themselves to see where they stand in their faith. As we said on Sunday morning, if they find they're perfectly comfortable living at a distance from God then that means they are content with mediocre living, spiritually speaking. But if they find themselves mourning for the closeness they once felt with God, they will be able to rightly conclude that they are the ones who put the distance between themselves and God through their episode of idolatry in Chapter 32. This gives them the opportunity to repent and get back on track, which it looks like the people are willing to do in today's passage.
The tent where Moses consults the Lord on behalf of the people is placed at a distance from the camp. It's not in the midst of it but outside of it. This symbolizes the distance they've placed between themselves and the Lord. But the people haven't forgotten the Lord. We know this because they are very much aware of the tent at all times. Moses can't make a move toward the tent without everyone jumping to their feet. This is a good sign that they still respect the Lord and want to know His will for their lives and want to get back to obeying whatever He says. "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 entrance 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 their tent." (Exodus 33:7-10)
Reading the verses above made me feel hopeful about the spiritual condition of the people and it also made me feel sad for them. I wonder if they stood in the doorways of their tents to make certain the Lord was still with them. Every time they saw the pillar of cloud at the entrance to the tent of meeting, they were reassured by knowing God was still there even though He was outside the camp and not in the middle of the camp. They knew they hadn't driven Him away with their mistakes. They knew He hadn't given up on them. The reason it makes me sad to think this might have been what was on their minds is because although you know and I know God has never given up on Israel and never will forsake Israel, their guilty awareness of the way they had failed to honor Him caused them to fear He might leave them. I think a lot of us can relate to that. I know intellectually that God will never leave me; I'm His child forever through my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But when I mess up and feel intense guilt and sorrow over my sin, something in my heart can't help feeling that God must be disappointed with me. It makes me wonder whether He will be inclined to answer any prayers for me in the near future, considering how terribly I've missed the mark. Of course this isn't the way God operates, especially when we are sorry for our sins and repent of them, but we often project human traits onto God. Sometimes our fellow human beings are disappointed or disgusted with us. Sometimes our fellow human beings get tired of us making mistakes and decide they don't want to be our friends anymore. Then we start thinking God is going to react to us the way some people have reacted to us.
God wants to be "best friends forever" with us and that brings us to the main subject of our study today: friendship with God. The Bible tells us Moses experienced friendship with God: "The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend." (Exodus 33:11a)
Why did God consider Moses such a close friend that He spoke with him face to face? We're going to be looking at several reasons why but the first reason is because Moses loved the Lord! Moses wasn't perfect; he was a human being just like we are. But the Lord was number one in Moses' heart and the Lord knew it. We can't truthfully say we are someone's friend if we don't love them, can we? And would anyone want to be our friend if they suspected we didn't really care about them? Of course not. So we see that one reason Moses is called the friend of God is because he loved God.
I think another reason God considers Moses a friend is because Moses loves the people God loves. Moses displays a heart like God's for the people. This is why Moses works so hard on behalf of the Israelites. This is why he goes to the tent of meeting regularly to intercede for them in prayer and to inquire of the Lord's will for them. This is why a few days ago we found him so distressed by the thought that some of the Israelites might be spiritually lost that he tried to offer his own soul in place of theirs. Real love is sacrificial and that's the kind of love Moses has for the people. He loves them in a way that reflects God's love for them and I think God can't help feeling a great deal of affection and friendship toward Moses because of this. Could you be friends with someone who hates those you love? I don't see how you could, really. If Moses didn't love his fellow man then I don't think God could have considered him much of a friend.
Another thing we find Moses doing is respecting the Lord and being obedient to Him. Everything the Lord tells Moses to do, he does. Yes, sometimes he questions the Lord. Sometimes he tries to talk the Lord into calling someone else to do the work like he did on the day the Lord spoke to him at the burning bush. From time to time Moses is going to become exasperated by the people and will want the Lord to remove the heavy load of leadership from his shoulders. But in the end Moses always goes ahead and does whatever the Lord tells him to do because he respects the Lord's authority over his life.
I'm reminded of a parable the Lord Jesus taught that has to do with respect and obedience. In Matthew 21 we find Him telling the "Parable Of The Two Sons" and in this parable we find the father of two sons asking them to go out into his vineyard to work. The elder son talks back to his father and says, "I won't go," but later he changes his mind and goes and works in the vineyard. The younger son promises to go and work in the vineyard but he doesn't follow through. The Lord asked, "Which of these two did what his father wanted?" And the people listening to Him at the temple replied correctly, "The first." Moses is like the first son in the parable. Sometimes he doesn't really feel like doing what the Lord tells him to do. There are occasions when he feels that someone else would be a better man for the job. There are days when he isn't sure he can keep on going because the job of leading the people for forty years in the desert is so difficult. But then he always ends up doing whatever the Lord told him to do. God can be friends with a person like that who respects His wishes. Would any of us want to be friends with someone who has no respect for us? Friends who don't respect us aren't really friends. They're hanging around with us for the wrong reasons and what we need are friends with whom we can form mutually respectful relationships. That's the same type of friend God is looking for!
Moses was a human being just like us---a human being with all the typical faults and failures of mankind---whom God considered a friend because he loved the Lord, he loved his fellow man, and he respected and obeyed the Lord. This is good news for us because you and I can be the friends of God too! We too can love the Lord, love our fellow man, and respect and obey the Lord.
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