Face to Face
Today’s Bible Reading: EXODUS 32:1-34:35
Exodus 33:11
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 had what we want. His encounter is what we desire to experience. God spoke to Moses face to face. He didn’t speak to Him from a distance, but directly. He didn’t converse with him from a cloud, but close. He didn’t address Him from afar, but near. How we long to see His face and to have intimate fellowship with Him. We desire a deep familiarity with Him. We yearn for nearness to Him. How we pine for Him to counsel us, console us, comfort us, correct us and challenge us like a faithful friend. We want to sit with Him, share with Him, and speak with Him. We want to hear from Him and be held by Him. We want what Moses had.
We are either friends or foes with God. He either stands with us or strives against us. We either have entrance into His presence or are excluded from it. Friendship with the world makes us enemies with God (James 4:4) Following sin hides His face. Transgressions turn Him away. Iniquity isolated Him (Is 59:1-2). Depravity distances us from Him so that encounters with Him seem to elude us.
Yet it is repentance that restores our relationship. It is confession that returns His closeness. He is as near as we want Him to be. If His face is hidden, He is not hidden. If He has turned away, He has not turned aside. It is us that must turn to Him. It is us that must come to Him. If we want to see His face we must fall on our face. It is cleansing from sin that renews our closeness to Him.
We want a warm welcome not as a foe, but as a friend. What a friend we have in Jesus. It is in Him that we are brought near. It is by His sinless life, sacrificial death and supernatural resurrection that we have fellowship with the Father. It is by Him drawing near that we can draw near. He provides direct access for us to Jehovah. Jesus is God. Friendship with Him is friendship with God. Jesus said, “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:14). It is following Jesus that brings us into “Face to Face” fellowship with the Father. His presence awaits you, face to face as with a friend.
Today honestly and sincerely seek to come into God’s presence. Thank Him for Jesus who enables you to come near. Ask the Lord to search your heart and remove anything that restricts your “friendship” relationship to Him. Seek today and every day to meet with the Lord “face to face” as with a friend.
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