A
Quite Little Tent for Two, Week 5 Day 4, Exodus 33
How
does one become friends with God? Especially
how does one become friends with the God of the Old Testament? Once we get to the God from the
New Testament, that God could be
your friend. It talks about
that in John 15:14-15. “Jesus
says, ‘You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because
a servant does not know he master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends,
for everything that I learned from the Father I have made known to you.’”
So
in the New Testament and with Christ we get to be friends. But the Old Testament God doesn’t
exactly come across as a warm and fuzzy kind of God, does He? More like a fire and brimstone do what
I say or I’ll smite you kind of God.
Yet
somehow Moses and God have pulled it off. “The Lord would speak to Moses face to
face, as a man speaks with his friend.” Just Moses and God, meeting in the
tent, having a little chat, buddy to buddy. Where’s the wrath? Where’s the judgment? Where’s the special effects?
Yet
this Old Testament God is so open to Moses that the things He says to him are
quite remarkable. God tells
Moses that He knows Him by name. God
tells Moses that He will give him rest.
God will even show Moses His fac…, ah, make that His backside. Wouldn’t want Moses dying on us while we’re
still stuck in the desert. How did they
get so close? What’s the
basis for this friendship?
Consider
how they met, or I should say when Moses first met God since I’m pretty sure
God already knew about Moses. At
the burning bush Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. He either instinctively knew that he
shouldn’t presume equality with God or the whole burning but not consumed bush thing
sacred the be-gee-bers out of him. Then
there are some introductions, “Moses, this is the God of your father, the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. You can call Him ‘I AM WHO I
AM!” “I AM WHO I AM, this
is Moses.” They get a sense
of each others’ position. They
exchange names, business cards, Facebook friending, etc.
Then
they join together in a common task, a goal. Okay, Moses signs up, somewhat reluctantly to be God’s man. And God gives Moses some instruction
in The Art of Magical Negotiations 101. The
new recruit even has the nerve to make some demands. “I can speak very well. Can’t you send someone else.” Moses is not getting out of the
relationship that easily. God gets angry but then provides an assistant.
Then
Moses and God take a long journey together through meetings with Pharaoh,
plagues, the parting of the Red Sea , three months in the
desert, manna and quail, a little mountain top retreat and that problem with a golden
calf.
And
here they sit together in the tent chatting as friends. Not bad for a guy with a questionable past
who isn’t the best speaker. To go from
being wanted for homicide to being God’s buddy is quite a journey. And I think that’s the point, it’s a journey. This friendship is a journey with a definite
beginning and a whole lot of life, miracles and adventure after that.
It started with God. God picked Moses. God picked Moses back at the burning
bush. I’m even willing to bet that God picked
him way back when Moses was a baby and his mom put him in a reed basket on the Nile . God picked Moses to be the Deliver of Israel,
the Leader of His new nation. But that
still doesn’t make them friends. Just
makes Moses a “volunteer” of sorts, and a reluctant one at that.
So, I guess the answer to the question is
in the journey. Somewhere along the way
from basket in the Nile and the burning bush to this tent in the desert they went from
God and reluctant recruit to friends.
Can’t put my finger on exactly when it happened. Pretty sure it happened before Moses had the
audacity to argue with God about the fate of Israel
I have a confession to make here. And please feel free to disagree with me on
this point. I’m not the master expert of
all things friendship by a long shot.
But, I’ve always been suspect of people who just meet and magically
become best friends forever. Yeah, you
can meet someone and really click. But I
think it just takes some experiencing life together to really get to know
someone. Maybe this point of view is
more about my own personality and quirks.
I know I’ve got my fair share of those.
But I think it takes a quite a few miles walking the same road to really
get to know someone. It takes enough experience
to build trust with someone. I think the
same is true in our becoming friends with God.
I’m pretty sure God already knows us,
being God and all. But it takes some
doing life together for us to really get to know Him. It takes some conversations with Him to start
to understand Him. It takes some
miracles in our lives and some adventures on our journey with Him to really
start to understand how He works, what makes Him tick. We need enough of Him working in our lives to
understand how He works in our lives. I’m
not trying to say that we’ll ever completely understand God. But we need to learn to be comfortable with
Him in the same tent, or in the same room.
And don’t confuse living life together
with time. You can spend your whole life
“being a Christian” and never really get to know God. If you don’t do life with Him, if you ignore
Him, if you’ve known of Him for years but spent little time actually living
with Him, there’s a good chance you’re just acquaintances. And that would be truly sad. God wants to be your friend. You could be His friend. But you’ve been too busy with other stuff or
maybe just forgotten that He’s right there in the room with you.
And how well does Moses know God? How good is their friendship? Good enough that He could argue with
God. He knew God well enough to even win
the argument. Good enough to say, “If
You are pleased with me, teach me Your ways so I may know You and continue to
find favor with You.” Yeah, Moses knows
God well enough to know that the thing he wants most is to know Him
better. Moses and God still have quite a
few adventures ahead of them. And I hope
they reserved that tent for a lot more friendly conversations.
Guess the Old Testament God really isn’t
that different from the One in the New Testament. All Powerful.
Creator. Beginning and the End. Judge.
Savior. And if we’ll let Him, Friend.
God, You and I really need to get
together and do something today. Maybe
we could sit down for a chat? Perhaps
You’ve got an adventure planned for me.
Those use to make me pretty nervous but we’ve been though enough of them
together that I’m pretty sure You can get me through another one. And I’ve found writing this blog to be a
pretty good way to spend time with you each day, makes You seem more real. Or I guess maybe it just makes me more aware
of Your “realness.” Later Friend. I’ve got to go to work now. See You there. Bye and Amen
Leonard
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