God is gracious and good. Even
after the Israelites worshipped a gold calf, God forgave them and
patiently wrote the Ten Commandments again on two stone tablets for
them. He called Moses up to Mount Sinai and Moses spent forty days
and forty nights in the presence of God. God called Moses 'His
Friend'.
'…the Lord would speak to Moses
face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.' Exodus 33:11
'And the Lord replied to Moses, "I
will indeed do what you have asked, for you have found favor with
Me, and You are My friend." Exodus 33:17
And when Moses returned to the
people after speaking to God his face glowed from being in God's
presence.
'When Moses came down the mountain
carrying the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the
covenant, he wasn't aware that his face glowed, because he had
spoken to the Lord face to face. And when Aaron and the people of
Israel saw the radiance of Moses' face, they were afraid to come
near him.' Exodus 34:29, 30 'When Moses had finished speaking with
them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever he went into the
Tent of Meeting to speak with the Lord, he removed the veil until
he came out again. Then he will give the people whatever
instructions the Lord had given him, and the people would see his
face aglow. Afterward he would put the veil on again until he
returned to speak with the Lord." Exodus 34:33-35
I was so jealous when I read this!
How wonderful to speak to God face to face, to be called His Friend
and to be aglow from His presence. But I quickly realized that all
of these things are possible for us too. Jesus calls us His friends
too. We are even more than that, we are His brothers and sisters,
children of the Most High! We are part of His body and through
Jesus, we can communicate with God face to face and by spending
time with Him we can glow and radiate His goodness for the whole
world to see. After all the Holy Spirit, which is God Himself,
lives inside of us and wants to radiate His goodness out
from within us! Paul clearly states this in 2 Corinthians
3:7,8,18
'The old system of law etched in
stone led to death, yet it began with such glory that the people of
Israel could not bear to look at Moses' face. For his face shone
with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already
fading away. Shouldn't we expect far greater glory when the Holy
Spirit is giving life? All of us have had that veil removed so that
we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And
as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more
like Him and reflect His glory even more.'
What an amazing statement. We can
glow just like Moses did, and we can glow even more, because we
have the fullness of the Holy Spirit living inside of us and we are
part of Jesus' Body. So why is it that we don't see it that often?
I must say I have met people who really radiated God's love and
goodness, but they are very few and far between. So now I ask
myself the question, because I don't see it in my life
either. And I think the answer is that we love this world too much
and we don't live in the reality of the heavenlies on a daily
basis. But let me talk about that next week. For now, know that it
is possible to glow and to shine God's glory for all to see!
Father, please forgive us that we
are not the mirrors that You intend us to be. Please lead us on
Your pathway and help us to shine Your love out for all to see. At
the end of the day we know that that is our main purpose in life.
Please help us to live up to it. In Jesus Name. Amen