Daily devotion – no better place to be anywhere
Exo 33:11
So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.
I have this verse hanging in my office at the Church and I never miss reading it each time I am there and wonder at its beauty and message.
The NIV states it this way – The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.
This meeting occurred at a time when the children of Israel responded to the discipline and judgment of God upon them for being a stubborn people and they repented by taking off their ornaments and mourning. Previously they had contributed their gold ornaments to the making of an idol, and this had been their undoing. They were starting to learn their lesson – the hard way.
Moses as part of God’s judgment also had moved his tent of meeting to a location outside the camp, where he would personally meet with God. This is not the tabernacle of the Lord, since the tabernacle had not yet been erected and dedicated.
But this was a special tent that Moses used when he wanted to consult with God. God graciously met with Moses and spoke to him face-to-face in this tent.
The cloudy pillar that led the nation on their journey would hover over at the tent, and the people would know that Moses and the Lord were in conference.
When people have the opportunity to attend Church, be it a Sunday service or weekday study, or prayer time, the enemy of God’s people, Satan throws the kitchen sink at each of them in an attempt to keep them from going. Thoughts of weariness, the weather – its too hot or too cold, really will it make a difference if I go, flood their minds in order to jettison the desire to gather with God’s people and the presence of God who is always with the Church any time it gathers.
Wednesday nights and Sunday evening’s Satan really has hit some home runs keeping God’s people at bay. But when you still head out, attend such gatherings of the Church of Christ, have you ever noticed how the same people, who perhaps may have been hesitant in their being there, stay long after the service has concluded?
Wednesday’s nights prayer people are still praying even though corporate prayer has ceased. Sunday evenings, people continue even though the message is over, in deep fellowship about situations with others where counsel and comfort are happening spontaneously.
I often grab a seat in a corner somewhere at those times in the Chapel and view the ‘tent of meeting’ that is happening to the glory of God.
So too Joshua, he was not going anywhere as his being in the tent of meeting with the presence of God, had nothing in this world which could be in anyway superior as where was at that moment!