In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve enjoyed unhindered, life-giving intimacy with God, connecting to God face to face. This was how God had created us humans to relate to Him – as His beloved children, expressing our love to Him and being loved by Him in deeply personal relational connection.
Ever since our first ancestors were deceived into abandoning that intimacy, choosing to satisfy their physical desires over their desire to know and love God, God has consistently and graciously reached out to us to draw us back to Himself. The Bible contains the wondrous account of God’s pursuit of humanity, and the ways He has worked to make it possible for us to return to Him and to experience the life-giving glory of knowing Him intimately.
Today’s reading offers us a tiny snapshot of a lovely moment in God’s great mission to restore people to a proper relationship with Himself. It portrays Moses living out his hunger for God and for God’s presence, while leading the Israelites through the wilderness. Desperate to know and love God more, Moses is inspired by the LORD to erect a “tent of meeting”, a place apart from the everyday activities of the community, where he could go to meet with God in face-to-face communion. Here Moses engaged in personal worship of God, no doubt expressing his deep honour, reverence, love, homage, praise and surrender to God.
Given the meaning of the most commonly used Hebrew word for worship, shâchâh, it’s highly likely that Moses would connect to God by prostrating himself in homage to God, bowing down, kneeling, or falling face-down before God to give reverence, love and honour to Him. These moments of connection with God in the ‘tent of meeting’ fuelled Moses to continue his mission for God, and they also created in him such a hunger for God that he could say with all sincerity: “‘If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here”, and “Now show me your glory!” Moses is a great example of a man of worship, because he desired intimacy with God more than he wanted the blessings of the Promised Land. Moses wanted to see God’s glory more than he wanted to see the beauty of Canaan. This “greater love” for God makes him a role model for our worship too.
LORD my God, by the ministry of Your loving Spirit, please create in me the same hunger and desire that I observe in Moses. Show me how I too can create the time and space every day to engage in personal worship and relational intimacy with You. Thank You for Jesus Who has broken the power of sin to separate me from You and please give me the grace to use the glorious freedom I have in Christ to draw close to You in loving worship. Amen.
Dave's Diary 
Leave a comment