A Chat With God...

Day 83:  Exodus 33, Psalm 83 & 2 Samuel 3

As a man speaks to his friend, face to face, that is how God spoke to Moses.

Tonight a friend of mine came over to the house.  We hadn't seen each other in about a week so he sat down and we talked.  I think he started with some commotion at his house, a couple stories from work, something about a few stops at some antique places and his checkbook.  Then he says, well, that's my last few weeks, what about you?  So I told him about my week and we laughed and got sidetracked and remembered some funny stuff that happened and confessed some things that we, "probably shouldn't have done..."  Then it was time to go and he left.

Exodus 33 explains what would happen when Moses talked to God and you know what, it sounds a lot like my conversation with my friend, with a few significant differences.

Moses set up a tent well outside the camp area of the Israelites (which probably totaled well over a million tents) where people could go and talk with God.  Jim and Mark and Bob would head out to the tent and no one really paid any attention to it, but when Moses headed out to the tent word spread quickly through the entire camp and every man would stand at the entrance to his own tent and watch as Moses made his way to the Tent of Meeting, that's what they called it.  Once Moses got there (with his understudy Joshua) the pillar of cloud would move from the Tabernacle and would ascend at the entrance to the tent of meeting.  When that happened the men would once again stand but this time the would worship God, perhaps in prayer, while the pillar was at the tent.

Can you imagine that.  As a pastor I pray every week in front of the church and many times during the week for the church, individuals and situations and seeking help in planning and creativity, etc., and I know that there are others in the church who pray for me, some on a daily basis.  But never has anyone stood with such anticipation of what was about to happen in my conversation with God.  Never have there been those who worshiped while I conversed with God Almighty.  What reverence was held for Moses and God as they would meet at the tent.

And while the people were worshiping God the text says that God was "speaking to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend."  Wow.  Moses had a relationship with God that was more like a friendship, like catching up with a buddy you haven't seen in a week.  The people worshiped while Moses had a chat with God.

Sometimes we tell people that we will pray for them like it is the most insignificant thing we could possibly do.  It's like, I really don't want to do any more than I have to or be inconvenienced in any way so... "I'll pray for you!"  While Moses talks with God resembled two friends, the people understand that what was going on in that tent was serious business.  The fate of the entire nation of Israel swung in the balance.  In fact, it in this very chapter that Moses begs God not to leave the Israelites alone as they continue their journey (God was really angry with them for the whole golden-calf incident and idolatry).  Moses saved the skin of the Israelites on more than one occasion as he talked with God in the tent of meeting.

I need to remember this when I sit down to pray.  I am talking with the God of the universe and while the topic and the outcome and the implications of that time are universally important, God is my friend who I can be real with, talk and laugh with and beg and scream at and irritate and love.  But while where in that moment, cosmic things are happening.  Angels are being brought to the ready.  Plans are being laid and courses charted in the spiritual realms that I may never see but are none-the-less real.  Hearts are being changed, bodies healed, relationships restored and termites secured.  And all that happens when I have a chat with God.

Have you had your chat today?  I'll worship while you pray because big things are going to happen.