Yesterday we saw that Moses, more than anyone in Old Testament scripture, had close encounters with God. We looked at the story of Moses and the burning bush. It was a sign Moses needed cleansing in order to be safe in God’s presence. It pointed us to a greater cleansing, and a greater washing, that Jesus provides for us on the cross.
Today we’re looking at another close encounter Moses had with God. When Moses led God’s people out of Egypt, he was invited to speak again with God. This time the meeting was at Mount Sinai.
Once Aaron and seventy elders were invited part way up the mountain to experience God’s presence, Exodus 24. But they had to keep their distance. Only Moses was invited further up. He went up into the clouded mountain for six days, Exodus 24v12-16.
In the final ascent to the mountain Moses was with God for forty days, Exodus 34. After that time Moses was transformed. “… he (Moses) was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant” (Exodus 34v29-30).
Whether it was because of the amount of time they spoke together, or whether it was from being in God’s presence, Moses was transformed from spending time with God in this close encounter.
You too are invited into God’s presence. If you have seen God for who He is, if Jesus has taken that veil away (2 Corinthians 3v14), you are invited into His presence. This conversation with God is something you were made for. And when that happens you are transformed.
“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3v18)
The more time we spend in this close encounter with God, through His Word, the more we will be transformed. Can you see this transformation yourself? Is Christlikeness something you are growing into? Like Moses, are you becoming more like the one you claim to worship?
Bible commentator, Dale Ralph Davis wrote: “You should be terrified if you have the truth and yet that truth does not grip, control and transform you.”
I pray, for each of us, as we spend time in God’s Word, that we will be more transformed at the end of this lockdown than we were before it.
Lloyd
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