Face to Face

The other morning I read a devotional about Moses and God by Mark Roberts, the senior director of Laity Lodge. The verse being discussed is Exodus 33:11:

Inside the Tent of Meeting, the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Afterward Moses would return to the camp, but the young man who assisted him, Joshua son of Nun, would remain behind in the Tent of Meeting.

The phrase describing how the Lord spoke to Moses—“face to face, as one speaks to a friend”—caught my attention. It highlights the intimate quality of the conversation between God and Moses, not that Moses could literally see the face of God. That is certainly what I long for! I want to have that intimate conversation with God, not necessarily literally face to face, but certainly with that confidence and trust and openness. The idea of meeting God and having a conversation as one speaks to a friend certainly feels more welcoming to me than coming before a teacher or a judge or the King of the Universe! I feel more relaxed when I pray if I think of God as a friend; it helps release the feeling of being judged or criticized, that I will find out all the things I have done wrong recently. Definitely, God is not our “buddy”—God is still “God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth,” but God wants us to come to him without fear and experience his love for us. Psalm27:8 says it this way: “When You said, ‘Seek my face,’ my heart said to You, ‘Your face, O Lord, I shall seek’” (NASB).

When I speak to a friend face to face and not just over the phone or by email, I do that because I want to have time to find out about my friend, how she’s doing, how she’s feeling. I want to spend time with that friend, not shopping, not reading, not watching a movie, but finding out what is going on in my friend’s life. I want to be able to pay attention to my friend and have a good conversation with my friend. To think that God, the Lord of the universe, “Creator of all that is seen and unseen,” might want to speak to me face to face! And didn’t he, in the form of Jesus?