[NOTE: I wrote this piece on February 11, 2015 when our church, Eagle Mountain Fellowship, was doing a year-long chronological Bible reading plan.]
“Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, because you are an obstinate people, and I might destroy you on the way.” -Exodus 33:3
Okay, maybe it’s my warped sense of humor but when I see this I hear: “Good night, Moses. Good work. Sleep well. I’ll most likely kill you in the morning.” Anyway…
The tent of meeting is such a powerful picture of the kind of relationship we are pursuing with the Lord. It says that “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend.” And I love how real and raw the conversation is. Moses tells God he isn’t willing to move forward without His presence…he’d rather stay in the desert with Him than move on to the land of milk and honey without.
“If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?”
God’s presence distinguishes us from everyone else on the planet. Moses so longed for it he asked God to show him His glory…His very being! God gave him just a tiny glimpse, so as not to destroy him, and it physically altered Moses so that shafts of light emitted from his face….he had to wear a veil to not freak out the others.
How much more glory will God reveal to us, His purchased Bride? How much better of a place do we have to stand before Him than the Tent of Meeting? We have unfettered access to confidently stand before the very Throne..not just in the by and by but NOW!
“Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the Holy Place [The Throne] by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh” -Hebrews 10:19-20
And His presence, that glory of His being, changes us:
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” 2 Cor. 3:17-18
The Greek word for ‘transformed’ here is ‘Metamorphoo’ from the same root of metamorphis (a catepillar changing into a butterfly). It’s the same word to describe Jesus transfiguration on the mount (a picture, I believe, of the potential of the Church, not His divinity; John was there and saw that but see how he totally loses it when he sees Jesus in His risen Godly glory in Revelation).
When we visit that heavenly “Tent of Meeting” it metamorphoses us into the beautiful, perfect, glorious Bride He has made for himself. It’s in this place of manifest presence we find honor and dignity of His intent for our creation…for His pleasure.