Face to Face

In the book of Exodus we find a very beautiful yet tragic story of God's love for His people.  Beautiful because it shows how God came to talk with His people face to face and share His heart with them.  Tragic because the people rejected Him .   In the third month after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, they were encamped in the wilderness of Sinai.  God spoke to Moses and said, "Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak and may also believe forever." (Exodus 19:9)  He directed Moses to tell the people to consecrate themselves and be ready for the third day.

"On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.  Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain.  Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire.  The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly"  (Ex. 19:16-18).

Then God shares His heart by speaking to the people His ten commandments. Exodus chapter 20 continues the story, "Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled and they stood far off and said to Moses, 'You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us lest we die'" (Ex. 20:18-19).  In Deuteronomy 5:4 Moses says, "The LORD spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire...."

Here lies the whole intent of God.  He purposes to have a face to face relationship with His People. He had this relationship with Adam.  We know this because it is clear in Genesis that they customarily  walked together in the garden but Adam's disobedience sent us all on a different path. Here at the mountain the people  tremble before God because they fear the death and destruction of their sorry flesh.  Moses must become mediator between God and man.

So now comes a long history of having to come to the Tabernacle and after that, to the temple to meet God.  The people brought their sacrifices and offerings to priests who mediated for them.  But God laments in Isaiah 1, "What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? ... I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.  When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts?  Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me.  New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations-- I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.  Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.  When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood."

"Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause" (Is. 1:11-17).

God never found pleasure in these rituals.   The law was but a shadow of the good things to come.  He wanted men's hearts inclined to His, not a bunch of bloody sacrifices.  He put all these laws, rituals, sacrifices, temples in place as illustrations to show us how to live with Him.

As for a mediator, "There is [only] one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1Tim 2:5).  Still, we look for other men to know God's word and then tell us what He says.  We drift from church  to church and teacher to teacher to find the mediator who makes us most comfortable with ourselves. We are acting like the people of Israel who would not allow God to speak to them directly.  We want to keep our sorry flesh.  We don't want to change.  Yet, death of the flesh is the only way to have relationship with God.  Jesus said "He who would save his life will lose it and he who would lose his life will save it."

1 John 3:27 says "...you have no need that anyone should teach you.  But as his anointing teaches you about everything ...abide in him."  So come to Jesus, and live as He did as a man.  Learn from His laws and testamonies and obey.    Start abiding in Him and let Him abide in you and step into the relationship that God intended from the beginning, face to face.