Exodus 33:7-11

 

In these few lines from Exodus, the writer describes how the meeting tent was like a church, a meeting place where Moses or a human could go, to talk to God, on such hallowed ground. Moses must have been someone very special for God to be willing to talk to him face to face.

Note that the meeting tent was outside the camp, almost like a church was not a collective gathering to talk to God but a more personal, intimate, one on one exchange.

 

This quote is from my The New American Bible.

 

The tent, which was called the meeting tent, Moses used to pitch at some distance away, outside the camp. Anyone who wished to consult the Lord would go to this meeting tent outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, the people would all rise and stand at the entrance of their own tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. As Moses entered the tent, the column of cloud would come down and stand at its entrance while the Lord spoke to Moses. On seeing the column of cloud stand at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise and worship at the entrance of their own tents. The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one man speaks to another, but his young assistant, Johsua, son of Nun would not move out of the tent.”

 

Here is that same quote from The Holy Bible: “And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that everyone which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.

 

 

And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle.

 

And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked to Moses.

 

And all the people saw the cloudy pillar at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshiped, every man in his tent door.

 

And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, departed not out of the tabernacle.”

 

My response: God showed Himself to the Hebrews as a voice in a moving cloud, but he talked to Moses, face to face. If the people saw God in a cloud, this worldly embodiment of divine presence did bolter their faith, as so intended. Could we again not grow in faith, so that God or one of the good divinities or the Good Spirits could walk down the street and stop and say hello; if we were good enough and faith-filled enough, it might happen anywhere.