Face to Face
Recently, I saw a commercial where a mother was holding her infant. She wasn’t holding the baby in her arms as you would expect, but she held the baby close to her face. In fact, she and the baby were literally face to face.
The baby was moving its face back and forth, caressing the mother’s chin. It was quite moving to see such a serene moment between mother and child.
In my daily Bible reading, I just finished the Book of Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy 34, Moses is about to die. He knew he would not enter the promised land, but God allowed Moses to see it off in the distance. Moses and God had a real friendship so much that in Deuteronomy 34:10, it says, “There has never been another prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.”
You see, Moses would go inside the Tent of Meeting and the Lord would come down and speak to him, face to face, as one speaks to a friend (Exodus 33:11) No other prophet in Israel ever had this encounter – a friendship with God. This is so powerful to me that this Hebrew boy, raised by Pharaoh's wife, grew into a man that would be picked by God to lead His people out of Egypt’s bondage.
I would love to think that there was something super spiritual about this man Moses that would cause God to have this type of relationship with him. But there wasn’t. He was just a man. In fact, he was a Hebrew that walked away from all the wealth and power he could have gotten from Pharaoh's house, he murdered an Egyptian and was banished to the desert. So why would God choose Moses?
We don’t really know why God chose Moses. But I imagine that there must have been an honest, sincere hunger and desire in Moses’ heart to know this God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he had heard so much about because it was in the desert that Moses would have an encounter with the Holy God of Israel. It was in the desert where Moses would dare to talk with God Almighty and boldly ask to see Him. Of course, no man could ever see God and live.
So, God didn’t allow Moses to look directly at Him, but God did allow Moses to see His hinder parts. This would be the first encounter of an ongoing vibrant relationship between the two.
As I think about the picture of the mother and child face to face and then read the description of Moses and God relationship, there are a few things to consider.
First, Jesus calls all, whosoever will, to accept Him as Lord and Savior. The invitation is extended for everyone to come close to Him, to abide in Him, and to grow in a relationship with Him.
Secondly, when face to face, your eyes are fixed in one direction which means distractions are only visible in the peripheral vision.
Third, being face to face shows a level of intimacy and devotion that is limited to one.
Fourth, being face to face is a choice to stay there and not turn away.
So, I would suggest to you that we are no different than Moses. Jesus desires for us to walk with Him, talk with Him, and dwell with Him. He calls us to live our lives in total surrender and obedience to Him. And as we choose to do so, we too can have a face-to-face friendship with Jesus where nothing else matters but knowing Him.
