Israel accepted God's covenant with
them. Moses announced all the teachings and regulations the Lord
had given him to the people and they agreed that they will do
everything that the Lord had told them to do. After that Moses,
Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and seventy of Israel's leaders went up to
Mount Sinai. And there an amazing thing happened.
"There they saw the God of Israel.
Under His feet there seemed to be a pavement of brilliant sapphire,
as clear as the heavens. And though Israel's leaders saw God, He
did not destroy them. In fact, they shared a meal together in God's
presence!" Exodus 24:10, 11
Wow! Can you imagine how amazing
that must have been? Having a meal together with the Lord. I was so
jealous when I read this. I want to see Him so close too! And when
I read on I became even more jealous. God summoned Moses to come
higher into the cloud resting on the mountain, and there Moses was
going to spend 40 days and 40 nights with God. Amazing! How
wonderful that must have been, being in the presence of the
Almighty living God!
But then the Holy Spirit made me
realize that I shouldn't be jealous, we have His Presence with us
every single day. Moses and the other leaders saw God now and again
as well as His mighty works, but they didn't experience
His Presence with them every single moment of every single day. We
do. They didn't have the Holy Spirit inside of them either. But we
do. They had to follow all the sacrificial laws and obligations
that we don't have to. We have the Bible to read and to study,
we've got God's living Words with us every day, they didn't have
that. We are much more fortunate than they ever were.
The problem with us is just that we
don't make the time to spend with God. He is always there, always
ready to support us and be with us and to spend time with us, but
we tend to get too busy for Him. We run around and we try and
survive in this dark world of ours, and all the while God is
waiting with open arms for us to come to Him. He wants to give us
His living Word to 'eat' and to make our own so that we can grow
spiritually, but we tend to be too busy or too tired to sit down
and actually read it. God wants to be with us, but we tend to rush
to Him only when a crises strikes. How sad.
God also wants to share a meal with
us at communion. But mostly we tend to be in another place mentally
when communion is served. Next time try and focus on God, see Him
in front of you, just like the Israelite leaders did. He is truly
there right next to you and He wants to share His risen life with
you. All you need to be is prepared to give of your time and to
listen to His tender voice speaking to you.
Lord thank you so much that You are
there for us every single moment of every single day. We rejoice in
that fact and we would love to spend time with You dear God. You
are our best friend and You are our King. In Jesus mighty Name.
Amen