#DailyDevotion Is the Lord Jesus Your Friend?

Easter Week 3 Monday

Read Exodus 33:1-23

Exodus 33:[11] Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent. ..20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” [21] And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, [22] and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. [23] Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” (ESV)

At first these two things may seem contradictory: Moses speaks face to face with the Lord and the Lord won’t let Moses see his face. But the first seems to be a figure of speech by the words which follow, “as a man speaks with his friend.” So what might this mean? It means the Lord spoke to Moses directly. He didn’t speak to him through dreams and visions, or through angels but directly, one to one. What a great and lofty privileged Moses had. Before going into the promised land Moses wanted some assurance of God’s mercy and friendship to carry along the way. So the Lord deigned to have Moses see his backside because the face of the Lord is too glorious for fallen man to see, even if you are Moses.

Now the Lord used to meet with Moses at the tent of meeting in a cloud. But we have had something more glorious than Moses. The Lord made a promise to send a prophet like Moses to the people after his death. Now the Lord didn’t send any old person to do that job. The Lord himself became flesh and dwelt among us to be the promised prophet. The people of Israel, of Judah, the twelve apostles saw the Lord who dwelt among them in the promised land and talked with him face to face, even if indeed he hid his glory from them, excepting at the mount of transfiguration.

But during that time the Lord Jesus did go among his people and teach them as a friend, face to face. There he showed them his glory though upon the cross for it is the Lord’s glory to show mercy to us. But there is more. The apostle Paul promises us on the day of resurrection, the Lord’s glorious day, we shall Jesus as he is and we shall be like him. On that day we shall be either resurrected of transformed to have bodies like his glorious resurrected body. We shall be able to look into the face of our Lord Jesus Christ and talk with him as a man talks with his friend. Indeed, Jesus promised and said to us already, “I call you friends.” and “I have not kept anything from you.” What glory that is for us that the Lord calls us his friends and has revealed all things in his Word to us. Who are his friends? Those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who believe he has had mercy on them on the cross. His friends believe his promise of the resurrection and being brought into the true promised land, the new heavens and the new earth.

Lord Jesus Christ, you have called us your friends by your great mercy. On the day of resurrection reveal to us your face that we may be transformed into your likeness and dwell with you and the Father unto all eternity. In your name we pray. Amen.