Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
God told Moses that no man could see His face and live (Ex. 33:20-23). When Moses saw God, he saw God's "back parts" after God placed Moses in "the cleft of the rock" and passed by him. Moses did not see God's face.
What struck me this morning about Moses seeing God is the deep love of God for Moses in that scene on Mount Sinai. God must have wanted to be with Moses as much as Moses wanted to be with God and to see Him. That is a part of the story that I don't think I have ever mentioned in any Old Testament class. Oh, Maleah, God's love is so encompassing and so great that we cannot even realize it is there unless He helps us to see it.
Near the end of Israel's long and sad story, God sent the prophet Malachi to say to Israel, "I have loved you!" Try to imagine how far from God Israel must have wandered by that time, for her to demand of Him after He said that, "In what way have you loved us?" After all that God had done for His beloved people, He found that they did not realize that He had ever even loved them at all. That must have broken His tender heart. We don't want to hurt God any more. Let's live right.
God wants us to know that He is always near and is "a very present help in time of trouble." If we really recognize God working for our good in the circumstances of our lives, as He always is, then we feel His love, "for God is love". If God is with us, His love surrounds us. If God is in us, "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost which He hath given unto us."
Because His love is so great for us, He constantly tries to show us it is there, but how difficult a task it has always seemed to be for us to see it! May God help us live in His Spirit so that we don't miss what He is doing for us constantly, and then become unthankful.