The Privilege of Every Christian I
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(I have something on my heart, which I feel constrained to share with you immediately. Therefore, I interrupt our study on the glory of God in the home, in order to give you this vital article, and one which will shortly follow, on the essential need of prayer in the church in our day.)
“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of
grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16
Without getting into the details or the context around this single
verse, I wanted to lay it before you as an encouragement to all Christians,
concerning the common privilege of prayer. Obviously, not all are preachers or
teachers, not all can sing or play instruments and not all can be pastors or
deacons, but private or group prayer can be enjoyed by all.
Now I want to take you to a portion of Exodus, which I find intriguing,
and one that I really enjoy sharing with brothers and sisters in the faith. It
is from the life of Moses and tells of his relationship with God. I’m writing about
Exodus 33:7-11:
7. Moses took his tent and
pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of
meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the
tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp.
8. So it was, whenever Moses
went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his
tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle.
9. And it came to pass, when
Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at
the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.
10. All the people saw the
pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and
worshiped, each man in his tent door.
11. So the Lord spoke to Moses
face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp,
but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the
tabernacle.
A
mysterious place to seek God
I am attracted to this tabernacle, simply a tent in common English,
which is described here. Through a good portion of Exodus, you will read of the tabernacle that God ordained and you
will study its materials, its furniture and its construction. But this is
another tabernacle altogether and Moses erected it before the main one and set
it far outside the camp of Israel. Its appearance is rather mysterious and
after these few verses, we read no more of it.
There is a principle in this account, which I wish to uncover. To
further emphasize the mystery of the tent and the small account that we have of
it in the word of God, I want to point to a mysterious man in the book of
Genesis. If you have studied the book, you know that Abraham is the
protagonist, beginning from chapter 11. Even before he appears, in the same
chapter we have the descendants of Shem, the son of Noah, and his genealogy
connects us with Abraham… Shem, then, was an ancestor of Abraham as, of course,
was Noah himself. Previously, we have the account of the flood and in chapter
five, we have the genealogy from Adam to Noah. The entire purpose of the book
is to give us a biography of Abraham, who was selected to be the patriarch of
the Hebrew race. The story of his son, Isaac, follows and then Abraham’s
grandson and great-grandsons, the children of Israel.
In chapter 14, a mysterious man, Melchizedek, appears and his story is
related in only three verses (18-20). From that point on, throughout the
historical books, he is not mentioned again. We could easily conclude, that he
plays a minor part in the plan of God. That is, until we come to the Psalms
where David, under the Spirit of prophecy, discerns a testimony of Jesus
(glance at Rev.19:10). This is a Messianic Psalm and in it, David writes only
one verse about this man. He declares that the Messiah is “a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Ps.110:4).
However, when we come into the book of Hebrews in the New Testament, the writer
fills more than a chapter, teaching us of Melchizedek and shows his superiority
over even the patriarch, Abraham, and the Levitical priesthood (Heb.6:20-7:28).
I find this to be an amazing principle!
Under the same principle, we now
have this mysterious tent before us. I want to quote again verse 7, so we will
quote it again, keeping it close at hand: “Moses took his tent and pitched
it outside the camp, far from the camp,
and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to
the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp.” Can we possibly miss the fact that the writer
of Hebrews had this verse in mind, when he wrote 13:13? “Let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.” I
find this verse very fitting to our times, especially if, as I believe,
Laodicea is the dominating church today. The Lord Jesus calls to the individual
member in that church in Revelation 3:20: “Behold,
I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I
will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”
The Laodicean Church does not praise the one, who goes out to Him,
bearing His reproach. Most Christians in the West today look for commendation
from the world, not reproach. Moses, however, knew of the reproach of Christ.
The writer of Hebrews tells us: Moses
esteemed “the reproach of Christ greater
riches than the treasures in Egypt; for
he looked to the reward” (Heb.11:26). The individual Christian must go far from the camp, if he
is sincerely seeking God, and does not want to be identified with the general,
stiff-necked people: “The Lord had said
to Moses, ‘Say to the children of Israel, You are a stiff-necked people’” (Ex.33:5).
This tent was not for meeting with other people; it was there to
establish communion with God… to meet with Him. We must assure ourselves that
we are united to Him, before we can be united with one another. Go with me to
John 17:21 for a moment to the prayer of the Son to the Father: “That they all may be one, as You, Father,
are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may
believe that You sent Me.” Be very careful how you read this verse. The
main goal of the Christian is to be one with the Father and the Son, and not,
in the first place, to be united with others. You must go far outside the camp
first, and establish union with God. Even if you go alone, you will encounter
others there with the same desire, emanating from the heart. With these there
will be union and communion.
Prayer
is the most important activity of the church
“Then He taught, saying to
them, Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all
nations?” (Mk.11:17). Therefore,
if a church is not a house of prayer, it is not a house of God at all. In
Isaiah 56:7, God promises, “Them I will
bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful (the most popular Spanish
version says ‘I will cause them to
recreate’) in My house of prayer.” This
doesn’t seem to me to be a fulfilment of duty or a heavy responsibility. With
passion, we want to come here! This is where we long to be over anyplace else,
isn’t it?
The people stood in reverence, when Moses walked to the tent. It was
the most enviable place to be, over the entire universe. Prayer is a privilege
and most desirable and nothing can be compared to it. More than Moses, Jesus
demonstrated to His disciples the great delight in His communion with the
Father. “As He was praying in a certain
place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord teach us to
pray…” (Lk.11:1). They heard Him preach His famous Sermon on the Mount, but afterwards, no one asked Him, “Lord, teach
us to preach.” They heard Him, as He sat in the boat and taught, but no one
asked to be a teacher. They saw amazing miracles, but they didn’t ask for power
to do miracles. However, there was something so beautiful, so wonderfully
attractive in Jesus’ prayer, that His disciples yearned to experience it.
God’s presence came down in visible form, when Moses entered the
tabernacle and the Lord spoke with Him. The people rose to go to the door of
their tents, but arriving there and seeing the column of cloud, they worshiped…
but the Hebrew has no word for worship. The original word here is to prostrate. The experience was
overwhelming and they fell on their faces. Verse 11 clearly declares the
enviable privilege of Moses: “So the
Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” The
wonderful news followed that, without partiality, “everyone who sought the
Lord” could follow him to the tent of meeting.
Would you please notice the intense hunger in the heart of the
young man, Joshua? When Moses returned to the camp, Joshua stayed right there.
If someone wonders why Joshua was chosen to take Moses place as leader in
Israel, this verse should answer his question: “But his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart
from the tabernacle.” He was passionate for God!
Anyone, who has ever been used in the history of the church to
bring true renewal or revival, has been a person, who could put all other
activity aside, and get alone with God. If you have studied the history of the
Christian church over the centuries, you will know that those who led her, were
people accustomed to be alone before God in prayer and Bible study. I know of
no exceptions. I am talking about going
outside the camp as Joshua. This is the one measure, by which someone’s
spirituality can be judged.
There are few examples in the Bible of men of intercession, who
are on a level with Moses. Even the Egyptians esteemed him for this reason,
because he interceded again and again and the plagues ceased: “The man Moses was very great in the land
of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people” (Ex.11:3).
In the tent of meeting he continues to intercede for the Israelites. His
relationship of intimacy with the Lord permits him to use much confidence. No
one should lightly use the same, without possessing the same relationship.
Moses was always reverent, but he was in the position to ask great things of
God.
Would you look at his argument in the next verses (12-13)? I
paraphrase: “Lord, you speak of our intimacy and of grace that you have shown
me. You have given me a mission, but I have to know Your ways and be sure that
You are with me.” He has two great desires: 1) To have the evident presence of
the Lord with him, and 2) to be able to direct the people in His ways. We know
that God answered this prayer by Psalm 103:7: “He made known His ways to Moses,
His acts to the children of Israel.” I think I can say that in this 21st
Century, I desire the same for the church. I still want to experience a moving
of the Holy Spirit, in which the presence of God is manifested and, in which
the Spirit has the liberty to conduct everything in His ways.
Moses wants Israel to be
a people of His possession (15-16) and for him there was no Plan B: “If Your Presence does not go with us, do
not bring us up from here.” Do you know what I think? I don’t think that we
should take this sentence in the form of a teaching, but adopt it as a passion!
Are you with me? Can we lift our voices, pleading with God to answer this
prayer among us? In the history of the church there have been people with the
same determination. They went to prayer and brought revival to the church and
the fear of God upon the sinners. They were extremely tired of the work of men,
including their own work. “May God move!” that was their cry. Moses continues
in prayer, reasoning that if Israel is called to be a testimony before the
world, it must be the testimony of God’s presence among them. They cannot walk
in the ways of the world. What more can I say? I ask you to read and meditate
upon verse 16. God has been waiting to hear this prayer and He promises to
fulfill Moses’ desire.
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July 17, 2020 at 2:38 AM
Thanks brother for this encouragement stirred up my heart even more to seek the Lord "that I may know him and the power of his resurrection ",truly the highest call of man is to the holy place and the highest wisdom of man is to heed and follow that call.
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