Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
It’s quite the intimate relationship the Lord and Moses have as described in Exodus 33 and 34. The two of them speak face to face, “as one man speaks to 
another,” we’re told. The Lord does just a bit a whining about the people, and Moses acknowledges their flaws and in essence says, love us anyway. And of course, the Lord does. And really, who could resist Moses’ entreaties? “Come along in our company”; “claim us as your own.” Such beautiful words, such touching sentiment.
So, why didn’t the Lord have that relationship with the rest of the Israelites? Why was only Moses chosen to speak one on one with the Lord at this point? Perhaps because the Lord knew they weren’t ready for Him in that form, that they had not the faith to understand His presence to their worship in a more transparent way than a column of cloud. God’s a gentleman; He knows what we can handle, and some of us want the Old-Man-in-the-Cloud type of God. Some of us best comprehend a jealous, vengeful God, bent on retribution for our offenses against Him and each other. And some of us, at least occasionally, if we are very open and trusting, desire that easy back and forth the Lord and Moses enjoyed.
We are unlikely to find that intimacy unless we consciously pursue it and the Lord finds us ready and open. But if Exodus is any indication, once we find it—in God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit, or any or all of the three—we will no longer be satisfied with the concept of the Old Man in the Cloud.
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