Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church

When Moses entered the Tent of Meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the ark of the Testimony. And he spoke with him. (Nu 7:89).

I'm a big fan of Indiana Jones. I still remember going to the theater and watching the first movie. I was enthralled. Imagine finding the ark of the covenant after being buried in the Egyptian desert for centuries! And the power--all those soldiers destroyed not only because someone touched the ark, but that they watched it being opened.

There weren't too many people allowed to get close to the ark of the covenant. The high priest was the only one allowed in the Tabernacle, and that would only be once a year, on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). He still didn't touch the ark itself. He only sprinkled blood on the cover. Here in Numbers 7:89, Moses stands in the same tent with the ark. He hears the voice of the LORD speaking to him. Moses not only heard the voice, he also spoke with the LORD.

Imagine having that kind of relationship with the almighty God--that we could talk to him and listen to his replies. The great news is, we don't have to imagine it. We don't have the ark of the covenant. We don't have a special tent that we enter. We don't need them. We can talk to God. We call it prayer. God has promised to hear and answer every time we talk to him. We also have the opportunity to hear him speaking to us. Whenever we open the Bible and read, God is speaking to us. Whenever we come to worship on Sunday morning and hear his Word, God is speaking to us. We don't have to look around for someone special, like Moses or the high priest, to make that connection with God in our place. We have it. The author of Hebrews wrote, "For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence" (Heb 9:24). Jesus makes sure that God talks to us and we can talk to God.

Try it today. Hear his voice, speaking to you from the Bible. Speak with him. Talk about your joys, your fears, and your sins. He hears. He loves. He forgives.

To God alone the glory!