Exodus 33:7: “Now Moses would take the tent and pitch it outside the camp a good distance from the camp and he called it the tent of meeting and it came about that everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.” Verse 11: “Thus the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.”
Contrary to popular opinion the Word of God does not say that God spoke to Moses face to face on the mountain. He spoke to Moses face to face in the tent of meeting. This tent was nothing special, just your ordinary, and every day tent, not unlike any tent you see coming down the pike. The word for pitch the tent is yikah which means to spread out or pitch a tent, but what is significant about this word is that it is a participle. This would indicate that he was continually pitching the tent. There is a word in the Hebrew which is often not translated in your modern translations. It is lo which means to him. In other words this was a personal tent for Moses, a smaller portable tent, not some camp meeting style tent. It was Moses’s little hideaway, a trysting place with God. He would get up in the morning, pack his little tent and take off to some place outside the camp and set up his tent and begin to pray. The passage indicates that Joshua was with him and maybe others. This became something more than just a prayer tent, Moses called it a tent of meeting. The word meeting is ya’ad it is sort of a play on the word yada which means an intimacy and in fact the word ya’ad is used several times in Scripture for the word betroth. The word tent in Hebrew is ‘ohel which is also used for tabernacle and in its primitive form means a place where the presence and revelation of God dwells. The word ya’ad (meeting) in its primitive form means heavenly knowledge when used with spiritual discernment will open a door or portal. In one sense the generic translation of tent of meetings carries a meaning of a doorway to intimacy with God. In a sense Moses was calling this a bridal tent where he and whoever else was in the tent would become intimate with God.
Let’s jump down to verse 11. God would speak to Moses face to face. The word speak is devar which is similar to the Greek word rhema. In this context this would be a word from the heart of God. God would share His heart or his intimate words with Moses face to face. The word for face is pani which also means the presence of but to put these two words together with a Lamed and Aleph” between them is suggesting more than just one’s presence, it is also meaning heart to heart. With the word devar in front of it you have the suggestion of a heart to heart conversation. Some rabbis would say a frank, no hold bars discussion. The passage goes on further to describe this heart to heart discussion as, like a man with a friend. The word friend is ra’ah which means shepherd or friend, but it also means a consuming. There is another use for this word that I believe fits here, it is as a lover or a consuming passion. Literally God spoke to Moses in that open and frank way as a husband and wife (two lovers) would speak with each other.
But soft, note the rest of verse 7. “And it came about that everyone who sought the Lord would go to the tent of meetings.” The word sought is from the root word bakash which means to seek out with a petition. We learn that when Moses entered his little tent the Shekinah Glory, a cloud would descend on the tent. People would gather around the tent, (and here is the kicker) to offer their petitions to the Lord and worship the Lord while Moses and whoever else was inside entering into an intimacy with God. We also learn at the end of verse 11 that Joshua was in the tent with Moses and he would refuse to leave after Moses left.
What I am seeing here are two levels of worship. One involves the people outside the tent who offer their worship and petitions and the others who are inside the tent where, at least two that we know of, entered into an intimacy with God.
I have spoken with some Christians who admit they are getting tired of the usual worship that they have been doing for years. They raise their hands, sing songs, speak in tongues, etc. and somehow it just isn’t like it used to be, it sort of lost its thrill. Maybe you have been worshipping outside the tent and God is calling you to a new level, to come inside the tent of meetings.
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