Joel M Bradshaw

89When 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 covenant law. In this way the Lord spoke to him.–Numbers 7

You have two basic interpretive choices here:

1. WHAT HAPPENED TO MOSES WAS NORMAL AND IS REPEATABLE TODAY FOR ANY FOLLOWER OF GOD. MOSES WAS A TEMPLATE FOR OTHERS.
2. WHAT HAPPENED TO MOSES WAS NOT NORMAL AND IS THEREFORE NOT SOMETHING A FOLLOWER OF GOD SHOULD EXPECT TO REPEAT. MOSES WAS UNIQUE IN A UNIQUE TIME IN BIBLICAL HISTORY.

Interactions with God should be more concrete and objective than experiential and subjective. To illustrate, a woman once asked me if I knew what God had told her the other day. She explained her vision for almost 10 minutes and she kept saying, “Do you know what God said next?”

I patiently waited and then asked her if I could answer her question. My answer was no. I did not know what God had uniquely told her. I wasn’t there and wasn’t involved. That was an unknowable, subjective experience.

Other people tell me that God told them something, but they were reading their Bible and we could go to that verse together. That was more of a concrete experience.

THERE’S A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SAYING “GOD SPEAK TO ME” WITH YOUR BIBLE CLOSED AND WITH YOUR BIBLE OPEN.–JMB