Have you ever felt you would like to have a relationship with God like the great saints of the Bible? The most amazing and most marvelous truth in the world is God wants to have an intimate relationship with you and me. According to James 4:8a, what is the basis for having a close relationship with God?

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God has given us the Bible so we may know how to come closer to Him and have an intimate relationship with Him. The best example in the Bible of intimacy with God is Moses. How does Exodus 33:11a verify this?

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Moses is one of the most important characters in the Bible. God used him to write the first five books of the Bible. When Jesus was transfigured, only two saints came from heaven to talk with him, Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:2-3). Moses’ obituary also verifies his greatness: Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face (Deuteronomy 34:10).

Though Moses had an intimacy with God unparalleled in the Bible, we must remember he was human just like us. In the Bible God tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about His greatest saints. The main characters are revealed, "warts" and all. Moses’ sins and shortcomings are not recorded to dilute his greatness. They are recorded to encourage us so that we might know God uses ordinary, imperfect people just like us to do extraordinary things.

To see how God draws us closer to Himself we must understand three things: God’s plan for our lives, God’s place for our failures, and God’s purpose for our "deserts."

First, God’s plan for our lives (Exodus 1:1-2:10)

We are not here by accident; we are here as a part of a divine plan. Regardless of the circumstances of our conception, before we were woven together in our mother’s womb, God had a plan for our lives. How does Psalm 139:16 declare God had a plan for our lives before we were born?

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To see this truth in Moses’ life we must journey back in time about 4100 years to the time of Abraham, who is the father of the Hebrew race. God promised that through Abraham’s seed all the nations of the world would be blessed with knowledge of Jehovah God. However, what prophecy did God give to Abraham in Genesis 15:13?

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Egypt was a part of God’s plan for Moses and his people. Jacob, a descendant of Abraham, had twelve sons, one of whom was Joseph. Joseph was sold into slavery because of his brothers’ jealousy. After much adversity in Egypt, including imprisonment, Joseph became prime minister. As a result, in about 1800 B.C. Joseph brought his family from the Promised Land to Egypt to save them from starvation. The Hebrews were given an area called "Goshen" as their homeland (see map on page 12). After the death of Joseph the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous . . . (Exodus 1:7).

Then, a new king came to power who feared the Hebrews because of their numbers. Wanting to keep his cheap labor force, the Pharaoh declared, "Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country" (Exodus 1:10). The Egyptians worked them ruthlessly and made their lives bitter by having them make bricks and mortar and do all kinds of work in the fields (1:13-14). The Pharaoh then ordered the midwives to kill all male Hebrew babies at birth (1:16).

They knew God promised that through the seed of Abraham all the nations of the world would be blessed. Had God forgotten His promise? During these terrible times a Levite named Amram (AM ram) married a Levite woman named Jochebed (JOCK uh bed), and they had a son, Moses.

So that Moses would not be killed, his mother hid him for three months. When she could hide him no longer, she coated a basket with tar and pitch, making it into a small boat or ark, and placed Moses in it. Then she placed it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile River, where they knew the Pharaoh’s daughter came to bathe. Miriam, Moses’ sister, stood at a distance to see what would happen. When Pharaoh’s daughter came to bathe, she saw the basket, sent a slave girl to get it, opened it and saw the baby Moses. The crying baby touched her heart. Then Miriam came over and asked, "Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you" (2:7)? The princess agreed, and Miriam got Moses’ mother to nurse him.

As Moses grew older, he became like a son to the princess. The princess named him "Moses," which means I drew him out of the water (2:10). As a result of his coming to live in Pharaoh’s palace, what does Acts 7:22 tell us about Moses?

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Moses studied government, sciences, mathematics, astronomy, law, and military tactics. By divine providence the man who would lead the Israelites out of Egypt was trained by the people he must one day confront. God has a plan for our lives that includes the parents to whom we are born, our childhood experiences, our talents, training, education, and even our mistakes. How does Ephesians 2:10 describe God’s plan for your life?

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To have a "journey into intimacy with God" we must realize God’s plan for our lives and . . .

Second, God’s place for our failures (Exodus 2:11-15)

Have you ever made a serious mistake and felt God could no longer have a relationship with you or use you? Perhaps it was a dishonest scheme, a sinful habit, or a moral failure. Perhaps you have been hurt, and your heart is filled with bitterness. Whatever it is, you don’t feel as close to God as you once did. If this is your situation, you can relate to Moses. At about age 40, Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. In anger Moses killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand (2:11-12).

The next day when Moses tried to break up two fighting Hebrews, one of the men said to him, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and thought, "What I did must have become known" (2:14). Not only was his evil act known, but also it was obvious his own people rejected him. Moses wanted to lead his people as a prince in Egypt, but God’s plan was quite different.

When the Pharaoh heard what Moses had done, no doubt he felt betrayed and wanted Moses dead. So, Moses fled to Midian in the Arabian Desert (see map on page 12). Moses shows us that even God’s greatest servants can fail miserably. God uses our failures to make us teachable. When we

 fail or when we are humiliated, we sense a need to get back on track with God. How does Psalm 119:71 express this principle?

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God uses our failures to strip us of our pride and arrogance, making us sensitive to His instruction. Failure causes us to realize the truth of Jesus’ declaration in the last phrase of John 15:5. What did He say?

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This means that without the Lord we can do nothing of spiritual significance. God allows us to fail so we can learn the futility of the best of human efforts, education, talents, and intellect apart from Him.

To have a "journey into intimacy with God" we must understand God’s plan for our lives, God’s place for our failures, and . . .

Third, God’s purpose for our "deserts" (2:16-25)

It is in the "deserts" of life, not the palaces, that we get close to God. Even though he was among the most educated people in the world, Moses had much to learn before God could use him. He needed to learn that if we are not humble, we will stumble, because pride does go before a fall (see Proverbs 16:18).

While Moses was sitting at a well, the daughters of the priest of Midian came to the well to water their father’s flock, and some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock (2:17). When their father Reuel (row-el), who is also called Jethro (3:1), found out what Moses had done, he invited Moses for supper. As a result Moses got to know and married one of the daughters, Zipporah.

Moses and Zipporah had a son whom Moses named "Gershom," which means "alien or stranger here." It seems Moses had resigned himself to living the rest of his life in obscurity as the most highly educated shepherd in history. He had to learn what declaration of Jesus found in Mark 9:35b?

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For forty years God taught Moses to be a servant. The Lord knew that in the future Moses would often have to listen to complaining, murmuring, and slanderous accusations against him and against God. God had to teach him to deal with his temper, or there would be bodies buried all over the desert.

Chapter two of Exodus ends with some very sad words: The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God . . . So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them (2:23b-25).

Though Moses surely heard of all this from the traveling caravans, he no longer thought he could deliver the Israelites. He was content to raise his family in the desert, living as an obscure shepherd. The "deserts" of life that have brought me closest to God have been ones in which I have had to stay for a long time, not the 24-hour flu. Moses had to stay in the desert for forty years, and sometimes we too have to stay in the desert for a long time before we have a journey into intimacy with God. That’s why we are given what command in Psalm 27:14?

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To see how God draws us closer to Himself we must understand three things: God’s plan for our lives, God’s place for our failures, and God’s purpose for our "deserts."

What has God used most in your life to draw you closer to Him, and how has it made you more sensitive to His way and will for your life?

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