Pitch your own tent
- Marilyn Byberg
- Aug 11
- 3 min read
What This Teaching Is About
Marilyn Byberg reflects on Moses meeting with God in Exodus, from the burning bush to the tent of meeting after Israel worshiped the golden calf. She invites viewers to seek God’s presence personally through sustained, face-to-face prayer rather than relying on secondhand faith.
Scriptures Mentioned
• Exodus
• Exodus 3:11 — Who am I to do this?
• Exodus 3:13 — What is your name?
• Exodus 33:2-3 — I'll still bring you to the promised land, but I won't go with you. I'll send an angel instead.
• Exodus 33:11 — speak with God regularly face-to-face, the way you'd speak with a friend
• Exodus 33:15 — If your presence doesn't go with us, don't send us up from here at all.
• Exodus 33:18 — Show me your glory.
• Exodus 34:6 — The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
Transcript
I was reading Exodus recently and there's a moment with Moses that I think we tend to skip past too quickly. And it's significant. Think about when Moses starts out. He's just a shepherd out in the wilderness tending someone else's flock. Then he sees a bush that's on fire but it doesn't burn up. And then God starts to speak to him and Moses is overwhelmed. He covers his face. He doesn't even know who this is that he's talking to. He even says, "Who am I to do this?" when God asks him to go and free his people. And then he literally asks God, "What is your name?" This is clearly a man who has no idea who he's talking to. Now we fast forward. Israel has just made a serious mistake.
They built a golden calf and they start worshipping it. When only weeks before they had promised to follow God alone. And God tells Moses, "I'll still bring you to the promised land, but I won't go with you. I'll send an angel instead. Because if I go with you, I might end up consuming you all." Because now Moses, the same man who once hid his face, he's the man who set up a tent outside of the camp and he would go into that tent and speak with God regularly face-to-face, the way you'd speak with a friend. And when God offers him the easier option, "Just take the angel. That should be enough." Moses says, "No." And he tells God plainly, "If your presence doesn't go with us, don't send
us up from here at all." Think about that for a second. Moses isn't just asking, he's pushing back. He's essentially saying, "An angel isn't enough. I want you." And then just a couple of verses later, here's what I want to highlight. Moses asked God, "Show me your glory." And God agrees. He lets his goodness pass in front of Moses, and he proclaims his own character to him. Merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. That revelation didn't come from a distance. It came because Moses spent time in that tent. It came because Moses kept showing up, kept talking with God face-to-face. The kind of intim- intimacy that had him actually see who God is.
In today's terms, the way we would understand it, I think it's like Moses had FaceTime with God. Not a text, not a message passed along by someone else. An actual face-to-face conversation over and over that built real intimacy. And I think that's exactly what we've been invited into. If we want to know that God is merciful and kind, slow to anger and abounding in love, not just a a fact that we've heard about, but something we've actually experienced, we need that same kind of FaceTime with him. Not a quick glance, not a second-hand account. Real sustained intimacy with the Father. That's what changed Moses, and I believe it's what changes us, too. So today, I want to encourage you.
Don't settle for hearing about God secondhand. Pitch your own tent. Make time to actually FaceTime with him. Sit with him. Talk with him. Let him talk back. Because the more we spend time face-to-face with the Father, the more we start to see him for who he really is. And then the more we start to become like him, too. I'm Marilyn Byberg with the National House of Prayer. And we'll see you next time.
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