The Immediate Vision of God

n If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him i?i a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will 1 speak mouth to mouth.” — Num. xii. 6-8.

They tell us that in the old days men were superstitious, that they could only see God in visions and in dreams. But in the oldest days of all it was not so. Here is a very ancient book which makes the visions and the dreams the marks not of a higher, but of a lower revelation. “We are apt to think that the most privileged men of the Bible were the men who had visions; here the reverse is assumed. It is taken for granted that Moses was more privileged than others just because he had no visions. The ordinary prophet saw God only in the symbol; Moses was rewarded for his fidelity by seeing no symbol, beholding no vision, receiving no dream, but by speaking with God in the light of open day.

For me, too, there is deep meaning in these words of the ancient book. Often have I complained within myself that my life has fallen on evil days. Often have I longed to get back to the times of miracle, of vision, and of dream, and have held those to be specially favoured who were thus permitted to commune with God. Yet the judgment of these times themselves was very different; it prized more the lot which has fallen to me. It held those to be the least favoured who did not see God face to face, nor speak with Him mouth to mouth, but who beheld Him only through the miraculous cloud and fire. Therefore, my soul, weep not for the miraculous messengers, for the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night. Thine is a higher privilege than to see God through intermediaries; thou canst see Him for thyself. The messengers are withdrawn, but only because the King himself has come. What need for thee to hear voices in the night, when by night and day thou hast one perpetual voice? What need for thee to see special visions, when all sense is one continuous vision — the vision of His divine garment as His presence passes by? What need for thee to receive at intervals the falling manna, when thou canst partake every hour and every moment of that gift of natural beneficence — the old corn of the land 1