From the beginning, God has been with us, close enough to touch and always reaching. This is not just a Christ thing. It is the loving nature of our Father.
The Lord comes down twice in this reading and both times to respond to a crisis of leadership.
Miriam and Aaron murmur against Moses apparently because they didn't approve of his marriage choice. Looks like their disappointment was racially motivated. They question Moses' authority and God is quick to move to reestablish it. He comes down.
"Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud; He stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam." [Numbers 12:5]
Of Moses, he reminds them that to prophet's he appears in visions and dreams but to Moses "I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord." [Numbers 12:8]
Then again, the leaders of the Twelve Tribes who go into the Promised Land to spy come back with a fearful report [except for Caleb and Joshua] and God is quick to respond.
"Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the Tent of Meeting to all the Israelites." [Numbers 14:10]
Moses deflects the Lord's anger over these leaders' lack of faith by using the very fact that God is among these people as a reason not to destroy them. He says that the Egyptians "have already heard that You, O Lord, are with these people and that You, O Lord, have been seen face to face, that Your cloud stays over them, and that You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night." [Numbers 14:14]
God is. And He has always been for us and with us. His presence among us is a constant and the greatest display of His love and caring.
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