On the Mountain: Communing with God

‘The Lord passed before him (Moses) and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generations. And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, ‘If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.” (Exodus 34:6-9, ESV) [Read Exodus 34: 1-16]

Moses was on the mountain for the second time to receive the Ten Commandments. God bade him go alone and to take two hewn tablets of stone, as the first time, on which God would write again the Ten Commandments “with His finger” (Exodus 31:18). In our inquisitiveness, we wonder how Moses carried the heavy stones, as he ascended the mountain. Suffice it to say that God provided Moses with the expertise to cut the stones and the strength to carry them up Mt. Sinai. We also wonder if God spoke aloud to Moses. The important aspect of this wonderful encounter is that Moses recognized God’s presence. A deep spiritual lesson lies here. In our communion with God, we recognize His omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience as did Moses. “The Lord passed before him.” God revealed to Moses his nature: merciful, gracious, slow to anger, loving, faithful, forgiving. But God is also a God of justice. Wrong behavior and actions and failure to follow God’s way will be punished and results will be visited on subsequent generations of those who disobey God. I tremble when I think of how our beloved America is breaking God’s commandments—personally in rebellion against God and His commandments, and as a nation in disregarding God’s claims upon us as a people. Will we suffer? Certainly—as God warned Moses on Mt. Sinai. But we, as Moses, can pray “let the Lord go in the midst of us…pardon our iniquity and our sin…take us for your inheritance.” Let us commune with God and earnestly pray this prayer for ourselves and our nation. Moses had a specific mission from God, an assignment on the mountain. He was obedient and fulfilled it well. God communed with him and he with God. A pivotal milestone in God’s dealing with humanity occurred on Mt. Sinai with Moses and God. The Ten Commandments have been the basis of humanitarian laws for many nations. Jesus Himself did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it—to make it more relevant and understandable. They remain the best guidelines for practical daily living known to man. Moses accomplished a wonderful feat in his obedience to God. His communing with God and God with him set a precedent for how we as God’s people should approach God for our own communion with Him. God is available to us! What an incredible thought!

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Saturday, November 6, 2010