With Moses on the Mountain (Exodus 24:12-18)

"The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” 13 So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14 To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.” 15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. 17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18 Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights."

I. Introduction

The parallels between Moses' life as portrayed in Exodus and Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew are precise and easy to spot. Not only does the Gospel author point out the way that Jesus fufilled Scriptural expectations, but he uses a structure that is also reflected in Exodus. For example, in Matthew we have the following order of events: (1) Call of Jesus (Matt. 3); (2) Giving of the New Law (Matt. 5-7); and (3) the Vision of Jesus, shared by few (Matt. 17--the Transfiguration). With respect to Moses we have: (1) His Call (Ex. 3); the Giving of the Law (Ex. 20-23); and (3) the Vision of Moses, shared with a few (Ex. 24). Though the parallels are striking, the focus for today is not on the overall similarites of portrayal but the nature of Moses' experience on Mount Sinai. He, along with Jesus, had a transformative experience on the mountain. His face would be changed because of this vision; he wore a veil to cover it from the people. So powerful is the continuing influence of the story of Moses' "seeing" God that Paul uses it as a foil when he says to the Corinthians:

"and all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit," II Cor. 3:18.

In other words, the experience of Moses on the mountain sunk deeply into Jewish and early Christian consciousness and became the fodder for reflection on the level of intimacy with God enjoyed by Christians.

So, the purpose of this essay is to examine the text which tells about the Moses' transformative visit to the mountain of God. I will first speak about the unexpected humor that the text communicates; then I will look at the levels of intimacy suggested by the text; finally, I will explore Moses' experience of the Holy One of Israel.

II. Unintended Humor of the Story

Though the reading for today only includes 24:12-18, the story of Moses' climbing the mountain begins in 24:9. The problem, however, is that we obviously have more than one story or tradition that are placed next to each other, leading to a humorous situation in which we figuratively say "How many times did he climb the mountain?" In v. 9 we have the story of how Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and the seventy elders "went up"--presumably the mountain. That this is a reasonable presumption follows from the next words, "and they saw the God of Israel (24:10)," a sort of eye-popping verse if you really think about it.

But then, in v. 12, the beginning of our passage, God gives a command to Moses to "come up to me on the mountain." Some scholars try to harmonize these first two, but their efforts are almost as comical as the text. In this second visit to the mountain Moses sets out with his assistant Joshua (not mentioned in the first account) and "Moses went up into the mountain of God" (v. 13). Then, while he was apparently up on the mountain he saw the cloud of the glory of the Lord on the mountain. And, guess what? The text goes on to say that "Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain" (v. 18). I guess the author didn't want us to miss the fact.

III. Levels of Responsibility and Intimacy

What is interesting about the text, however, is that there are levels of responsibility and intimacy that are assumed by it. Not everyone gets to climb the mountain; not everyone who climbs the mountain enters the cloud with Moses. And, Moses takes responsibility for making sure that life continues in his absence. Even though he has the call from God to climb the mountain, probably the most memorable experience of his life, he still makes arrangments for the smooth functioning of the community in his absence. The experience of the divine happens in the context of community life; even though one of the members is separated from the rest for the joy of this experience, he is not thereby removed from the responsibilities that normally fall to him.

"Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them" (24:14).

But the really interesting point is what happened to Moses on the mountain.

III. The Timing and Experience of the Holy One

Once Moses arrived atop the mountain, he had to wait. All that distance; all that time. He left people behind in charge of things. He was a man for whom time was precious. He didn't make it in life by cooling his heels. He left the elders waiting for him. But he arrived atop the mountain, the cloud of God's glory settled on the mountain, and then nothing happened. What do you do in such a situation? You know you are in the presence of God, but all you see is the cloud. Don't you want to hurry things up a bit? After all, you have loads of things to do. Now I think I understand why no American would have been vouchsafed such a vision of the Holy One--there is too much "inefficiency" built into it. But he had to wait six days before a call from the cloud, on the seventh, beckoned Moses to enter the cloud. This naturallly suggests some kind of reference to creation. For six days God labored and did all the divine work; on the seventh day God rested from the divine labors. Now, almost in reverse, Moses "rests" for six days while he receives no instructions on what to do. On the seventh day he receives the divine command. He will enter into the cloud.

Most things of value in life only come through a period of intense preoccupation with the thing...and then waiting. Though we have evidence all around us of how people seemingly "make it" at a very young age (the Australian Open is going on as I write this), the normal experience of living is that things open up to us gradually, after a lapse of time. Maybe the reason why the "call" doesn't come to us until the 7th day is that we, too, need to be "recreated" or be in a situation worthy to receive the accolades or recognition or experience vouchsafed to us on the seventh day. Thus, don't worry about delay, about the seeming slowness of God, about the chances that are slipping through your fingertips. If you are working the way you should and doing the best to respond faithfully to your call, you are precisely where you should be.

But then the call came to Moses. It is a scary scene because he is invited into the cloud, and there was some kind of devouring fire atop the mountain. Certainly some would think that if Moses entered the cloud, he would be making himself vulnerable to natural forces that could easily consume him. But he entered into the cloud and was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. The seven days of waiting were nothing in comparison to the 40 days of being in the cloud. And, indeed, we know that some people took advantage of Moses' absence by taking the time to build the Golden Calf (Ex. 32). But Moses was there for 40 days. His presence on the mountain was a benefit to the people, but he would first have to take care of the problems created by his absence.

What hapened in those 40 days? The way that Exodus is written, going straight from ch. 24 to 25, we have Moses' instruction by God about the construction of the tabernacle (25-31). This is a theologically significant passage because it suggests that the purpose of the divine vision atop Sinai is more for the glory of God than for human enrichment. Moses certainly has intimacy with God, but it is the intimacy of workers building a structure together. Moses doesn't bask in the divine light; he has to get to work. I wonder, to an extent, if he could scratch on the back side of the tablets he received (24:13) some "notes" on what God was saying in ch. 25-31. Surely the person with the best memory in the world wouldn't be able to "keep up" with God on all the instructions that followed.

Conclusion

So the trip up the mountain and experience on the mountain, which is the point of Transfiguration Sunday, leads to different responses and interpretations. For Moses the trip was to get further instructions on how to honor God. For the author of II Peter it is an experience where the apostolic authority is more deeply grounded. For Jesus and the inner circle of disciples, it is a journey to the heart of God's purpose in Christ.

We, too, have our mountains in life, possibly even a mount of Transfiguration or two, in which we have been transformed or touched by the fire of God. Annual refleciton on Jesus' transformation not only urges us to celebrate his glory but also to seek the depths of the divine life and our own existence in our day. May your life and ministry deepen this year, and may the memory of Transfiguration accompany you as it happens.

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