In the middle chapters of Exodus, God has rescued the people of Israel from their bondage in Egypt, He has miraculously delivered them out of the hands of the Egyptian army, and has now led them to Sinai, the mountain of God. This is their time of teaching; their time of waiting.
In chapter 20, God calls Moses up on the mountain and plans for all of the people of Israel to see Him in His cloud of glory and hear Him as He begins to give instructions. But the people get scared, I mean really, who wouldn’t be scared?
Exodus 20:18-19: “When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.'”
The people seem perfectly content to have Moses go up on the mountain and talk to God for them. They even promise to listen to Moses and what he has to say when he returns.
In chapters 20-23, God gives Moses the laws that He wants the Israelites to follow. Chapter 25 begins the description of what God wants the Israelites to do for Him. He tells Moses that they are to build Him a sanctuary.
Exodus 25:8 “’Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. 9 Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.'”
God had planned all along to dwell among them and now they needed a special place for God to be. It’s really easy to get overwhelmed in the details of this elaborate sanctuary. Even today as I was reading, there were a couple of times that I felt my eyes glaze over. God is so specific about types of wood, lengths, sizes, types of fabric, how they are fashioned, how they are embroidered, etc. It reads like a pretty uninteresting list and then I saw a verse that I thought I had already ready read.
Exodus 27: 8 “Make the altar hollow, out of boards. It is to be made just as you were shown on the mountain.”
As I looked through the passage I realized that I had read this, but not because I was reading the same verse over and over.
Exodus 25:40 “See that you make them according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”
Exodus 26:30 “Set up the tabernacle according to the plan shown you on the mountain.”
Three times God says do it just like I showed you on the mountain. I tell my 5th graders that when God repeats something it must be really important, so I started wondering what is God trying to tell me here?
You should also know that I have been on a Steven Curtis Chapman kick for the last couple of weeks. I have been constantly listening to all of his albums, some of which I haven’t listened to in a very long time. So don’t be surprised when I tell you that as I read these verses in the Bible, his song “The Mountain” started playing in my head over and over again.
“You bring me up here on the mountain
For me to rest and learn and grow
I see the truth up on the mountain
And I carry it to the world far belowSo as I go down to the valley knowing that You will go with me
This is my prayer, Lord, help me to remember what you showed me
Up on the mountain, up on the mountain”
God reminded Moses over and over again to remember to do things the way God showed him while he was up on the mountain and Steven sings about all he learns up on the mountain and how his prayer is to remember what God showed him on the mountain when it’s time to go down to the valley.
We don’t like valleys. Well really I can only say, I don’t like valleys. I assume no one else really does either. I just finished reading the book “The Life You’ve Always Wanted” and doing the study that goes along with it. In the last video as John Ortberg discusses suffering he says, “No one ever asks, ‘May I have a problem, please?’” Of course, everyone chuckled because we know it’s true. And yet, we all know that our best spiritual growth happens through our suffering. We’ll deal with suffering when it comes, we’ll try to recognize that God allows suffering to help us to grow and draw us closer to Him, but we certainly don’t want to ask for it.
After reading this passage, though, I wonder if there is another option for growth for us. Moses is up on the mountain of God, with God. He is alone in the cloud that is God’s glory talking with the Almighty. What an incredible experience that must have been! Moses didn’t have to worry about a thing. He was with God. He knew that God would take care of everything. He was free to rest and enjoy his time alone with the Father.
As a tween and teen I used to love time alone with my Daddy although it wasn’t often restful. We did projects together. Well, he did projects and I helped. He bought a new house when I was in the 10th grade and we installed ceiling fans and new multi switch outlets in every room (“We must have a separate switch for the light and the fan!”). We put a floor in the attic that was over the garage and then added shelving and storage (it was an awesome attic). We installed a pull down ladder to make entry into the attic easier. We wired the garage for an electric garage door opener. One day, after we finished our projects, Daddy looked at me and said, “I feel sorry for the poor guy you marry because you’re going to know how to do all of this stuff better than he does.” It made me laugh, and sometimes it turns out to be true… 😉
To me though, the important thing wasn’t doing work with Daddy. I loved spending time with him. He would talk to me while we were working and tell me stories and explain how things worked and why. There was a lot of love in those times as well as the blood and sweat. So I can relate a very little bit to how Moses might have been feeling. He was up on the mountain with his Daddy. And just like my Daddy told me that I would remember how to do all of this stuff, God told Moses to remember what He told Moses on the mountain.
What if mountain top experiences are also supposed to be times of learning and teaching? What if sometimes God has mercy on us and allows us to sit in His presence and absorb all we can from Him where it is pleasant and comfortable? What if God is strengthening us on the mountain; giving us strength and wisdom so that we can face our next period of suffering in a better, more godly way. “See that you make them according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”
The pastor at the church I grew up in had a plaque in his office that read, “Never forget in the darkness the promises God gave you in the light.” Maybe, for our purposes, we could alter that a little bit and say, “Never forget in the valley, the promises God gave you on the mountain.” It doesn’t flow as well on the tongue, but the meaning is the same.
I think I am going to pay more attention when I am up on the mountain. I don’t just want to learn in the hard times, I want to learn in peace and comfort while I rest in God’s presence. I want to learn all that God has for me to learn on the mountain so that I can be strengthened and encouraged when I get to the valley; so that I can represent Him in a way that brings glory and honor to Him when I’m in the valley. And maybe, just maybe, that will make the times of suffering that will follow a bit smoother.
What about you? Do you have a mountain top experience you’d like to share? What does God want you to remember from what He showed you on the mountain?
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