Transfiguration

Exodus 24:12-18 (Today’s New International Version ©2005)

12 The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”

 13 Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. 14 He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them.”

 15 When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, 16 and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud. 17 To the Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. 18 Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

First of all, who has 40 days and nights to go hang out on a mountain?  Its just not practical.  We have things to do. 

Even Moses had people to deal with.  In fact, he knew there would be disputes while he was gone.  It intrigues me.  He didn’t assign anyone to help prepare meals or do the laundry or teach the people.  He only needed to be sure that someone was around to settle the disputes as they came up.  Sounds to me like he spent a lot of his time settling disputes. 

Do you feel that way?  In the midst of a war?  In the middle of conflicts and interpersonal quarrels?  Are you in a space where the focus of the relationships around you is on nit-picking and arguing?  Instead of encouraging and helping and doing good?  So that, if you were called away from life-as-you-know it for a little while, you would have to be sure to set someone in charge of handling disputes?  No wonder he needed time away.

“The glory of the Lord settled on Mt. Sinai.”  A cloud that hovered.  A covering.  A presence.  It settled there on Moses.

No wonder he stayed for so long.  Who would want to leave?  Who would want to return to the disputing when you could be on a mountain top with the glory of the Lord?

The fact that it was a cloud gives us a clue to some of the realities of that trip, though.  It was cold, damp, wet.  He was alone and directionless.  He was likely frightened and surely uncomfortable.  He didn’t know for sure what he was waiting for or what he would experience.  He only knew that he had been invited by God to “come.”  

As we embark upon this lenten journey, I am keenly aware of my need to “come away” with God.  I need the space to separate from the “trouble down here.”  But I also want to acknowledge that the journey ahead, the time in the clouds, may have treachery of its own.  I ascend this mountain journey, not as an escape from trouble, but as a means of encountering God.