#DailyDevotion Trust The Written Word, Not Your Experience
Exodus 2412“Come up to Me on the mountain,” the LORD told Moses, “and wait there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandments I have written, so that you may teach them.” 13Moses and Joshua, his assistant, got up, and Moses went up on God’s mountain. 14He told the elders: “Wait here for us till we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are here with you. If anyone has a problem, he may go to them.” 15Moses went up on the mountain, which was covered by the cloud; 16the LORD’s glory rested on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered it, and on the seventh He called to Moses from the cloud. 17The LORD’s glory looked to the Israelites like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain. 18Moses went into the cloud and up on the mountain. And Moses stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights.
While Moses had talked with the LORD before in the bush that was burning but didn’t burn, and he saw all the miraculous things the LORD was doing by his hand, and even seeing the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, this must have been something else altogether. The LORD’s presence on top of the mountain looked like a consuming fire.
It was to this sight the LORD told Moses to come up to him after the vision of the LORD with the elders of Israel. The LORD was calling Moses up to give him, written in stone, everything he had told the Israelites, the words of the covenant to which they were baptized into by the blood of the bull and to which they agreed they would do everything they had heard the LORD speak to them.
While the text doesn’t explicitly say the seventh day here is Saturday, the Sabbath, with the expression “for six days the cloud covered it and on the seventh he called Moses from the cloud” certainly sounds like it was. What a day to meet the LORD in his glory and to receive the words of the covenant from him. On the worship day, the day of rest, the LORD would begin instructing Moses in the ways of the LORD’s covenant he had made with them. For although the Israelites had heard the Covenant, they, like us, would need repeated instruction. Moses was going to have a hard copy of it so they couldn’t change the words of it. They would all know explicitly what God had said. Being written down, it would a more “sure and certain word.”
Like I said, it must have been a sight to see. We all like great experiences. We can though misinterpret those experiences and the well, mountaintop experiences fade. They rarely change the core of us. All our being requires to be taught regularly what the LORD’s will is for us and towards us. You may feel great about a certain worship experience. Your emotions may be lifted up towards a very high vibration. But these things are not a dependable measure of God’s presence and attitude towards you. Only faith, which trust what the written word can truly confirm in our hearts and minds, our most innermost being of Gods will to and for us. The written word of God preached convicts our hearts of its sad situation and gives it faith in Jesus Christ who shows us God the Father’s good will and favor towards us. We may never feel anything. We may feel completely bored in and after a service, but because of the word we can be confident the LORD Jesus Christ was there with his loving presence and instruction, pouring our his grace and mercy into our hearts.
Lord God, Heavenly Father, you called your servant Moses to the mount to give him your written word. Grant that our hearts may be converted to you through this word and rest our confidence in Jesus Christ your Son. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.