Exodus 24:8-18: The Mountain Part I

Introduction

(Read once to be introduced to the series. After that skip this to go right to the good stuff!) 

Welcome to my Devotions Series. This series features devotions based on the Scriptures of the Common Lectionary. The series is being prepared for eventual and hopeful print publication.

The series is also posted and regularly updated on my official blog: http://www.cedwardsellner.blogspot.com/

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Lectionary Series Year A: Transfiguration of Our Lord Sunday
Exodus 24:8-18 (Read it on Bible Gateway)
The Mountain Part I
During the Christian year, this particular upcoming Sunday of the Lectionary, the fourth following Epiphany, and the last Sunday before the beginning of Lent, is reserved to focus on the Transfiguration of Christ (see Devotions: Matthew 17:1-9). As a result, the whole 'mountaintop experience' is a pretty standard theme for this Sunday.

In this particular passage we have a good deal going on that we should take a look at.

The events of this chapter are set about three months or so after the Jewish people have been delivered from Egypt. By this time, they have camped at the base of Mount Sinai, a mountain of central and unique significance in the Hebrew Testament and Jewish Faith. Sinai is aptly referred to as the Mountain of the Lord as God appears on its slopes several times in Scripture.

During the time the people have been camped here, in preceding chapters, God has been delivering, through Moses, the terms of the Covenant. This includes the Laws governing that Covenant, of which the Ten Commandments are part, as well as other teachings that impacted the rites, rituals and lifestyles of the people. As we come to this particular passage we come into the midst of a sacred celebration which will finally seal the Covenant God has set forth. In the verses prior, we see that a sacrifice of young bulls is made, the source of the blood sprinkled, and that immediately prior, the people have sworn an oath to obey all that God commands. This is significant, because it is this oath which then sets in motion the sealing of the actual Covenant.

This Covenant is the Covenant that would define the Jewish people as a people of faith; it would be the Covenant that in many ways is still the central core of the Jewish identity even today. It was here, at the foot of Sinai that the people came to learn who they would be in their walk with God, where that path would begin to take them and what would be required of them as they walked along it.

From Moses' opening phrase of "this is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you" to the Covenantal meal which is shared later in the passage, us Christians would be hard pressed to not hear the echoes of Christ's Last Supper in this reading. Of course, it's actually the other way around. When Jesus shared that last Passover with his Disciples and instituted the Lord's Supper, there was an intentional echoing of the images and language from this very passage. Christ seals the New Covenant with a meal and the image of his own blood, just as Moses sealed the Covenant of the Jewish people with a meal and the blood of a sacrifice.

When we open, there are seventy-four people, Moses, other leaders and seventy elders who are on the mountain and celebrating. Later, Moses and Joshua go further up, and then finally, Moses alone remains on the heights of the mountain for forty days and nights.

There is no mistake that throughout our history, people as a whole have associated the sky and greater heights with a closer correlation to the divine. In most polytheistic religions, the sky god was the ruling god, either that or the sun god, which of course, is in the sky. Mountains in most cultures have often thus been designated as the ideal place for temples dedicated to the gods, because they have been seen as places that, by sheer value of their height, were closer to 'god' or God, whichever you prefer.

From my own personal experience, I can understand the association. There have been several significant faith experiences I've had on mountains. One mountain in particular has been something of my own Mount Sinai in life, Sugarloaf Mountain, near Frederick Maryland. When I pastored a Church near there, I often went up the mountain to work on my sermon, to spend a much needed day off, to pray, or to simply commune with God. Even years later, at the times in my life when I struggled the most, including perhaps the hardest times in my adult life, I found myself drawn to the mountain. The day after I learned of the death of one of my oldest and dearest mentees, I was drawn to the mountain with a desperate need. There I found not only God's presence, but his.

There is something to be said for the peaks that soar above the ground far below, the feeling of the colder, and these days, cleaner air, all of which indeed does seem to invoke the Divine presence. (To be continued...)

For the complete listing of our Devotions, see our Devotions Archive