Moses came up the mountain alone as the Lord had instructed him. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. A cloud covered the mountain. A fire appeared. (Remember that from the beginning of their journey, the presence of the Lord has been visible to them through a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night; see Exodus 13:21-22).
God appears on the mountain. But, God is not restricted to the mountaintop. God moves with them, leads them.
In these verses in Exodus, only Moses is allowed to get close. Although God's presence is visible to the others, Moses is needed to be the communicator with them.
What do we do with this? We think we can approach God directly. We consider some places to be holier than others, but we believe we can pray to God wherever we are.
Yes, I realize that we are reading this passage this week because the creators of the lectionary connected its message with the transfiguration. Matthew's account of Jesus' on the high mountain does have many parallels.
No comments:
Post a Comment