24 Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship at a distance. 2 Moses alone shall come near the Lord; but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”
3 Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” 4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and set up twelve pillars, corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 He sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed oxen as offerings of well-being to the Lord. 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he dashed against the altar. 7 Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” 8 Moses took the blood and dashed it on the people, and said, “See the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
On the Mountain with God
9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11 God[a] did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; also they beheld God, and they ate and drank.
12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” 13 So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14 To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.”
15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the Lordsettled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. 17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18 Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.
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So I count 75 people who saw God's feet and lived. That's about 74 more than I had in my head. I thought Moses alone saw God and climbed the mountain and came down with the tablets and such. But Joshua was there and Aaron was there and 72 other men were near to God, eating and drinking and worshipping. This is the high point for the Israelite's faithfulness. They have come out of Egypt. God has provided for them in their travels. He has given His law and they have said that whatever He says, they will do. Now there is an amazing worship experience where the heavens are rolled back and the leaders of the people are brought close to their Lord. Then Moses goes up to spend a month with God, trusting that the people will be okay under this leadership.
I know people, a lot of people, who have had amazing encounters with God...worship times, miracles, prophetic words, visions, whatever. They tell me about the sweetness of the time and the power of God. They tell me about how they are changed forever and can never forget that experience.
Here's the thing: time wears us down and life wears us down. Our faith cannot stand if it is rooted in a single amazing experience. That is like saying that I will have a long and healthy marriage because my wedding was so much fun. The marriage may be amazing, but it will be because of the constant effort and diligence that the partners put into it throughout the years. Relationship is informed by the past but it lives in the now. If it is not fed and nurtured in the present it will die and no amount of nostalgia will sustain it. That is true of friendships. It is true of marriage. It is true of faith.
These men have just had an amazing encounter with the God of creation. There will be only a handful of people to receive this kind of glimpse of God again...ever. They are passionate in their devotion to God and eager to move forward with Him. If only it would last.
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