Up the Mountain

Exodus 19

 It is always something special to be able to go up a mountain. Maybe it is like that because I do not do it very often. We do have a time where we as the Jr. High Ministry goes up the mountain for a retreat to get away from the things of the world and spend some time with God. We make it so we can have fun but we get away from parents, T.V., music (kind of), and things that distract us. Moses was called by God to go up the mountain before all the people and have some, one on one time with God. This was a chance for God to speak to Moses and for Moses not to be distracted with the worries of the people like what happened in the chapter before. 

Moses went up the mountain and God showed himself to the people by having a cloud descend on the mountain. When he spoke to Moses there was thunder and the mountain shook. This got everyone’s attention. The whole group of people could not touch the mountain or even get close because they were not right before the Lord. Moses was the only one, and eventually Aaron would come up. The people had to be clean in the site of the Lord, because he was coming on the mountain. Even though they could not have the experience and one on one time like Moses, they were called to be respectful to God by how they presented themselves. 

Moses had to eventually come down from the mountain and face reality. When we go up the mountains it is usually for only a couple of days we have to come down from the mountains and face reality. What we face may be similar to what Moses will face in future chapters with Israel. We face the temptations of this world, we face homework, chores, and problems, we face fights that we might have left at home with parents, we leave only for those things to be waiting when we get back. How important is that we do not stay up in the mountain forever but bring what we learned down with us? Moses is going to bring down what God talked with him about so he could share it with the whole assembly of people. What an awesome opportunity for us to share what we learned from God. We may not go up a literal mountain but maybe we had a chance to grow. Share that with the assembly around you, which would be parents, brothers, sisters, and friends. Moses was the only one that could have access to God but now we can personally go and have access to God. Hebrews 10:19 shares with us that we have access to God because of what Jesus did on the cross. We can approach him and not be afraid that we will be burned up or struck with lightning.