Exodus 24:18, commentary and pictures

Moses entered the midst of the cloud and ascended the mount, where he remained forty days and forty nights fasting without hunger, sustained above human strength by the glory of God surrounding him. Those forty days do not include six days beforehand, during which the cloud covered the mount while Moses sanctified himself by meditation and prayer until he could endure God's presence, and then on the seventh day, the Sabbath, God called him out of the cloud. In the mount he received instruction from God after the law had been given, including His law and judgments and the specifications and pattern for the tabernacle to be borne from place to place from whence He could reveal Himself. While he was on the flaming summit, the people below corrupted themselves in one of the greatest apostasies, as the mixed multitude grew impatient at his delay, demanded visible gods, and bowed before a golden image in open defiance of the commands he was bringing, through which Satan sought to cause God to destroy the seed through whom Christ would come. God's bid, Come up unto Me into the mount, is still given, teaching that communion with God in meditation and prayer must come before great work for God as the appointed preparation giving continual light, virtue, and moral power.

The Ascent Into Glory

The cloud covered the mount six days, and on the seventh day, the Sabbath, God called Moses out of the midst of the cloud. The sight of the glory of the Lord on the top of the mount was like devouring fire in the eyes of Israel. That cloud and glory revealed God's presence, from which the people could reason from cause to effect.

The forty days and forty nights do not include the six days beforehand. During those six days Moses did not at once draw near to God's immediate presence because he could not yet endure the exhibition of His glory. He put away common thoughts and feelings and sanctified himself by meditation and prayer until prepared to converse with God. Six days thus passed before he was received into the cloud and the immediate presence of God.

During the six days Joshua was with Moses, and together they ate manna and drank of the brook that descended out of the mount. Joshua did not enter the cloud with Moses but remained outside eating and drinking daily while awaiting his return. Moses by contrast fasted during the entire forty days and nights. He went without food yet felt no hunger because he was raised above ordinary human strength and sustained by the glory of God surrounding him. God concealed His great glory in the cloud so that mortal Moses could be strengthened to behold as much as he could endure and to hear God so he could give the people the full message.

The cloud marked God's immediate presence and the summit shone with His glory. Israel's princes who ascended received the privilege of communion with God and the light of His glory. After the forty days Moses descended and told the people the Lord's words and judgments, wrote their pledge to obey, and the covenant was formally ratified through sacrifices and sprinkling of blood, with its conditions read aloud so the people could choose whether to accept them.

What God Gave There

During the forty days and nights in the mount after the law had been given, Moses met with God and received instruction from Him, including God's law, judgments, and the details of Israel's service and obligations. God concealed His great glory in the cloud so that mortal Moses could be strengthened to behold as much as he could endure and to hear God so he could give the people the full message. Those forty days stand immediately before God's requirements for making a tabernacle to be borne from place to place from whence He could reveal Himself. There Moses was given specifications and a pattern for the tabernacle work to follow, to be carried out according to what was revealed, and leaders and responsible workers who seek God's presence and wisdom are likewise to follow the pattern God gives.

The directions on Mount Sinai in Exodus 19-24, written in a book, were given by Christ Jesus Himself, the same Teacher who afterward spoke in human flesh, veiled in the pillar of cloud while Moses was enshrouded in the veil of cloud so that His glory would not extinguish the human instrument who was to voice His words to the people. They are the same principles Christ presented in His own teaching and the apostles present in plain statements to counter Satan's sophistries, plainly specified principles of God's government over the multitude brought out from slavery to be cherished in all the relations of life, by which the people were to form characters that would enable them to compose the family of God in the heavenly courts. That instruction belongs to what men should obey and is needed now just as verily as by Israel then, to be studied and presented before the people in jots and tittles, to end all contention and lead to loving as brethren with softened and subdued hearts. The laws guard against doing injustice and guide dealing one with another, and God's chosen people are still to represent them in all their works, practice, and teaching as Christ's representatives while separate from the world.

The words God gave Moses in the mount are the law in the ark, the ten holy precepts engraved by the finger of Omnipotence, God's flawless standard that shall be brought forth in the day of judgment for every person's deeds to be compared with them. Every business transaction, especially among church members, must be performed in accordance with them in high, holy, sanctified rectitude, with no unrighteousness in judgment and not one vestige of oppression or selfishness, and before carrying out a transaction one in responsible position must inquire whether he will be unashamed to have it appear when weighed in unerring scales in the light of God's law. The meaning of these laws is not yet fully understood and will be unfolded in the future life. Paul repeated these chapters to his fellow workers while working skillfully with his hands at tentmaking, for his own benefit and theirs, teaching from them that supreme honor is to be given to God and that the skill, genius, and wisdom brought into the tabernacle work were given by God to be used for His glory.

Israel Below and Present Call

While Moses was on the flaming summit in the cloud receiving instruction through forty days and forty nights, the people below corrupted themselves. The mixed multitude that came up from Egypt with Israel, so called because Hebrews had intermarried with Egyptians, were the principal movers in the departure. The people had watched Moses go up and waited for his return, but grew impatient at his delay and insisted he had been slain by the burning flame and would never return, and that the guiding cloud now rested on the mount and would no longer direct their route through the wilderness. A large company gathered around Aaron's tent demanding something visible to resemble God, with the gods of Egypt in their minds, and the delay was used to tempt them to imitate Egyptian idolatry, even to the suggestion that they could return to Egypt and find favor by carrying such an image before them as their god. In his absence under Aaron's leadership they complained and turned to idol worship, showing how quickly they abandoned allegiance after the signs of God's presence had ceased.

During that absence Israel should have meditated on the commandments and taught their children about the covenant, and should have sought God with humility, reverence, searching of heart, and godly fear. They should have humbled themselves in awe before Jehovah after seeing His delivering power, His judgments on Egypt, the passage through the Red Sea, and His glory upon the mount. Instead they complained, grew discontented and murmured, turned to Aaron to make gods for them, and with Aaron's aid demanded and worshiped a golden calf. The forty days were a testing time in which God tested whether the people could be trusted, and their disobedience and idolatry were exposed. Their failure showed weakness and instability, turning the covenant's conditions of faithfulness and obedience into grounds for self-importance instead of relying humbly on God, and losing faith that Moses would return they neglected their covenant and turned toward idolatry, jealousy, and envy.

Though gone only forty days, that short time was long enough for one of the greatest apostasies, illustrating how common rebellion was. Despite special favors and having recently heard God's voice from Sinai in awful grandeur speaking the Ten Commandments until they feared, trembled, and pleaded that God speak no more but Moses speak to them, they turned to the lowest idolatry and worshiped the work of their own hands. During the same forty days in which God wrote His law to commit to His covenant people, Satan at the foot of Sinai carried forward his war against God's law begun in heaven by exciting doubt, apostasy, and rebellion, leading Israel to deny loyalty to Jehovah, demand gods of gold, and bow before a golden image in open defiance of the commands Moses was bringing from the divine glory. By this daring insult Satan planned to cause God to divorce Israel and devote them to destruction and thus extinguish the seed of Abraham meant to preserve knowledge of the living God and through whom Christ the true seed would come to conquer Satan, but the plan was defeated, for though those who stubbornly sided with Satan were cut off, the humbled repentant were pardoned, so the sin stands as perpetual testimony to the guilt and punishment of idolatry and to God's justice and long-suffering mercy.

God's bid, Come up unto Me into the mount, is still given, and Moses' call into the mount to commune with God and behold His glory before receiving God's law as representative of His people teaches that communion with God must come before great work for God. Such communion is appointed preparation giving continual progress in knowledge, virtue, and moral power, so all need times set apart for meditation, prayer, and spiritual refreshing to receive continual light for new scenes and trials, for prayer and faith do what no earthly power can accomplish. When by faith His people behold Him who is invisible their speech and pen come under the Holy Spirit and cease to be cheap and common. The mountain encounter is the pattern for leaders and responsible workers who seek God's presence and wisdom to follow the pattern God gives and to carry out His work according to what He reveals. Like Moses coming into the mount with God, those who trust God through earnest prayer and make His Word their guide are kept by His power calm and composed above boisterous accusations and shocks that ruffle men, swayed from no right principle, continually asking what is written in the law and what God has said, so that no word from men or ministers in highest position can turn their feet into questionable paths.