On a day like any other, God came.

In a desert place, a people just delivered from slavery set up a tent that, outwardly, didn’t look like much.

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

The people’s leader, Moses – a man who regularly met with God face to face – “could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Ex. 40:34-35).

God came gloriously

On a day like any other, God came gloriously.

He did not come to create a feel-good moment that people would spend the rest of their lives trying to replicate. Oh no. Holy God came to a people whom he loved, because he had made the way to dwell among them. He entered a humble tent, in order to abide there, and to come and go in their midst.

His coming foreshadowed a later time the apostle John described this way:

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

And his coming foreshadowed the “now” time when the Holy Spirit fills and indwells all who are his.

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth … He lives with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17)

In Moses’ day, the people welcomed their Lord by building a tabernacle according to his design.

Ah but the profound experience of God’s Presence in Exodus 40, the treasure of knowing he had come to stay, would not have happened had not one man chosen to get away with God – when God said, where God said, for as long God said, as often as God said.

For Moses, that meant climbing a mountain seven times.

Mountain of God

On the first day of the third month after the Israelites left Egypt – on that very day – they came to the Desert of Sinai. And Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain. (Ex. 19:1, 2)

Many mountains adorn the biblical landscape. Yet one held such significance for Moses that he called it simply “the mountain.” Exodus 3:1 identifies it as “Horeb, the mountain of God.” Exodus 19:1 says it lies in the Desert of Sinai. Exodus 19:11 first names it Mount Sinai.

At the foot of this mountain, the shepherd Moses had met the Lord, blazing from within a bush that would not burn up.¹

Calling to Moses from within the bush, God told a man exiled for 40 years to go deliver a people enslaved within the most powerful nation on earth. God said:

I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain. (Ex. 3:12)

How radically Moses’ life had changed in the short months since then. With his brother Aaron, Moses had repeatedly confronted Pharaoh, declaring God’s words, “Let my people go.” Pharaoh repeatedly hardened his heart. God sent plague after plague. After Pharaoh finally released the people, then pursued them, the whole Egyptian army perished in the Red Sea.

Now, Moses stood again at the foot of the mountain of God. Before, he had stood alone, except for a few bleating sheep. Now, a whole nation of people camped around him.

Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain. (Ex. 19:3)

Encounters with God

Consider your age, health and energy level. Consider your responsibilities and schedule. Consider the logistical implications of putting everything on hold while you climb a mountain to meet with God – not once, but again and again.

For 40 years, Moses had tended sheep. Rugged terrain did not daunt him. Still, at 80, he might have hoped his mountain-climbing days were done. He might have asked, “Lord, can’t you come down here?”

For 40 years, Moses had done a back-side-of-the-desert job with little human contact. At 80, he might have hoped to retire. Now, everyone and everything pulled at him from every direction. In the press of the urgent, he might have delegated mountaintop prayer to an intercessory team.

But he didn’t. Moses so longed to worship God on that mountain that he started climbing even before God called. Thus began a series of uphill treks, each with a purpose and duration that the Lord himself chose – each offering us insights that are timeless.

Moses’ seven encounters with God on Sinai
reveal remarkable things about who the Lord is,
how he relates to his people
and how to cultivate intimacy with him.

Here’s the big picture, with links to the posts that explore each God encounter.

1 – The purpose of the wilderness

Immediately on leaving Egypt behind, a freed people felt great joy. Yet in that desert place, it quickly became clear: They who had come out of slavery were still bound in many ways.

Three months after the Exodus, God called Moses up the mountain, to give him one brief but profound message for the people. First, the Lord told them:

I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. (Ex. 19:4)

Then he offered the people the one relationship that, above all others, could give them true belonging and profound purpose – and make them free indeed.

2 – Prepare to meet with God

After descending the mountain to deliver the Lord’s first message, Moses climbed Sinai a second time to deliver the people’s reply. 

Their response sounded positive. But God had offered them relationship. They had agreed to rule-keeping.

And yet, the Lord pressed in to relationship. He told Moses to tell the people, in essence: “I’m coming down to you. Prepare to meet with me.”

3 – God who loves fiercely

Early in the morning, two days later, God came down to meet with his people. His intent? To introduce himself to them, to speak aloud to them, to make clear to them what covenant with him would mean.

He came to show them his love – a love that fiercely seeks his people’s good. And he came to teach them the fear of the Lord – not cringing fear, no, the fear that keeps us from getting chummy or casual with God, yet draws us inexorably toward him, the fear that “leads to life” (Prov. 19:23).

Smack in the middle of an entrance no one present would ever forget, the Lord did an astonishing thing. He paused – and called Moses up the mountain for a third time. Then, God simply repeated his second message and sent Moses back down. Moses must have wondered, “What was that all about?”

4 – When your world has changed

The people at the foot of Mount Sinai were filled with fear, but not the fear of the Lord.

Three months earlier, their world had changed – so much so that it felt surreal. Emotionally as well as physically, they now camped in a barren desert, with no means of providing for themselves, no experience in governing themselves and powerful enemies on all sides.

After God came down to meet them, they asked that he not speak to them again. Immediately, the Lord called Moses back up Sinai, into thick darkness, in order to make some things clear.

And thus, through Moses, God called his people to quit being driven by panic. If they chose covenant with him, he would expect them to live a completely different way.

5 – Mystery and life: The covenant meal

Entrusted with a lengthy message during his fourth trip up the mountain, Moses returned to tell the people twice all that God had said. Twice, they esponded, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.” The next morning, Moses led them to enter covenant with God.

Then, Moses trekked up Sinai for a fifth time. In answer to God’s call, he did not go alone, and he only went partway up. Aaron and his two sons and 70 representatives of the people climbed the mountain too. There, the 74 saw God. In his Presence, they ate and drank a covenant meal.

How astounding it all must have been! And yet it is but a shadow picture of another, better, covenant, and an even more profound covenant meal.

6, part 1 – The place his glory dwells

With the covenant accomplished, it might seem the Lord would send Moses back to his people, to tend to the enormous tasks at hand. But no.

The Lord called to Moses, “Come up to me and stay.” Moses went – and stayed 40 days and nights. For six whole days, God was silent. Then, he gave Moses plans that seemed to have nothing to do with protecting or providing for the people, or getting them out of the desert and into the land he had promised them.

Rather, God gave minute details for building and furnishing a portable worship tent and readying worship leaders. God also wrote his Ten Commands on two stone tablets and gave them to Moses.

Reading these chapters in Exodus, we might find them tedious. We might wonder what practical value they have. Yet the Lord was making a way where there was none to dwell among his people. From there, he would accomplish the impossible on their behalf.

6, part 2 – One who stands in the gap

While Moses experienced glory on the mountain, the people committed mutiny in the valley. They gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us.”

Without hesitation, Aaron did it. He asked for the people’s earrings and made them “into an idol cast in the shape of a calf” (Ex. 32:1,4).

Seeing the calf, the people declared that the gods they were fashioning had delivered them from Egypt. In a heartbeat, they had forsaken and betrayed the Lord. Like a bride sleeping around on her wedding night, they had broken the vows to God that they had just made.

Would the Lord – could he – go forward with his plan to dwell in the midst of this people? Would he even remain with them at all?

7 – Radiant! A glory story

When Moses descended the mountain for the sixth time, he saw the frenzied idol worship going on there – and he shattered the tablets of God.

Then, Moses confronted the people. He dismantled their idol. For days, perhaps weeks, he stayed on his face before the Lord. In that dark place, Moses cried:

If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people. (Ex. 33:13)

When God said yes to that prayer, Moses asked something even more impossible:

Now show me your glory. (Ex. 33:18)

Then, the Lord told Moses to bring two new tablets and come up the mountain the seventh time. Moses went – and again, he stayed in God’s presence 40 days and nights.

Much of what happened there is mystery. But we know Moses saw God’s glory. And this time, when Moses came down, the glory did too.

Dwelling of God

His face radiant from being with the Lord, Moses led the Israelites to build the tabernacle. Once it was complete, the Lord came to fill and to dwell.

No more would Moses have to ascend Mount Sinai to meet with God. Now, “The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting” (Lev. 1:1). Now, the Lord instructed and guided the Israelites from his dwelling place in the heart of the camp.

Wherever the people went, God himself addressed the pressing, overwhelming issues they faced. And though Moses no longer had to climb a mountain, he continued to put everything else on hold any time the Lord said, “Come be with me.”

God calls us too

The same God who called Moses to climb a mountain seven times also calls us to come to him.

In Christ, we don’t have to move a muscle to do it. We can come to our Lord anytime, anywhere, by turning to him within. As we look to him in spirit and truth, he meets us. He receives us.

Sometimes, the Lord calls us, not only to come to him, but also to spend time with him – to be still in his Presence long enough to really look, really listen. He may call us to “be with him” in a certain place.

Deciding

When the Lord calls you to get away with him, he doesn’t bargain or beg. He doesn’t manipulate, and he doesn’t play the guilt card.

The encounter to which he invites you may be brief. It may be lengthy. It will almost surely interfere with urgent, overwhelming matters that clamor to be done.

You may be tempted to let everything that’s pulling at you dictate your response. You may think that you cannot fulfill your responsibilities if you answer the Lord’s every prompting to be still and know him. For sure, you cannot please everyone else, if you live your life that way.

Yet it’s in knowing him that you become who he created you to be. It’s in knowing him that you can do the “all things” he designed beforehand for you to do.

It’s in knowing him that you can stand with him and wrestle with him, wait for him and cooperate with him, on behalf of those you love. It’s in knowing him that you truly do them good.

And so, you can only accomplish what really matters as you learn to come at his call.

Daring

Be aware: Intimacy with God does not always feel warm and fuzzy. When seeking him leaves you with more questions than answers and more pain than joy, you may be tempted to cut and run.

Instead, like Moses, press in to your Lord, daring

• to trust,
• to ask hard questions,
• to invite the One who gave himself on your behalf to show you more.

When he reveals himself in ways that jar you, don’t be afraid. Do discern. Don’t demand answers. Wait and watch for them. Don’t try to bypass the struggle, but also don’t let your faith fail.

When you cannot fathom your Lord, worship him still.

When he does not speak and the clock is ticking, defy the urge to trash his plan and make your own.

Stay before him, Spirit-to-spirit, until your understanding catches up to what he is revealing, your ways echo his ways a little more fully, and your face is radiant with his light.

When your Lord says,
“Come be with me,”
more than you can begin to imagine
hangs in the balance.

No matter what in your life fights to keep you from it, look to him in faith, as he makes a way for you to answer that call.

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Afterwords

I published the original version of this post on November 22, 2018, under the title, “Get away with God.” I intended to write the rest of the series in the weeks after that. But this series could not be done in a hurry. Writing it required a willingness, long term, to press in to grapple with the mystery of God and to do what I was writing about.

In time, as I waited before the Lord – and questioned and wrestled – I completed the next post, and the next. More than three years after starting the series, I published the final post, about Moses’ last mountaintop encounter with God.

Then, in February 2022, I rewrote “Get away with God” to reflect the new things I had seen along the way.

In March 2024, I gave this post its new title.

Photo by Mohammed Moussa [CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons.

Footnotes

1. See Exodus 3:1. ↩︎