Excerpt from Exodus 19:16-21

"On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast.  Everyone in the camp trembled.  Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.  Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire.  The smoke billowed up from it like from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder.

Then the Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain.  So Moses went up and the Lord said to him, 'Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the Lord and many of them perish.'" (NIV)

Reflection by Kenneth L. Samuel     
                                                                                        
I don't know about you, but if I had approached Mount Sinai and witnessed the billowing smoke, the blaring trumpets and the quaking ground, Moses would not have had to tell me to refrain from ascending the mountain in order to see God.  The awesome scene at Mount Sinai alone would have been more than enough to keep me in place.

Yet the desire to see God is unrelenting.  And the smokier and cloudier life gets, the more we strain and squint and search to see God.  God seems to remain hidden for many of us, somewhere behind the smoke and the clouds of trembling and treacherous circumstances.  What’s the big mystery?  Why doesn't God just appear plainly and clearly, so that we all can know and see and feel assured?

Maybe the answer is because God appears not on mountaintops, but in valleys.  The Israelites strained to see God at Mount Sinai, but the reality is that they had already seen God in Egypt when they were been delivered by God from their oppressors.  They had already seen God at the Red Sea when God opened up a freedom highway for them through the raging waters.  They had already seen God in the manna that sustained them, in the pillar of cloud that guided them and in the pillar of fire that illuminated their dark nights.  Their liberation itself was God’s clearest manifestation.

How many times have I strained unsuccessfully to see God in the ecstasy of high places, and missed God in the everyday victories of my life?  The more I pay attention to where I am and how far I've come, the more clearly I see God.

Prayer

Lord, please don’t allow the smoke to obscure the clear manifestation of your presence in our lives.  Thank you for relating to us face to face.  Amen.

About the Author Kenneth L. Samuel is Pastor of Victory for the World Church, Stone Mountain, Georgia.

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