Wait for it...

Well there’s an old saying that says, “good things come to those who wait.” If you want to see God, you’re gonna have to wait for Him. Waiting is so antithetical to our microwave culture. We don’t want to wait for anything! Here's what the Lord taught me about waiting from Exodus 24 & 25.

Highlight:

'The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day he called to Moses from the cloud. The appearance of the Lord ’s glory to the Israelites was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop. Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.' Exodus 24:16-18

Explain:

My goodness, I can’t even imagine this scene. The children of Israel have been camped at Sinai. Three months to the day of their deliverance from Egypt. They came right back to the place God had promised Moses they would at that burning bush when everything changed for Him. So much had happened since that time. The people had been miraculously delivered by cataclysmic plagues that completely desecrated the gods of the Egyptians including Pharoah himself. They had experienced the protection of God with the death angel. They had spoiled the Egyptians bringing the finest of things from Egypt out into the wilderness. They had been protected by the cloud and delivered through the sea. They’d watched God bring them scoop bread off of heaven’s table and scatter it down to them right on time every morning, just enough. They’d watched water gush from a rock!

Now they stand around the mountain 603,000 men and families around the mountain gazing at the mountain on fire with the glory of God. Smoke, thunder, lightning, the deafening voice of God, the thundering trumpet so loud the people beg God to stop. Can you imagine the scene!

From the mountain God thunders and summons the 70 elders of Israel, Moses, Joshua, Aaron, and Hur. All of them are then sprinkled with the blood of the covenant. They have agreed to abide by the laws and covenants, they have sanctified themselves by washing and abstaining for sexual activity. They have entered into relationship with God, this ALMIGHTY GOD.

Then God instructs them to wait here and He summons Moses and Joshua up higher on the mountain. When He calls to Him from the mountain the word says the cloud covered it for six days. Silence, in the cloud, on the mountain on fire, alone, waiting. What must have run through Moses mind? I can’t even imagine. There must have been excitement. There must have been terror. There must have been anticipation. There must have been confusion. There must have been frustration. There must have been anguish. All these emotions balled up into one man, waiting…on the mountain….in the silence…for six…long…days.

Then on the 7th day, the Lord’s glory comes like a consuming fire on the mountain and the speaks to Moses from the cloud. Moses enters the cloud with God almost as a veil to the people around him. Hidden from view in the mountain with God for 40 days and 40 nights.

Apply:

How do I apply this? We’ve seen God do so many things like Moses. We’ve seen our deliverance, we’ve seen Him provide, we’ve seen Him protect, we’ve seen Him make a way out of no way. We’ve heard His voice thunder from a distance in our lives. We’ve been made a covenant people. We’ve set apart ourselves for fellowship, we’ve tried to walk in obedience. But somehow when God calls us up higher to a new level of intimacy with Him, to bring Him closer, it seems as if the waiting gets more difficult the closer we get to Him. It is agonizing to wait while the mountain is on fire around you. All the emotions that Moses must have felt are present in my heart in the season of waiting as well. Anticipation. Fear. Terror, Excitement. Confusion. Frustration.

When we have to wait on God, something happens inside us. The agony of waiting in that moment must have been difficult. But what Moses did I that moment is clear…nothing. He did nothing, He waited silently. Remember this is Moses writing, if God and he thought it was important for us to know what he did, it would have been recorded. But He did nothing, He didn’t come down off the mountain, where is He gonna go? This is where God is, this is where God has chosen to reveal Himself. There is no other way but to wait on God’s instructions. He waits…in the silence…

Respond:

Jesus, what a truth for me this morning. Help me to wait for You. Help me to be faithful in the waiting season. Help me to be obedient to what I know to do, Help me wait on Your instructions. I need You to speak in so many areas in my life right now, help me to wait for You to speak. Help me to see the waiting as part of the invitation.