Good Morning.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.” (Exodus 24:12)

Have you ever noticed that mankind is always being summoned to “come up” or directed to “go up” to where God is. Here Moses is instructed to “Come up”; in Isaiah there is an admonition for us all to “Go up to the mountain of the Lord” (Isaiah 2:3). Obviously this speaks to the distinction between the Creator and the created — He is heavenly and we are of the earth — but it also alludes to the grace bestowed upon us by the Most High. Even though we are of the earth, He permits us to rise above our earthbound state and, as Paul said, sit in “heavenly places.”

Furthermore, in this verse and in the passage from Isaiah, man is called up to meet with the Almighty that we might receive His Words and learn of His ways. In this case Moses was to receive His laws and commands directly from God and then teach them to the people. In Isaiah we are encouraged to go up “To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.” The point of meeting with God, in other words, is that we might learn from Him and learn of Him, moreover, learn to be like Him in the ways it is possible for mankind to emulate the attributes of the Almighty.

That we might know Him and that we might live in a way that pleases Him, God determined to bridge the gap between heaven and earth, once and for all, by coming down to us. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us that we might understand the ways of our Heavenly Father and that we might be made one with Him through the Son. For those in Messiah, we also have the promise that we shall be raised up incorruptible and no longer be separated from God but will dwell with Him forever in the New Jerusalem. As it written: “He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God” (Revelation 21:3).

Blessings and Shalom,  

Bill 

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