MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 24:12-18
DIVINE PREPARATIONS
Through all the ages the Divine hand is at work. In the kingdoms of nature and of grace we notice vast preparatory processes. And the Almighty has to do with individuals as well as communities. He brings forth His chosen instruments when the fit time has come. But He does not bring forth until they are fitted for their work. Moses must dwell forty days and forty nights on Mount Sinai. As nature has its barren winter and fruitful harvest, so God’s heroes have the winter of seclusion, and the autumn of golden productiveness.
I. Each one has his proper position to occupy. Moses must go up into the Mount, be hidden in the cloud, and hold communion with the Infinite. Joshua must attend as the minister. Aaron and Hur must act in the place of Moses, and be the administrators of justice; and the elders must tarry. They may serve who only stand and wait; and this is sometimes the most arduous service. Tarry is very often an unwelcome word. Tarry when the cloud conceals a sublime mystery, and when Moses is about to penetrate that mystery. The man who can tarry in a right spirit has a well-disciplined nature. However, let each seek his proper position.
II. Each man has his own divine vision. There was one vision to Moses, and another to the children of Israel. Moses entered the cloud; but the children of Israel stood outside the cloud. And this is still true. The Almighty is differently revealed to different natures. And differently revealed to the same natures at different periods. There is the revelation of the cloud, and there is the revelation of the devouring fire. To-day we may experience Divine chidings, and to-morrow we may be on the Mount of Beatitude.
III. But there are specialities of work. Moses was the lawgiver. He was to teach unto the people the law and the commandments, which God delivered unto him on the Mount. Moses stands out in solitary grandeur as the great lawgiver of the Old Testament. His name stands high in the historic scroll. Grandest and noblest of men! His words and works speak and influence through all time.
IV. Therefore there must be speciality in the preparation. This we see in the whole of the chapter; and it has already been a subject of remark. Whatever may have been the nature of the vision vouchsafed to Moses, it must have been of a special nature. He entered the cloud and conversed with God. He breasted the devouring fire, and was not consumed. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and yet did not perish of hunger. The Bible does not satisfy an idle curiosity. No history writes the tale of that forty days and forty nights’ retirement. The deep things of spiritual retirement cannot be written. But their sublime influence will be felt. Moses was brighter, nobler, and truer for the mountain retirement. In all true life there must be seasons of disappearance and of reappearance. The man of action must be also the man of prayer. The man of mighty words must be the man of prolonged meditation. A man may have high swelling words, which are only sound and nothing more, who has never been guilty of half an hours’ deep meditation. Moses was not an empty rhetorician. Aaron was the fluent speaker, and yet the words of Moses are more powerful and vital than the words of Aaron. Learn to be much in thought, much in prayer, much in mountain solitude; but much also with the people. Be not the empty-headed demagogue; and be not the useless, selfish recluse. Let waiting and working go hand in hand. Above all things, obey the Divine voice. Wait even six days for the Divine utterance; and it may be that on the seventh, God will call to thee out of the midst of the cloud.
—W. Burrows, B.A.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
COMMUNION WITH GOD.—Exodus 24:12-18
All great lives have been characterised by close and frequent communion with God. Enoch, Abraham, Moses, David, our Lord, &c., &c. All Scripture and Christian history testify to the importance and benefit of communion with God. Our text teaches us—
I. That communion with God is necessary.
1. Moses went up after the solemnities of the covenant. Religious teachers, beware how your duties interfere with your devotions. You can only give what you get, and you can only get what you give by communion with God.
2. Moses went up after the performance of his official duties as judge and general of the people. Men of business, beware how your engagements interfere with your prayers. Parents, &c., you can only perform the duties of life well by the “faith and fear” which you can alone get from God.
II. That special places are appointed for communion with God. “Come up unto the mount.”
1. God’s house is appointed as the place where God records His name and vouchsafes His blessing (Hebrews 10:25; Matthew 18:20).
2. The privacy of our own chamber (Matthew 6:6).
True, where there is a praying heart there is a sanctuary; but warehouses, counting-houses, &c., are hardly places where the soul can pour itself out to God.
III. That preparation should be made for communion with God, Exodus 24:14. “Shut to the door” (Matthew 6:6).
1. Arrangements should be made so that this communion may not be interrupted. Let not servant, nor family, nor callers take you away from this important business; let all those matters be settled before you commence.
2. Make such preparations that all worldly and anxious thought may be left outside, and give yourselves entirely up to the business in hand. How often are we half through the service before we begin to reap any benefit. It was not without significance that the Jews had a day of preparation (Mark 15:42).
IV. That communion with God should be most frequently alone. The elders were to tarry behind. This is necessary.
1. Because the presence of others may distract the mind or embarrass the thoughts.
2. Because the presence of others may call our attention away from those intensely personal matters which concern our own souls alone.
3. Because there are sins and wants to confess, about which we should not like our dearest friends to know.
V. That in communion with God the presence of others is sometimes helpful and even necessary. “And Moses rose up and his servant Joshua.”
1. There are occasions on which we should take a friend, our wives, our children, separately with us to the throne of grace. There are matters which concern us in common, want, interest, &c. Two Christian workers, e.g., two partners in business, husband and wife about the family, &c.
2. The same applies to family worship and prayer meetings.
VI. That communion with God is the condition upon which man may witness the Divine glory. “And the glory of the Lord abode on Mount Sinai” (Exodus 24:16-17; Isaiah 6)
VII. That communion with God may be protracted, and man must not weary of it (Acts 1; Luke 18:1-6; Acts 12:5; 1 Thessalonians 5:17). Man’s duty is “to wait upon the Lord.”
1. Sometimes God delays to test His people’s faith.
2. Sometimes in order that the course of His providence may not be abruptly interfered with.
VIII. That among the purposes of communion with God are recognition of the divine authority and preparation for future work. Moses waited for further divine instructions (chaps. 25–31.) In conclusion—
(i.) Psalms 62:5; (iii.) Isaiah 60:21.
—J. W. Burn.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. W. ADAMSON
Two Tables! Exodus 24:12.
1. Like that remarkable architecture still found amid Porter’s “Giant Cities of Bashan,” where a door will be hewn out of the solid rock, and door, rock, and hinge are all a single stone, the two tables make but one law. The fifth commandment is the axis or hinge on which they open and close—the connecting point where you pass from the one to the other.
2. According to the Talmud, these two tables were formed of sapphires; and it is certainly remarkable that the Hebrew word sappir is derived from the same root as the words that signify a book, writing, or engraving. God’s law, like His throne, is based on “Love.” Christ is Incarnate Love—blood-besprinkled blue—sapphire soaked in sardine.
“Alone, O Love ineffable!
Thy saving name is given;
To turn aside from Thee is hell,
To walk with Thee is heaven.”
—Whitties.
Covenant-Mediation! Exodus 24:12. A mediator’s hands receive the tables, thus establishing signs that grace is in the Law of Sinai. God states His claims that we may see our need of help to pay them, while our sense of ruin is designed to make us prize the gospel. Is it not grace to urge us onward towards the Cross—towards Him who is the Mediator of the New Covenant? To bring us to Christ, the law displays God’s holiness, sin’s heinousness, hell gaping at our feet. It shows that God’s whole nature abhors evil, and is pledged to execute just wrath. Peter was not alarmed to sink him fathoms deep in Galilee’s blue waters, but to persuade him to lean on Christ—“Save me, I perish.” So the law convicts the sinner that he may seek the Mediator’s help; for there is such help in Christ, and Christ alone.
“For Christ is given to be
The covenant of God to thee;
In Him—God’s golden scroll of light—
The darkest truths are clear and bright,”
—Havorgal.
Forty-Days’ Food! Exodus 24:18. Clarke and Paxton Hood allude to a conversation between Rabbi Meir and another on this subject. “Is it possible that any man can fast forty days and forty nights?” To this Rabbi Meir replied, “When thou takest up thy abode in a particular city, thou must live according to its customs. Moses ascended to heaven, where they neither eat nor drink; therefore he became assimilated to them. We are accustomed to eat and drink, and when angels descend to us, they eat and drink also.” As Grozart says, truly it was a heavenly not an earthly life in the case equally of Moses, Elias, and our Lord.
“Lo! He feeds on living bread,
Drinks the fountain from above,
Leans on Jesus’ breast his head,
Feasts for ever on His love.”
—Wesley.