Almost Not Ready - Exodus 19

19:1-25 - It seems like the people of Israel are finally getting settled in their new place at the foot of a mountain called Sinai. Moses has his family back, has established a new social order with delegated authority, and Israel has won it’s first military campaign against their enemies. All in all, it sounds like a they were finally doing ok. It is during this break in trials that God introduces the idea that He is accessible to all people, not just Moses and Aaron. Initially, God tells Moses to tell the people, “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” This sounds like a covenant to me, and it introduces a few new ideas to the people, that they are special, that God is protecting them personally for a reason, and that they have work to prepare for.

We know that Israel at this point still believes in many gods that live under many restrictions. They are overcoming centuries of misunderstandings and misinformation, and I get it, it’s a lot, it’s new, and I don’t think that these other gods were ever even capable of extending a offer of protection or mentorship, they had to be tricked into doing anything positive for humans. Israel is looking at a whole new and different understanding of this God that has done so much positive stuff for them without being tricked at all. It’s a whole new dynamic and this God wants to be involved in their entire lives, which was new. There’s a lot going on to try to process, so it’s not a surprised when it turns out that the people (which apparently only meant men because there are some instructions from God to avoid women to sanctify themselves, but I’ll think about that later) aren’t prepared enough to meet God. But to eventually be ready, they must get started somewhere and this is how God did it.

When it’s discovered by God and Moses that the people aren’t exactly ready to meet God, God still has them get ready as much as they can which included washing their clothes, and to stay away from the designated God area of the mountain. Then on the third day “there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceedingly loud… and mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder… the Lord came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount.”

Moses goes up and talks to God about the readiness of the people and God decides that at this point it’s only going to be Moses and Aaron, but that the people can continue to get ready by obeying the rules about where they can go and by being clean, not just physically but I would imagine spiritually as well. The IM notes that Israel was offered “to receive the fulfillment of all God’s promises, they could have been accorded the grandest of all revelations: He offered to come down in the sight of all the people and let them hear when He spoke to Moses that they might know for themselves about His will and His law, and believe in Moses’ future revelations from God, and revere the Lord evermore.” This was God’s offer to the people, to see and hear Him directly, but they had a lot of work to do, they had a lot to overcome, but He still rewarded them and met them where they were at.

All this is to say that we shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves when we aren’t ready to what we think we are or what we think God should be giving us. There is a lot of work for each of us to do personally, and we are all on our own paths. It’s an eternal journey that lasts for eons of time, we have to accept that and be content with where we are and what we get as far as spiritual readiness and work for more. The IM also comments, “note the need of cleanliness and spiritual dedication in their preparation for this great spiritual experience.” We just need to keep taking the next step forward spiritually and then the Spirit will tell us how to move forward. And we can’t beat ourselves up when we slow down or even go backward in our progress, it’s cyclical, we can just do our best, live ebbs and flows. I definitely need to focus more on growing spiritually, maybe this is my sign to move forward that way. I’ll have to think about that.