Exodus 24:12-18
“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 out of the cloud.” vs. 16
In scripture the locus of God’s presence is regularly represented as an obscuring cloud, a wonderful metaphor for the mystery and hiddenness that is a part of God’s nature. In this passage Moses prepares for his divine encounter by going up on Mount Sinai and then entering into the cloud where after some delay God calls to him. We don’t get the details of the meeting and the special effects of movies like The Ten Commandments really aren’t much help. There is just no way to describe God…or our God encounters. And if we try to take away the mystery we only diminish the experience. If that means that we’re always going to “be in a fog” as we come close to God, so be it! Just as fog closes in around us, enveloping us in its misty presence, so God surrounds us in times of need, pressing close, obscuring our senses, and keeping us safe. Of course if our only God encounters were of those hidden and mysterious sort, we’d be left with only a sense of wonderment and amazement, but not much understanding. Fortunately God does come to us in other ways too, most notably in the presence of Jesus where we get a full taste of the love that most completely defines God’s nature. Without Jesus there would only be clouds, wonderful for hiding the divine aura, but not much good for revelation.
Thought for the Day: What does it feel like to be in a fog?
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