Exodus 24: 12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction (NIV)

Moses did not have an easy life and not even as a baby when he was left in a basket to float on a river in the hope that he makes it. When Pharaoh’s daughter found him, he was crying so much she could not ignore him though she knew he was a Hebrew child. She had to have compassion on him. Some may say he at least grew up as royal unlike his enslaved brothers and sisters; true: But still, despite all the pleasures of Egypt and royalty, something was missing

Acts 7: 23-25 When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. 24 He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not

Deep down in Moses heart, he knew he did not belong with the Egyptians; he knew he was Hebrew and tried, maybe even too hard, to gain the love and confidence of his people. We do not know exactly when he realized he was Hebrew, but he must have known for a while. Not an easy life! Finally, he leads them out of Egypt. These people did not cut him any slack. Oh, they tormented Moses! And for what? After all, Moses did not choose them; God did. Sadly, at the end of it all, He did not enter the Promised Land! 

Moses was not without his faults but without Moses, we would not have received what we know as the pattern for worshipping God today. He paid a huge price to pass down what we have (and sometimes do not treasure).

Exodus 19:9 The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you.”

I am convinced that God was mindful of all the sacrifices Moses made and his labour of love so He wanted to honour him in front of the children of Israel. After this conversation in chapter 19, God extended an invitation to Moses to come up to him on the mountain (Exodus 24:12). 

I can’t but think of the fact that Moses could have given up on his assignment to take the people into the promised land. He could have decided to continue with God alone and leave them behind. At some point God was ready to start all over with him and wipe out the rest of them (very tempting). They wore him out with their words (Satan’s strategy). How did he even have the strength to go on?

The strength to go up that mountain came from Moses’ desire for God. He wanted God so much that he asked God to show him His glory. In all his anger and frustration, he knew that God’s presence was all he needed. The invitation in Exodus 24 was not the first time God asked him to come up the mountain. There were other encounters in Exodus 19 which I would like to refer to as the previews to the real deal. 

In verse 3 Moses went up to God himself and then the Lord called to him from the mountain. He never lost sight of the One who called him from his mother’s womb, so that by the time God was ready for His 40-day encounter with him, Moses was able to make the climb up the mountain and remain there. Moses was so engulfed it took God to send him back down because the children of Israel were at it again. They had asked Aaron to build them a calf they could worship. What was even more disappointing was that Aaron built the calf and declared it god who brought them out of Egypt. Even Moses had to ask him what the children of Israel did to him!

This paints a picture of what is happening and will continue to happen until Jesus comes. The earth is going to get darker and darker. Evil will abound. Even the “Aarons” of this world will do strange things. Evil will abound at the bottom of the mountain.  The only way we can separate ourselves is by going up to the mountain; the very top. There is no hanging by the sides of the mountain. Hanging by the sides or dancing around the bottom of the mountain is only an invitation for trouble. That is the situation of the double-minded man. He cannot receive anything from God. It is at the top that all we see is God, even in a very dark world. It is at the top of the mountain that we receive all God has in these last days. 

Hebrews 12:1 Such a large crowd of witnesses is all around us! So, we must get rid of everything that slows us down, especially the sin that just won’t let go. And we must be determined to run the race that is ahead of us (CEB)

We cannot go up the mountain with weight. Each person must decide what he or she must drop at the bottom of the mountain. This is where Moses missed it. He came down from the mountain and picked up his anger again just shortly after pacifying God. He came down and broke the tablets. Exodus 32:16 refers to the tablets as the “work of God”. We must fight to retain what we have in Jesus. There are many things out there waiting to wear us out and make us give up. Pressures will come from every side. We must build ourselves up to come up higher and leave the bottom of the mountain. We can’t afford to lose.  The devil succeeded with Adam, he should not succeed with you. Jesus has already made us victorious. Let us remain in that victory.

Ifiok Ezenwa