And Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.
Exodus 24 closes with a scene of Moses leaving the camp behind and climbing into a cloud that hides the top of Sinai. The verse raises two questions at once: why only one man goes up, and why God waits before He speaks.
The chapter sets people at different distances. God invited some part-way, called one man to the top, and kept the nation below.
He was now called to go up the mountain to the Lord. He was to take others with him who could worship at a distance. Moses alone might come near. The people could not approach at all.
That distance was the point. God had come down to live among Israel, yet He still had to keep them back.
The people, even in their representatives, cannot draw near. He who has come down to dwell among them must still hold them at a distance. Moses alone, as a type of a greater Mediator, is called to approach.
The cloud settles, and nothing happens for almost a week. Commentators see man's own working week running out first.
The glory of Jehovah, hidden by the cloud, stayed on the mountain for six days. This spanned, as it were, man's time — his six days. On the seventh day it appeared as devouring fire in the eyes of the children of Israel. And on God's rest day Jehovah called Moses into the middle of the cloud.
What the people saw and what Moses heard came from the same mountain top. Below, it looked like fire; above the fire, there was a voice.
The cloud covered the mountain for six days. On the seventh day the mountain breaks out into flame before the people's eyes. But the voice of the Lord calls Moses up to Himself — to that calm Presence where cloud and fire are not.
Moses' place changes here. He had stood with the people; now he goes higher.
Then came the seventh day. It may express the rest into which Moses was now about to be led, beyond all the terror of the fiery mountain. The voice of the Lord out of the cloud calls him, and Moses goes up into the middle of the cloud and climbs the mountain. Up to now he had stood on a level with the people, or a little apart from them as the nation's mediator. But now he enters into closer intimacy with the Lord. He is called to the top of the hill, beyond the region of darkness and thunder altogether.
Between the camp and the glory stood the altar of the earlier verses.
There is the defiled camp below and the sapphire pavement above; but the altar at the foot of the hill tells us the way. By it the sinner can escape the defilement of his own condition and go up to the presence of God. There he can feast and worship in perfect peace. The blood that flowed around the altar gave man his only title to stand in the presence of that glory.
That glory showed God's holiness, not His grace. Now that atonement has been made, believers "draw near, and be at home in the glory" (Edward Dennett).
How could a sinner stand in that place at all? One writer says the secret was the company Moses kept.
He is there in the company of Christ. That is the secret. The shadows of good things to come pass before him there. One by one they tell out the glorious truth: God can be a just God, and yet a Saviour. He can lead a sinner safely up the fiery mountain without the smell of it clinging to him.
Commentators differ over how far Moses entered God's presence at this stage. One reading holds that full entry came only later, after Israel's sin and Moses' plea for mercy.
Moses went up, but he never went into the cloud to talk with God, though the cloud covered God from the people… Until Moses obtained the mercy, on the second time he went up, he did not go in with God.
One writer carries the picture forward to Christ.
As Moses went up, so our great High Priest has gone to the Father. We see Him not, but we know He is there and will come back again. May we live by faith during His absence, and be kept from idols.
- Up — Moses alone climbs; the elders worship at a distance and the nation cannot approach at all. Nearness under law belonged to one man.
- Covered — six days of cloud stand for man's week; God speaks on the seventh, His own day of rest.
- Fire — the same glory looked like devouring fire from below, and sounded like a calling voice above.
- Blood — the altar at the foot of the hill gives the only title to go up at all.
- Absent — Moses hidden in the cloud pictures Christ gone to the Father: unseen, but there as our great High Priest, and coming back.
And the glory of Jehovah abode on mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
Israel's covenant has just been ratified. Cloud now covers the mountain, the glory rests on it, and six days pass in silence. Then a voice calls one man inside. Why the wait? Why the seventh day? And why Moses alone?
The waiting is not empty. One writer reads the count of days as a deliberate measure — six belonging to man, the seventh to God.
After the covenant was ratified, the mediator was once more called up into God's presence to be alone with Him. The glory of the LORD, hidden by the cloud, rested on the mountain for six days. It spanned, as it were, man's time — his six days. On the seventh day it appeared as devouring fire in the eyes of the children of Israel. And on God's rest day the LORD called Moses into the middle of the cloud.
The cloud that hid the mountain is also where the call came from. One writer sets the terror outside against the peace within, and compares the fire to the fire at the gate of Eden.
The cloud covers the mountain for six days. On the seventh the mountain breaks out into flame before the people's eyes. But the voice of the LORD calls Moses up to Himself — to that calm Presence where cloud and fire are not. These are only like the enfolding fire at the gate of Eden; beyond it is the glory beyond words and the eternal peace.
The people below watched the glory burn. One writer names what that fire showed about God, and what it means for those who come near Him now.
This was not the glory of His grace, but the glory of His holiness, as the symbol of devouring fire shows. It was the glory of the LORD in His relationship with Israel on the basis of law. So it was a glory no sinner could dare approach, for holiness and sin cannot be brought together. But now, through the grace of God, on the ground of accomplished atonement, believers can draw near and be at home in the glory. More than that, "beholding the glory of the Lord" with unveiled face, they "are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another" (2 Cor. 3:18).
The call also changes where Moses stands.
Then on the seventh day the voice of the LORD out of the cloud calls him, and Moses goes up into the middle of it, into the mountain. The seventh day may express the rest Moses was now to enter, beyond all the terror of the fiery mountain. Until now he had stood on a level with the people while they received the ten commandments. Or he stood a little apart from them, as the nation's mediator, while the statutes were published. But now he enters into closer intimacy with the LORD. He is called to the top of the hill, beyond the region of darkness and thunder altogether.
What was Moses called in to hear? One writer points to the tabernacle instructions that follow, and reads them as a revelation of Christ.
This was truly a high and holy position for Moses. He was called away from earth and earthly things. Withdrawn from natural influences, he is shut in with God. There he hears from His mouth the deep mysteries of the Person and work of Christ. That, in fact, is what the tabernacle and all its meaningful furniture unfold — the patterns of things in the heavens. The blessed One knew full well how man's covenant of works would end. Yet He unfolds to Moses, in types and shadows, His own precious thoughts of love and counsels of grace, shown in Christ and secured by Him.
If the glory looked like fire from below, how did a man walk into it and live? The answer is not Moses' merit but his company.
He is not there long before we learn the secrets of that holy place. We learn how he got there, and where the power lay that could carry him through all that devouring fire unharmed. He is there in company with Christ. That is the secret. The shadows of good things to come pass before him. One by one they tell out the glorious truth: God can be a just God and yet a Saviour. He can bring a sinner safely up the fiery mountain without even the smell of it clinging to him.
- Cloud — The cloud hid the glory for six days. The delay is measured: man's six days, then God's seventh.
- Call — From below it looked like fire. From within came a voice, calling Moses inside the cloud.
- Glory — Israel saw the glory of holiness under law, a glory no sinner could approach, not the glory of grace.
- Christ — Inside the cloud Moses heard the deep mysteries of Christ, unfolded in the tabernacle, before man's covenant of works had failed.
- Access — Christ kept Moses safe in the fire. On the ground of accomplished atonement, believers now behold that glory with unveiled face and are changed by it.
And the appearance of the glory of Jehovah was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain, before the eyes of the children of Israel.
Israel was forbidden to touch this mountain, and now its top burned with the glory of God while Moses climbed into it. So why does the same glory that draws Moses up look like destruction to the people below?
Commentators read the fire as a picture of what God is, shown to Israel on the basis of law.
This was not the glory of His grace. It was the glory of His holiness, as the symbol of devouring fire shows — the glory of the Lord in His relationship with Israel on the basis of law. So it was a glory that no sinner could dare approach, for holiness and sin cannot be put together. But now, through the grace of God, and on the ground of accomplished atonement, believers can draw near and be at home in the glory. More than that, with unveiled face they behold the glory of the Lord, and they are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18). We approach boldly and gaze with delight on the glory, because every ray we see in the face of Christ in glory proves that our sins are put away and that redemption is accomplished.
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His holiness set demands Israel could not meet. The link runs from the mountain into their later history.
The word "devouring" here might also be rendered "consuming." At Sinai this was the glory of Jehovah as He made Himself known to Israel. In a word, it was the expression of His holiness, set out in His righteous requirements. But His people were sinners, and could not, therefore, satisfy His just demands. So under Jehovah's government, which rested on the law, this glory became a "consuming fire." He judged Israel again and again for their repeated sins.
The same words return in the letter to the Hebrews.
In the passage in Hebrews the apostle says that "our God is a consuming fire." Note carefully that he speaks this way of "our" God, the God of Christians... So once again, the "consuming fire" expresses the holiness of God. It tests all our service, and it must judge everything evil in it.
The people looked at this fire and stood it. One writer traces their calm to how little they yet knew themselves, and contrasts a later day, when Moses came down with a shining face they could not bear.
They had stood it in Exodus 24:17. "They were alive without the law" then. That is, they did not know their own condition as sinners, and they did not know how uncompromising the law is. So they looked at the fiery glory without alarm. But now "sin revived." That is, their consciences understood sin properly, because "the commandment had come" with power. So they "die." They accept the sentence of death upon themselves, and Moses' face, which stands for the law, is unbearable. (See Rom. 7.)
One thing stood at the foot of that mountain: an altar, with blood poured out at it.
There is the defiled camp below and the sapphire pavement above. But the altar at the foot of the hill shows the way for the sinner to escape the defilement of his own condition. He can go up into the presence of God, and feast and worship there in perfect peace. The blood that flowed around the altar gave man his only title to stand in the presence of that glory. It "was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel."
The glory did not stay on the peak. It moved down to the tent at the foot of the mountain.
The glory now changes its place. It had settled, as we have seen, like devouring fire on the top of the hill (Ex. 24:17), but now it comes down to fill the tabernacle pitched at the foot of it. In its first place it was death to approach it. If even an animal so much as touched the edge of it, the people had to stone it or run it through. But now it is life to come up to it.
- Fire — The blaze on Sinai's peak is the glory of God's holiness, not the glory of His grace.
- Fire consumes — Israel could not meet His righteous demands. So that same holiness became consuming judgment through their history.
- Fire tests — Hebrews still says "our God is a consuming fire." His holiness tests the service of Christians and judges what is evil in it.
- Fire unfeared — Israel watched the flame without alarm, because they did not yet know themselves as sinners. Later they could not bear Moses' shining face.
- Fire approached — The blood at the altar gave the only title to stand near that glory. Then the glory itself came down to the tabernacle, and coming near meant life, not death.
And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and ascended the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Moses left the people at the foot of Sinai and climbed alone into the cloud. Below, they watched what looked like fire on the summit. Above, for forty days and nights, Moses heard what no one else in Israel would hear.
The same fire meant one thing to the people below and another to Moses inside the cloud.
The people stay inside their own covenant. They stand under the mountain and look at its devouring fires (Ex. 24:17). Moses is called into fellowship with the Lord's covenant of grace and salvation. So God takes him away from the people, into the middle of the cloud on the mountain, to a region that lay on the other side of all those devouring fires (Ex. 24:18). The thunder is now behind him, the storm has passed by for him, and he lives in the calm sunshine of the presence of Christ.
What did that fire show about God?
This was not the glory of His grace. It was the glory of His holiness, as the symbol of devouring fire shows. It was the glory of the Lord in His relationship with Israel on the basis of law (compare 2 Cor. 3). So no sinner could dare approach that glory, for holiness and sin cannot go together. But now, through the grace of God, on the ground of accomplished atonement, believers can draw near and be at home in the glory. More than that: "with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord," they "are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another" (2 Cor. 3:18).
Moses went up for the stone tablets. But that was not all he received.
He went up, I fully admit, to receive the law from God's hand; and the people thought he had only gone up to get that law. But what was God thinking about? He was thinking about Christ all that time, and He was telling Moses about Christ, in figure, type and shadow. The next seven chapters, from Exodus 25 right through to the end of Exodus 31, are all about Christ.
The place matched the message.
This was truly a high and holy position for Moses. He was called away from earth and earthly things. Cut off from natural influences, he is shut in with God. There he hears from His mouth the deep mysteries of the Person and work of Christ. That is what we have unfolded in the tabernacle and all its meaningful furniture — "copies of the heavenly things." The blessed One knew full well how man's covenant of works was going to end. Yet He unfolds to Moses, in types and shadows, His own precious thoughts of love and plans of grace, shown in Christ and secured by Him.
Forty carries a settled meaning across Scripture.
FORTY = 10 × 4. Complete probation to bring to light good or evil. Moses was forty years in the desert, and he was tried there himself. He was on the mountain for two periods of forty days, and those were times of trial for the Israelites (Ex. 24:18; Ex. 34:28). The spies spent forty days searching the land. The tribes were tested forty years in the wilderness. The Lord Jesus was under temptation forty days.
The length of the delay, then, was not for God's sake but for Israel's.
This length of time was not needed for God. He could have made Moses see and understand everything in a moment. Why then forty days? In the wisdom of God it was the time needed to test the people. Would they obey and wait patiently for the ordinances they had promised to keep? They were so far from recognising the solemn responsibilities they had taken on that they did not even wait to hear them.
While Moses was above, the people below made an idol. That failure did not shut the door between Moses and God.
Moses was obtaining all these things for them, and in his absence they make the calf. It is painful, yet also very beautiful, to see God's dealings with Moses after the people made the golden calf. In the middle of all the ruin, faith under grace can have closer fellowship than when there was no ruin. Moses never had such close fellowship with God as he had now, when the people had made the calf. And the calf was still in the camp.
- Called — God calls Moses past the fire the people saw. He enters a place "on the other side of all those devouring fires," where the thunder is behind him.
- Contrasted — The blaze on the summit showed the glory of God's holiness under law. No sinner could approach it. Grace now brings believers near to gaze at that glory.
- Christ — The forty days were not about the law alone. Exodus 25–31 unfolds the Person and work of Christ in type and shadow.
- Counted — Forty is the number of full testing. God's delay tested whether Israel would wait.
- Closer — Israel failed the test below while Moses was above. Yet in that ruin Moses came into the closest fellowship with God he had ever known.