“Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.” (Exodus 24:9-11)
This week, our lectionary readings portray two different mountaintop experiences. The mountaintop experiences in our own lives are times when we feel the glory of the Lord and bask with joy in His presence. We have all had them. From the Book of Exodus we see Moses, his brother Aaron, lead the elders of Israel up the mountain to encounter the Lord, face to face. This was preceded by an offering and sprinkling of blood. This served to ratify the covenant between God and Israel and atone for the sins of the people.
Moses served as the mediator with the Lord for the ancient Israelites believed that no one could meet with God directly without being struck down. As we see here though, Aaron and the elders entered into His presence and lived. Perhaps this was because they did look up to see His face in its entire splendor for the description of God in these verses only mentions His feet and what was beneath them. Aaron and the elders were so fearful of being in God’s awesome presence that they could not lift their eyes to view Him. They were aware of their own sinfulness and knew that God knew this too. Thus they only glimpsed his feet even though they could have viewed His face for the blood of the covenant that had been sprinkled showed that their sins had been covered and atoned for.
The glory of an awesome holy God should overwhelm us for He is Holy and we are not. We are all sinful and unclean beings who cannot be in His presence. This should gave all humans pause to think for no one can presume to be so intimate with God that they can come before Him without faith, covered only in self-righteousness. God accepts as righteous only those who come to Him by faith in Jesus because of His blood which He poured out for to atone for the sins of all humanity. Only those with such faith are able to enter His presence and fellowship with Him face to face and without fear.