A Lifetime
Imagine being with God for forty days.
The Lord said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction." So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. To the elders he had said, "Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them." Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 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. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights. - Exodus 24:12-18
The picture is an amazing one.
The mountain, covered in a thick cloud, with a consuming fire visible at the top, sounds like an active volcano, ready to spew lava at any moment. And yet Moses went up into the cloud to be with God.
Wow.
But forty days is a long time to be alone with God. The number forty represents a lifetime, enough time for a new generation to take hold and replace the one that exists at the beginning of the period.
So, when Moses is away for forty days, it signifies enough of a break that the people who were with him, can turn against him, in fear, with uncertainty, confusion, disappointment.
It may not seem like a long time for us, unless we think in terms of our job and our workplace.
In business, it is encouraged that people take two weeks vacation so that anything someone may have been doing illegally could come to the surface and two weeks is long enough to reveal any such discrepancy.
Four weeks, or a month would surely be enough time to have errant behavior become visible, and it also is a long time for folks to operate without a leader.
Someone needs to be in charge during that time. Moses left the people in the hands of Aaron and Hur, giving us a clue that Moses expected to be with God for a while. This was going to be a test for them as well as for him.
Who would you leave in charge of your team if you decided to take off for a month or more?
Forty days is enough time to develop new loyalties, develop mew habits, develop new procedures. It can result in a total change of the operation.
We like to think the foundation we have built in life is strong and solid, but time has a way of wearing down mountains, carving canyons, and changing the course of mighty rivers.
Nothing is permanent in life.
The lesson for us in today's reading is to imagine leaving all we have created in our lifetime knowing it will change and become something new.
When we go off to spend time with God, we will be changed, but so will everything we left behind.
More to come...