In 24:12 we see that God called to Moses and said, “Come up to me into the mount.” The Lord seemed to be saying, “Moses, the others see Me, but they must worship afar off. They cannot be close to Me. I want you to come to Me and stay with Me.” Here we have something which goes beyond beholding God under a transparent and clear sky. In our spiritual experience first the sky becomes clear over us. Then in this clear atmosphere we receive a call from God to come to Him. Although this experience is very real, words cannot define it or illustrate it. If you have had the experience, you understand what I am talking about.
Exodus 24:13 says, “And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua; and Moses went up into the mount of God.” Joshua was one who helped Moses and ministered to him. I have studied this chapter again and again, but I have not been able to find out where Joshua was during the time Moses was with the Lord receiving “tables of stone, and a law, and commandments” (v. 12). In verse 14 Moses told the elders, “Tarry ye here for us, until we come again unto you.” The words “us” and “we” indicate that Joshua did not remain with the elders. But what did he do, and where did he go? Verse 15 says, “And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount.” Not a word is said about Joshua. The fact that we are not able to locate him has an important spiritual significance. In our experience we may come to the stage of seeing God under a clear heaven without reaching the stage of remaining with God under His glory. At such times it may seem that we cannot be located. Others do not know where we are, and we ourselves do not know. We may desire to return to the experience of the clear sky, but not be able to do so. On the one hand, we cannot go back to the experience of seeing God under a transparent sky; on the other hand, we have not yet entered into the glory. The reason is that in our spiritual experience of fellowship with God we are still Joshua; we are not yet Moses. Just as we are not able to locate Joshua in the remainder of Exodus 24, we also cannot be located by others and we cannot tell where we are. This is an aspect of the experience of fellowship with God.
In Exodus 24 the majority of the people were at the foot of Mount Sinai, some were on the mountain far off from the Lord, and Moses was on the top of the mountain under God’s glory. This difference with respect to the degree of distance from the Lord can be illustrated by the tabernacle with the outer court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. The people at the foot of the mountain were in the outer court, around the altar. The seventy elders, along with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and Hur, were on the mountain, in the Holy Place. Moses on the mountaintop was in the Holy of Holies, where the shekinah glory was. Later, after the tabernacle had been built, the high priest could enter into God’s glory in the Holy of Holies, where he could receive revelation and vision from God concerning His people. The principle is the same in Exodus 24 with Moses on the mountaintop under God’s glory receiving commandments from God that he may teach the people.
It is true that in the Lord’s recovery today we all are priests and that we have neither clergy nor laity. Nevertheless, actually and experientially there are differences among us concerning our fellowship with the Lord. Many saints are in the outer court with the altar and the sprinkled blood, others have entered the Holy Place to enjoy fellowship with God to a certain degree, and some are in the Holy of Holies, under God’s glory.
Moses was actually the only one to receive the direct vision of the tabernacle. The seventy elders who worshipped afar off did not see the vision directly. During the forty days Moses was with the Lord on the mountaintop, they were waiting. Enjoying a transparent sky and a clear view of God, they ate and drank for forty days, while God gave Moses vision after vision concerning the design of the tabernacle. It took forty days for Moses to receive a detailed vision of God’s dwelling place.
If you had been there at the time, would you prefer to receive the vision of the tabernacle or would you rather be with those afar off waiting for Moses? Waiting exhausts a person’s patience. The nobles on the mountain waited for Moses, but the people at the foot of the mountain became impatient and demanded that Aaron make a god for them to worship. Thus, during the time Moses was on the mountaintop, the people practiced idolatry. While the people were practicing idolatry at the foot of the mountain, Moses was on the top of the mountain dwelling with God under His glory and receiving the vision of His dwelling place. Praise the Lord for the vision through which we know the desire of God’s heart. God’s desire is to have a dwelling place on earth constituted of Christ and constituted according to Christ.
We need to consider the picture portrayed in Exodus 24 and ask ourselves where we are in our fellowship with the Lord. Are we with the people at the foot of the mountain, are we with those on the mountain, or are we Moses on the mountaintop? Perhaps some of us are Joshua who cannot be located, because in our experience we are between the transparent sky and the glory of God on the mountaintop. Among believers today there are different degrees of fellowship with the Lord and different degrees of closeness to Him. The majority are in the outer court; that is, they are at the foot of the mountain. Others, a much smaller number, are on the mountain; that is, they are in the Holy Place. A few have come to the mountaintop; that is, they are in the Holy of Holies dwelling with God under His glory.
It is very difficult to describe the appearance of God’s glory. In 24:16 and 17 the glory is likened to a cloud and also to a consuming fire. Actually God’s glory is neither a cloud nor a fire. We cannot describe fully what the glory of God is. This reminds us that, as human beings, we can understand spiritual things only to a limited degree. It is simply not possible for us to comprehend these things in a full way. Although what we have covered in this message lies beyond human utterance, we can at least partially comprehend that in Exodus 24 we have the vision of God in a transparent and clear heaven and also the stay with God under His shekinah glory. Here we receive the revelation that the desire of God’s heart is to have a dwelling place with man on earth.