Exodus 19:1-25
19:1 In the third month after leaving Egypt, the children of Israel reach the wilderness of Sinai. Sinai is the place where, in the next chapter, Moses will receive the 10 commandments from God.
19:2 The children of Israel camp before the mountain. Make camp, the spiritual residence of your soul, right before the immovable, magnificent mountain that is our God.
19:3 God calls Moses up to the mountain; He has a message for our ancestors (and us), the house of Jacob (also known as the children of Israel). Moses went up to God. Make the journey to Him, so much love and wisdom awaits you.
19:4 God's message to the children of Israel is this: "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself." Beautiful. God's message to the children of Israel is essentially this: you have seen Me, you have known Me, now trust me to outline foundations of a life well lived.
Meditate on that thought; visualize it: when God swoops in to rescue you, He pulls you up onto His wings. You and God soar. God brings you up onto His wings and gives you perspective, protection, joy, and love. He pulls you up out of the conditions of your life, good or/and bad, for special, personal moments with Him.
19:5-6 Let's let God's message continue: "Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
Right now, life on earth is your classroom. There are exams and challenges. With God in spirit, earth will become your playground. Safe. Free. Joyful. No exams, no challenges. No bullies. No whistle signaling the end. God is imploring us to listen to Him: the way to the playground is through compassion.
The children of Israel had not been free for many years. Our journey is an echo of theirs. God understands that it is easy to get lost in this life, in this wilderness. Therefore He provides a map, His commandments, His strongly suggested guidelines to follow. God implements commandments for our benefit. He knows what we desire: patience, peace, joy, love, compassion, justice... and so He provides the road map to the destination of those things.
A lot of religions paint God to be a harsh authoritarian. God is not desperate or greedy for control because it's not His nature and also... He doesn't need to be. He is control. He invented it (and everything and everyone else for that matter). When God gives a commandment, He gives it to help us.
God delivers this Moses to message and requests Moses to deliver it to the children of Israel.
19:7-8 The children of Israel agree to open their hearts to God's message.
19:9 God promises to completely fill the atmosphere with His spirit, encouraging the children of Israel to listen and understand. He knows we need encouragement and help and He happily gives us both.
19:10-12 God instructs Moses to prepare the people for His spiritual message. When we contemplate or actively develop our faith, it is necessary for us to be focused and reflective. We need to remove distractions from our lives. When we approach God in moments of learning, we must do so with solemnity. Truly, when we approach any new concept, especially one which pertains to our lives, we should do so with seriousness.
19:13 It's important to God that the children of Israel approach Him as souls rather than bodies. Their curiosity must be of spirit, rather than earth. Instead of the physically tangible, God wants them to be in a mindset of spirituality. He wants them to feel Him through their souls. To absorb His message soul-deep.
19:14-15 Moses prepares the people as God commanded: he instructs them to refrain from earthly actives and to meditate specifically on spirit. They, and we, must have the right mindset when hearing something new and meaningful.
We experience all kinds of moments with God: laughter, joy, tears, fears, contentment, relaxation, anxiety. We both formal and informal moments with God. Keep a running conversation with Him throughout the day. But when God is about to deliver a serious message... that is a formal moment. A moment where we need to be quiet and attentive, focused on spirit rather than earth.
19:16 God is solemn. He takes His moments with us serious; He gives us His undivided, pure attention. On the third day, exactly when God promised, He makes Himself known to the children of Israel in a display of nature: trumpet sounds and a divine-transpiration. God trumpets His soldiers, His spiritual army to stand at attention.
19:17-20 In a tremendous display of nature, God quakes the mountain until it begins to emit smoke. Moses is called up to the top of the mountain, Mount Sinai.
19:21-22 Moses climbs the mountain (great metaphor for faith) and God reiterates the importance of ensuring that nobody else climb. We do not understand the manifestation of our Creator. What we do know is that He is magnificent. He is magnified. Consider all that He has created... yet He's greater than all of it. If even the sun's power is enough to shrink us, what would His direct like do?
19:23 God also tells Moses to again have the people concentrate themselves. If God repeated it, there must have been the need for it to be done. Moses responds something like this: Oh, I already told them. "It's fine." Moses is flippant.
19:24-25 God looks at Moses with His parenting gaze. Uh oh. He commands Moses to repeat the message to the children of Israel and this time, Moses does.
