Transcription of the Video: The Whisper of God: Moses and Elijah on the Mountain

When the Hebrews first arrived near the mountain of God, Mount Sinai, they tested God, asking, "Is God among us or not?" The irony of that test was that Moses had been told when he first came to that mountain some 40 years earlier that the proof that God would be with him and with his Hebrew people was that they would return to that mountain to worship God - the mountain of God where God shows himself, where God reveals his presence to his people. There were two great Hebrew Bible heroes who came to the mountain of God to meet God - Moses and Elijah. 

In some ways, their experiences at the mountain of God were very different. In another way, their experiences meeting God on that mountain were remarkably similar. Let's walk with Moses and Elijah as they come to the mountain of God. 

We discover early on that Moses is a very sensitive man, sort of after God's heart you might say. When he's an adult, he sees an Egyptian task master beating an Israelite, and it infuriates him and he steps in and strikes down the Egyptian. He then, runs into the desert somewhere and he discovers some shepherds harassing some girls with sheep and he stands up for the girls and ends up marrying one of them. A man of great sensitivity, we're going to discover. 

Then, Moses lived somewhere in the desert, and he cared for the sheep of his father-in-law whose name was Jethro. The text starts the next chapter in Moses' life by saying Moses came to Horeb, the mountain of God. Now, some think Horeb and Sinai are two different places. I don't happen to think that. It appears to other scholars that Horeb refers to an area-- the word means barren or dry-- and that Sinai refers to a peak in that given area. So I think when it says Moses came to Horeb, to the mountain of God, it's telling you both the name of the mountain peak and the area where it was. 

He's got his father-in-law's flock. Now, when you come up here and you look around you, you say, "Sheep, here?" Well, God gave us a gift on the way up this morning - two shepherd girls with a flock kind of wandering through these rocks, grazing on what little bit grows here. So we can say for certain whether it was here or not, there are flocks in this area. As he watched that flock in the rocks, he saw a bush burning. What struck Moses, though, is that the bush burned, but it didn't burn up. It was a consuming fire that didn't consume, you might say. So he left his few sheep and goats and went to look closer. 

Then, the text tells us [Exodus 3], "An angel of God was in that fire, and out of that fire, God spoke." And he started in a form that he often uses - "Moshe! Moshe!" He called his name twice. 

If you look carefully in your Bible, you discover whenever God calls somebody by name twice, he's got a big job waiting for them. Abram gets it. Jacob does. Samuel does. "Samuel! Samuel!" And so does Sha'ul. You know him as Paul. But at the time, it's Sha'ul. And he met on the road to Damascus [Acts 9], the Messiah. And the Messiah said, "Sha'ul! Sha'ul!" Saul knew at that moment, there was a big mission waiting for him, though he wasn't quite sure what it was. When your name gets called twice, expect God to ask you to do something really significant in his kingdom he's working on here in this world. 

Anyway, Moses is called to mission. I'm not sure he knew that. I don't know if he knew enough yet of how God would use two names as mission. Because, initially, Moses has the reaction we would. He takes off his sandals because God says, "The ground is holy because I'm here." And he is in awe. The text says he's afraid to look at God. He turned his face because he recognized that God was awesome and holy. So in front of a bush somewhere on a mountain a lot like this one, Moses is commissioned to be a leader on behalf of God. 

I don't know if it was this kind of a bush or not. This one is called rotem - broom tree - in our Bible. They tell me-- the Bedouin do-- it's the only rotem on Sinai (the traditional Sinai) anywhere. They found it for us and it's a very beautiful example. I don't know if that's what kind of a bush it was. It does create a very hot fire. The other story is Elijah. 

Growing out of the side of this wadi here, rooted deeply in the rock, is a small broom tree. So rotem or broom tree. It's very beautiful. It produces a white flower. Camels eat it. Goats eat it. So it has a functional purpose in their life. But it becomes one of very few examples of shade. Notice the shade it produces. It's not this complete darkening, but stops enough of the sun that if you position yourself under it and sit, it actually is quite a bit cooler here than it would be standing out in the sun. That's God's provision here in the desert. 

Elijah comes from Mount Carmel. He's just brought fire from heaven - or God sent it at Elijah's command - and it didn't change anything. So he's completely discouraged. It isn't working. He walks out into the desert and here, it says [1 Kings 19], "Elijah lay down under a broom tree and sat in the shade and said, 'I quit. It doesn't work. That fire business, if that doesn't change people's hearts, then people's hearts aren't going to change.'" 

God shows up (sends a messenger to him) and the messenger has lunch. It's interesting how beautifully the Bible fits its context. It says there was bread on hot coals. That's exactly what you would expect from a tree like this. Then God said, "Elijah. Get up. Walk those couple of hundred miles to Sinai and then I'll talk to you. Don't you go quitting on me. Give me a little bit more, and I'll sustain you along the way." 

Come. Let's walk farther in this desert. There will be another broom tree around the corner. Come.

Come. Let's walk farther in this desert. There will be another broom tree around the corner. There will be another broom tree around the corner.

Look here. Look at it. Just a little tiny spring running out of this hard rock. Is anybody thirsty? The sound of life. It is so cold. It's amazing. Isn't that amazing? It's so hard to explain, but it's the idea, not, "I'll give water and I'll give the Bible. But it's going to be my word that sustains you here and here. So keep walking like I told you. And when my Word says it, there will be living water. It's just as cold as it can be. Just trust my Word. Live by my Word. Not bread alone, but my Word. And I'll take care of the bread too." 

The devil wants Jesus to make up his own mind. Israel wants to make up their own minds. It's amazing. It's just the gift of God. Just as cold as can be. There's something in the Torah-- and I'll have to look it up honestly; I didn't think about it until this moment-- but about not taking the bucket (the pitcher) from a well. Because without this, it would be much harder. This one, you could probably reach. But if it's a well, you can't. So you have to be a community. Love your neighbor as yourself. You used the bucket. Now you leave it for him. This is just a simple can.

Both Moses and Elijah came to the mountain of God. The reasons they came, what God told them when they got there, what he wanted them to do when they left, those things were different in a way. But there's one thing that was remarkably similar. Both of them, on that mountain, met God himself. 

After that initial meeting between Moses and God, Moses went back up on the mountain. They've committed the sin of the golden calf. He pleads as only Moses could do. "Let me give myself for my people." Much like another Moses would do some day. 

Then, after God has forgiven them and said, "Okay. I will go with you," Moses says, "And I want to know you intimately and personally." 

So God says, "Let me put you in a cleft (a little hiding place in the rock) where you'll be covered from my power and my glory. And listen to what God shows Moses. It goes like this [Exodus 34]. "The Lord, compassionate, gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin." 

Despite of the thunder and enormous power of God, when God reveals himself intimately, what he says first is, "I love you. I'm like your husband. I'm gentle and forgiving even of golden calf incidents if you'll repent. I'm merciful. I'm kind." You can almost hear him say, "Go be like me." 

There will be another Moses who will show those same qualities. He had power. He could call legions of angels. And he wanted to be known as the one who touched the lepers. And he loved sinners and outsiders. But there's another story. There was a man named Elijah. Do you remember him? He stood on Mount Carmel, prayed fervently and saw that fiery power of God descend and hit the altar and burn the sacrifice and eat up the water and even the altar itself, only to discover it didn't change the people who saw it. 

And like the Hebrews three days from the Red Sea are complaining, a few days after hearing God on Mount Sinai, are building a calf. Israel saw the power of God, great as it was, and by the next day had forgotten. 

And Elijah ran out into the desert and said, "I quit. All that power and it didn't work." 

God said, "Here's lunch. Walk to Sinai. I'll be waiting." Forty days, it took him in this desert and came to the same mountain and went into a cave. You don't suppose it was the same cleft as Moses, do you? I don't know. But the picture is the same. 

God said, "Come to the front of the cave," and suddenly, there was wind that shook the mountain. God wasn't in the wind - just like the wind that divided the Red Sea. There was fire like the fire that had set on the mountain the first time. But God wasn't in the fire. And there was an earthquake like the earthquake that had hit the mountain the first time, but God wasn't in it either. 

Then, there's a whisper. And what it's implying is it's an intimate whisper like a husband to a wife. "I love you, Elijah, and I love Israel." As if God wanted to say, "I have all the power in the universe, but the power doesn't change the hearts and lives of people. That will change by tenderness and mercy and compassion and love. You've got to learn that Elijah." 

The Old Testament ends, at least in the Christian text [Malachi 4], "Someday another Elijah will come and will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children." Reconciliation. I think Elijah learned his lesson. 

Brothers and sisters, as the bride of Almighty God, as the disciples of Jesus who came to be the gentle forgiveness, kindness of God, we're called to be his presence to our world. And it's not power. It's gentleness and mercy and love. Oh, there will be power someday. Don't get me wrong. There's a day coming when every knee will bow. "Until then, I am merciful and compassionate and slow to anger and long-suffering and so must those be who represent me."

Hear the whisper of God. "I love you and I love them too. Go tell them." And gives the mission to the most passionate man in the Hebrew Bible. Come.