Something significant happened exactly 25 years ago. Ronald Reagan was president, spearheading then the fight against communism. He told a story about a collective farm in the Soviet Union, one in which a state commissar grabbed a farm worker and said, “Comrade, how are the crops?”

“Oh,” said the farm worker, “Comrade Commissar, if we could put the potatoes in one pile, they would reach the foot of God.”

The commissar corrected him, “This is the Soviet Union, comrade. There is no God.”

“That’s all right,” said the farm worker, “there are no potatoes.”

But that’s a joke — that’s not all that happened. On that day, Ronald Reagan did something else. He proclaimed 1983 to be “The Year of the Bible.”
Okay, so we don’t remember that. 1983 — The Year of the Bible. How could we forget?

1983. It was a very good year. It’s remembered for the final episode of the television series M*A*S*H, which ended after 11 years and 251 episodes. It was the same year that Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, and the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Flight 007. And it was the year that Microsoft Word was first released.

But 1983 as The Year of the Bible? Most of us probably don’t remember that.

President Reagan’s proclamation said, in part, “Today our beloved America and, indeed, the world, is facing a decade of enormous challenge. As a people we may well be tested as we have seldom, if ever, been tested before.”

That was true then, and it’s true today, 25 years later.

He went on to say, “We will need resources of spirit even more than resources of technology, education and armaments. There could be no more fitting moment than now to reflect with gratitude, humility and urgency upon the wisdom revealed to us in the writing that Abraham Lincoln called ‘the best gift God has ever given to man … But for it, we could not know right from wrong.’”

The Year of the Bible came and went, and few people — if any — remember it. But we still need the “resources of spirit even more than resources of technology.” The Bible remains one of God’s greatest gifts to us, revealing the Lord’s will and showing us what is right and wrong. It’s a book that should be approached with gratitude, humility and urgency … not just one year, or every year, but, indeed every day.

Today’s passage from Exodus gives us an excellent place to begin. Here, God instructs Moses to “take two tablets” — the Ten Commandments. Moses goes up Mount Sinai, into a cloud that contains the glory of the Lord, and receives the gift of two tablets. But he soon discovers that the laws of God can be a hard pill for people to swallow. Like giving a horse pill to a kid. Ain’t going to happen.

Now, the giving of the commandments had actually occurred earlier, and it’s in an earlier text, Exodus 20. These laws had been delivered in a terrifying pyrotechnic display of thunder and lightning and smoke. This sound-and-light, shock-and-awe show causes the people of Israel to tremble and stand at a distance, and they say to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die” (Exodus 20:19).

Moses tries to reassure the people and calm their fears, saying, “God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin” (v. 20). But the people remain at a distance, and they let Moses walk between them and God.

The Lord isn’t finished speaking, so he gives the prohibition “You shall not make gods of silver alongside me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold” (v. 23). This is a clear and logical extension of the second commandment, “You shall not make for yourself an idol” (v. 4). But do the people remember it? Do they keep it? Or does it disappear as quickly as The Year of the Bible?

In today’s passage of Scripture, Moses climbs up Mount Sinai to be close to God. The Lord says 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” (24:12). 

Have you waited at all on God in this new year?  He is calling you to come to him, to be close to him.  Have you been in God’s Word at all this new year, have you been still long enough to meditate on something he is desiring to communicate to you? “Come up to me on the mountain,” the Lord says.  “I desire to share some things with you.  Things to give you direction, things to light your path—words to strengthen and renew your spirit.”  When was the last time you waited on the Lord at all?

The glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the mountaintop, a fire surrounded by a thick cloud. Moses enters the cloud, and stays there for “forty days and forty nights” (vv. 17-18) — a very long time. Moses goes where no one has ever gone before, into the active and ‘holy wild’ presence of Almighty God, and no one knows if Moses will ever return.

In Reagan’s joke about the Soviet Union, the communist commissar says, “There is no God.” But in today’s passage, Moses doesn’t make that mistake — God is in his face, alive and powerful, like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain.

So God is real, and God is teaching Moses right from wrong, and how God’s people will live. At the end of their high-altitude conversation, God gives him “the two tablets of the covenant, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God” (31:18).

“Take two tablets,” God says. “They are a powerful prescription, and some of the best directives I’ll ever give you.  They will be foundational paths directing you how to live.” No other gods … no idols … no misuse of God’s name … remember the Sabbath … honor your parents … no murder … no adultery … no stealing … no false testimony … no coveting.

Now you might be wondering why God gives Ten Commandments … instead of Nine, or Eleven. Comedian George Carlin answers this question by saying that ten sounds official and important. It’s a psychologically satisfying number, such as in “The Top Ten,” “The Ten Most Wanted,” “The Ten Best Dressed.” So, according to George Carlin, having Ten Commandments was really … a marketing decision.

Right. If only it had worked. Ten is anything but a magic number.  Nor is fifteen.  Did you know that some feel Moses was initially given fifteen commandments from God?

Honestly, though—it is interesting to know how many people can actually name the Ten Commandments.  Can you?  Who can name the Beatles for me?  Can anyone tell me who the drummer’s name Ringo replaced?  Who knows what’s on a Big Mac? 60% of Americans are unable to name the Ten Commandments.

Now fast forward to chapter 32 of Exodus, the Israelites quickly become impatient. They gather around Aaron, the older brother of Moses, and say to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him” (32:1).

Aaron complies with their request, and asks for donations of gold earrings. He melts them down, makes them into a golden calf, and announces, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” (v. 4). Aaron proclaims a festival, and the people eat, drink and raise the roof in revelry.

It doesn’t take long for the people to break the second commandment, “You shall not make for yourself an idol,” along with the follow-up prohibition, “You shall not make gods of silver alongside me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.” When Moses approaches the camp and sees the golden calf and the dancing, his anger burns fiercely and he throws the two tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. Then he burns the calf, grinds it into powder, mixes it with water and makes the Israelites drink it (vv. 19-20).

Talk about a bitter pill to swallow.

The people are punished, but eventually they get a new set of tablets from God, on which are written “the words of the covenant, the ten commandments” (34:1-28). And from that point on, the people struggle — as we do, every day — to keep these commandments, and be obedient to God.

So, what is the message of Moses on the mountaintop? Clearly, commandments are not going to be effective because there are 10 of them, instead of nine or 11 or 15. People are not going to read the Bible just because a president announces that 1983 is “The Year of the Bible.” And scaring people with thunder and lightning and smoke is not going to motivate them to do the right thing.

The message of Moses on the mountaintop is that we each need an experience of God — an encounter with the God who’s alive and powerful and gracious and loving. We have to enter into God’s presence, and spend time with God — as Moses did. Only then will we be able to take the two tablets, and really accept the Ten Commandments as a set of standards for faithful living.

We need God’s indwelling Spirit living in us to enable us to be overcomers everyday.  Following commandments is not the same thing as being in relationship. When we’re in close relationship with someone, we want to do the right thing out of our commitment — not because we’re commanded to do the right thing. In ancient times, going up a mountain was a way to be close to God, as in the Exodus reading. Reflect on ways on how you can go up the mountain this year. Maybe you need to shift your focus from creating commandments or rules for yourself to follow and instead allow the Holy Spirit to instruct you.  Approach your prayer time and reading this year as a time when you will make intentional/conscious efforts to be in closer contact with God.  I mean, you do pray and read your Bible, right?

What gets the people of Israel — not to speak of ourselves — in trouble is their and our faithless decision to stand at a distance from God. Because they tremble and step away, they quickly stumble and begin to worship their own creation—the golden calf.
Is there anything that you have fashioned, or created of your own doing that has caused you to stand at a distance from God?  Is there something that has distracted you from pursuing spiritual growth as a Christ follower?  It could be your vocation, even a hobby, a project, a habit—or maybe you haven’t cultivated any holy habits at all.

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, says the writer of Proverbs. Yet, it’s not fear that’s operating here; it’s faithlessness disguised as fear. The children of Israel simply didn’t trust God. They saw God in all God’s glory and majesty and assumed that such a God was unapproachable and that they’d be consumed in God’s fiery presence.

So they stepped back. And when we step back, we step back into a faithless abyss.   

Scripture invites us to do the opposite: “Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you,” says James in so many words.

Not that drawing near is necessarily easy. Notice that Moses had to step into the cloud to experience the reality of God’s presence.

He’s in a cloud! Moses is in a fog!

When we’re going through a period of confusion and disorientation, it could be that we’re precisely where we need to be, and that we’re exactly where God is as well.

Where did Moses encounter the Divine Presence? He found God in the fog.

Moses was in a fog for six days! But so was God! Maybe for someone here it seems like six years. But God has promised to be in the fog with us!

God’s two tablets are good medicine, designed to help us instead of hurt us. But we’ll never discover this unless we enter the cloud and develop a relationship with the Lord. We can do this each Sunday in our service of worship. We can do this in small groups, gathered for prayer and Bible study. We can do this in quiet time at home, when we come into God’s presence “and wait there,” as Moses did.

Closeness to God is always better than distance. And love of the Lord is always a better motivator than fear. Let’s make an effort to move closer to God in 2008.

What are some things that you need to focus on to move you up the mountain?