In Exodus chapters 20-24 God gives Moses and the Israelites His laws for them. He begins with the Ten Commandments and then goes on to give several, more specific guidelines for how He wants His followers to behave towards each other.
After God finishes speaking, He says in 14:12, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them (the Israelites).”
I don’t know about you, but if I was Moses I would be thinking, “Okay, I’m going to climb the mountain, God will give me the tables of stone and the commandments, and then I’ll come right back down.” That, however, is not what God did. Verses 15-16 say, “And Moses went up into the mount…and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day He called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.” Verse 18 goes further and says, “…Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.”
Perhaps much of my thinking is culturally based, but when I initially read this passage I thought, “That seems like a lot of waiting. Why couldn’t Moses just go up, get what God wanted to give him and get back down the mountain?” Too often, I find that this kind of thinking influences my day-to-day life.
“God, I have ten minutes to read my Bible, give me what I need in that time.”
“God, I have five minutes to pray, please hear me.”
“God, I really want to be home getting things done, could you please make him preach a little shorter?”
“God, this woman is talking my ear off and I really don’t have time for this.”
Sound familiar? If none of these statements characterize you, perhaps some of these will:
“I can’t play right now honey, I need to get this done.”
“Why doesn’t this guy speed up? I don’t have all day!”
“Please walk faster, we’re in a hurry.”
I am ashamed of how many of these things I say or think during a given day. I believe that this passage in Exodus 24 gives us a look into the character of God. He didn’t just “get down to business” with Moses as soon as he got up the mountain. Instead, He spent six days just surrounding him with His glory and fellowshipping with him. Then, once God did call Moses to speak with Him, he took forty days to tell him what he needed to know.
I get the feeling from this passage that God is not in a hurry. He wants us to slow down, focus, and fellowship with Him. I think that often, we are so busy “doing” that we miss out on the blessings God has for us. Spending an hour in God’s Word and prayer is not a waste of time or laziness. Rather, the time spent with God deepens our relationship with Him and strengthens our spirit.
This principle does not just apply to our spiritual lives. What about our every day interaction with our children and others? Are we focused on people and spiritual things, or are we focused on “getting things done”?
We need to keep perspective: The things that really matter are the Lord, our relationship with Him and our family. Of course, many of us must also contribute to our family’s income, but it is so easy to go beyond these things and spread ourselves thin with other obligations. We want to be the best mother, wife and Christian, but with each additional responsibility we take on we find our focus being drawn away from the things that matter most.
Let’s take some time to evaluate what we are doing in our lives and if we are “too busy” to wait for God. He has wonderful blessings and fellowship waiting for us when we decide to let Him control our time.
When What I Want Isn’t What God Wants