What Did Moses Hear?

In my last post I wrote about Moses’ mountain top experience and how God’s children have the opportunity to experience mountain top experiences daily because of God’s Spirit living in us. Knowing this helped me deal with being jealous of Moses as I realized there just might be something better than a mountain top experience. But I also have to admit that in Exodus 34 Moses experienced something truly unique. This was the second time that Moses went up the mountain to receive the commandments and what God revealed to Him is very important to all of us who want to follow the Lord.

Moses destroyed the original tablets when he broke them at the foot of the mountain after seeing the golden calf that Aaron and the people of Israel created (Exodus 32). In chapter 34 the LORD tells Moses to cut two more tablets of stone and to bring them up to the top of Mount Sinai, which Moses does. While Moses was on the mountain the LORD descended in a cloud and stood with Moses. The Bible says the LORD then “...proclaimed the name of the LORD.”

I hope to write a few posts looking at this proclamation. What did the LORD say and what does it mean? I think this is important as in this “name” God reveals His nature, helping Moses (and us) understand who God really is. I hope you will join me in this study as we learn who God is in His own words as He proclaimed:

“The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffereing, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”   Exodus 34:6-7

What’s Better Than A Mountain Top Experience?

In both Exodus 24:9-18 and 34, God invites Moses to come up on Mt. Sinai to meet with Him which must have been one of the most awesome experiences anyone could have. I used to get really jealous when I read these passages. I mean, this would be a dream come true to hear the voice of God and to be able to stand in His cloud as He reveals His glory. Such an experience would truly be life altering as it was for Moses and it would be one of the greatest opportunities on earth. Imagine getting the chance to have a one on one with the Creator of the universe. I used to cry out for a mountain top experience like this one…that is until God showed me what I have every day and right at this moment.

Jesus ended the Great Commission with:

“...and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:20 (NKJV)

Hebrews 13:5 says:

Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

If you are a Christian then God is with you! In fact, He lives in us through His Spirit:

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NKJV)

God is with us and He lives in us. This is the blessing that comes with receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior. And because He is with me, mountain top experiences come more often than I could have ever imagined.

The Battle Between My Ears

The end of 2024 is fast approaching which means it is time to update my ten year plan. This also means setting goals for 2025: goals that will help me take a step or two forward along my chosen path. I don’t really make New Year’s resolutions, although I guess in a way some of my goals fit the bill. But whether I call them goals or resolutions, I face the same problem that I hear others talking about year after year as we all take on new challenges without giving in by Quitters Day, something I only recently learned was a thing. (In 2025 it occurs on January 10th.)

Setting goals is a relatively new thing for me. I think I made my first serious attempt at creating a ten year plan at the end of 2017. It sounds funny to admit that I never set any real goals for the first fifty years of my life but before then I simply did what others said was best for me. I suspect this was a direct result of growing up as a codependent, where my mom’s alcoholism too often derailed my attempts at achieving something in life. Codependency meant giving up trying to succeed back when I was a teen, becoming convinced that setting goals would only remind me that I was a failure. (I didn’t understand it back then but a lot of that came from the toxic language that was the norm in my home, especially on the days that the bottle was in control.) By letting others direct my path, I could blame them when I failed even though that really did not help me feel any better about the results.

By 2017 I was ready to set real goals but I was not ready to achieve those goals. All too often I lost the battle between my ears. This battle came in the form of an internal voice which generally focused on my fears and my own perceived limitations. As a Christian, I often encouraged others to believe that God would bless them and that they could do all things through Christ who strengthens them (Philippians 4:13). At the same time I often talked myself out of living with that kind of faith, allowing that voice to have too much control even as I recognized that it was an echo of my life before I became a Christian. As a result I fell short when it came to achieving my goals and in moving forward in life according to the will of God.

This internal, codependent, and negative voice talked me out of doing the things that I said I wanted to do, while talking me into wasting time with things that often derailed my progress. Fortunately I’ve learned to argue with this voice, talking myself into doing the things that I know will help me achieve my goals. I’ve found that for me the, “...all things in Christ…,” begins with being able to win the battle between my own ears. God has freed me from bondage to that voice and He has also empowered me to move forward where I once held myself back. Now I am free of the excuses and of blaming others and I am ready to follow God’s perfect will for my life.

With this change in my own thinking I am prepared to update my ten year plan and to set my goals for 2025. Up until now my track record has not been great but as I win my own internal battle I expect that the results in 2025 will be something to brag about by this time next year.