Six days is a long time to wait. I wonder whether the six days in Matt. 17:1 are to remind us of the six days of nothingness that Moses had to wait through. The seventh day is the day that God rested from creating.
Now the seventh day is the day that God calls. Six days is a long time to wait. The disciples waited for ten days for the coming of the Holy Spirit at the beginning of Acts after forty days of appearances of Jesus. In Exodus we have had ten days to get to Sinai and now forty days and forty nights on the mountain where God’s glory appears as a devouring fire. What does the cloud do? Hide God’s glory? Protect Moses from being devoured? Is Moses in the cloud or in front of it? Six days is a long time to wait. I wonder what God called on the seventh day. Or is it just everything God goes on to say from chapter 25? God settles (shakan) on Mount Sinai (v.16). When God starts talking the first thing he talks about is a place to settle (shakan) among the people of Israel. Six days is a long time to wait but on the seventh day we hear: God wants to live among us. Can we wait?
26 February 2017
Ex. 24:12-end
This weekly blog on one of the lectionary readings is by Anna-Claar Thomasson-Rosingh, Director of Studies for the Centre for Formation in Ministry.
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