The Thin Place of Mt. Sinai

The Thin Place of Mt. Sinai.

“ The thin place is where the veil between this world and the next is so sheer that it is easy to step through.” (Barbara Brown Taylor, Home By Another Way).

This term from an ancient Celtic tradition has stood the test of time. The idea of a thin place between heaven and earth has captured our imaginations, and yet is not just a metaphor.  Thin places are literal as well.

The traditional thin place as the Irish understood it has been described in many ways:  where the veil between heaven and earth is so thin as to be porous, permeable, practically transparent; where the space between the diviner and the human has narrowed; where eternity and time intersect; where the boundary between heaven and earth has collapsed; where the wall between heaven and earth have become indistinguishable; where the doors between heaven and earth have cracked open enough to walk through, if only temporarily; the place where eternity and time seem to join together.

Those descriptions of thin places have recently been expanded to include… wherever God has chosen to reveal Himself and make Himself known with unusual intimacy; wherever the sacred interaction with God’s presence is more pronounced and accessible; wherever the Holy Spirit is released in a particularly powerful way; a physical space where one can more directly and intensely experience God’s presence. I like to think of a thin place as when the Spirit of God opens the skylight of the earth’s roof and helps us climb through it into the cellar of heaven.

“Your saving grace and your righteousness are like the mountains of God.” (Psalm 36:6).

Yes, God lives in heaven. But all through Scripture He appears to have a second home here on the earth, in the mountains. God’s personal involvement on mountains deepen the meaning and significance of what mountains have come to symbolize through the ages… stability; safety; permanence; majesty; beauty; spiritual inspiration. One of God’s names in Scripture is El-Shaddai (Genesis 17:1), and an ancient meaning of that name is “God of the Mountain.” It’s easy to see why. God’s attributes can clearly be seen in mountains, including the fixed foundation of His faithful love. “For even if the mountains move and the hills disappear, even then my mercy for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken, says Yahweh Lord, who has mercy on you.” Isaiah is saying that we all know how next to impossible it would be for a mountain to totter and fall. But it’s more likely for mountains to move away than for God to withdraw His unshakeable love for you.

God is like the mountains: He doesn’t change, He stays the same, He is consistently steadfast and stable. Mountains are referenced over 500 times in Scripture. Not only are mountains the go-to place for momentous events all through the Bible, but God Himself made it clear from the beginning that mountains are His first choice as a site to reveal Himself and His favorite place to meet with people. “I lift my eyes to the mountains; where is my help to come from? My help comes from Yahweh Lord who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1-2).

A Thin Place. Down through history people have assumed that since God is in His heavens, the closer one can get to God on high, the more spiritual enlightenment one can receive. There have been pagan shrines and mountaintop gurus as long as we can remember. People have always climbed to the “high places” for heavenly insight and personal contact with the gods, or with God. Irish Christians consider mountains to be one of those sacred “thin places” where the layer between heaven and earth is so thin that a believer can easily step from one to the other. As one person excitedly told Barbara Brown Taylor, “You’re sinners going up, but you’ll be saints going down!” People still refer to a special time with God as a “mountaintop experience.” Mountains will be seen as a sacred part of nature that consistently has seen powerful events and profound conversations between us mere mortals and the Almighty God. Let us rejoice and applaud the God who is the Rock, who has a glorious history of preferring His own mountaintop experiences with us.

The Burning Bush. In Exodus 3, Moses was simply minding his own business as a shepherd on the Sinai Peninsula. He had been doing this humble work for 40 years, which makes him 80 years old at the time of this miraculous encounter with God. Moses witnessed an amazing sight there on Mt. Sinai, a big thorn bush that was burning but was not being consumed in the fire. Moses wondered at this inexplicable sight, so when he decided to investigate it, the Angel of Yahweh appeared in the midst of the fiery bush and spoke to him. “Moses, Moses!” said this Messenger in the middle of the fire. And Moses responded with the line that is music to God’s ears, “Here am I.” (3:4).  Moses at this point was convinced that this was indeed the Lord he was talking with, so he hid his face. He wouldn’t look directly into the fire because he was afraid to see God full in the face. This Angel, this Messenger of God, was certainly Jesus Christ. And could it be that this unusual fire was the shekinah glory from the Angel’s presence? Could it be that Jesus had brought this unique fire from glory? Moses and the Angel then engaged in an extended conversation, in which Moses received the Hebrew Bible’s version of the Great Commission. Moses was asked by the Lord to go to Egypt, liberate His chosen people from their slavery, and lead them into the Promised Land. Speaking the words of the Lord, the Messenger then told Moses God’s mysterious and unspeakable name, Yahweh. The ground near the burning bush was a true thin place, holy due to the presence of God. So Moses took off his sandals and bowed low. Speaking the mind of God, Jesus informed Moses of the whole scenario with Pharaoh, including the signs and wonders he will demonstrate to the Egyptians. To convince Moses that He could indeed perform these miracles, Jesus demonstrated a couple of quick miracles right on the spot. Moses’ staff turned into a snake and then back again to a staff. And Moses contracted leprosy, and then was immediately healed of that leprosy. If anything would encourage Moses to go on this adventure, the Lord is thinking, this should be sufficient. But Moses remained unconvinced, mainly because Moses felt he wasn’t equipped to be a spokesman for the Lord. He said he was slow of tongue, that he couldn’t speak well enough to represent the Lord in Egypt. So Moses stubbornly responded to God with, thanks but no thanks, please pick someone else. God became angry and accommodated Moses somewhat by picking his brother Aaron, a well-spoken man evidently, to be at his side throughout the interaction with Pharaoh. I will be with you and teach you what to say, so let this be the end to your resistance, the Lord says to Moses. Jesus the Messenger from the midst of the burning bush sent Moses on his way back to Egypt. And, significantly, this is not the last we hear of Mt. Sinai. “When I tell you my name, I have given you a hold over me that you didn’t have before. If you call it out, I stop, look and listen whether I want to or not. In the book of Exodus, God tells Moses that His name is Yahweh, and God hasn’t had a peaceful moment since.”  (Frederick Buechner).

Yahweh. The unspeakably holy Name of God; the personal Name God offered to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3) on Mt. Sinai; the indecipherable Name with no vowels, YHWH; the Name could mean “I Am Who I Am,” or “I Am He Who Is,” or “I Am the One Who Exists,” and most likely even “I Will Be What I Will Be.” Moses asked God for His Name there on Sinai, and it turns out that His Name is too sacred, too set apart from earthly existence, to be sullied by human speech. And so faithful Jews refuse to pronounce it for any reason. In Scripture, every time you see LORD in all caps, that’s where you’ll find the name of Yahweh. This Name is used about 6,800 times in the Hebrew Bible, and 700 times in Psalms alone.

The Name of Yahweh is connected with the Hebrew verb “hayah,” to be, to become, to happen. Martin Buber thinks the verb could also mean partly “to be actively present.” So Buber, and most Jewish scholars, think the Name could mean something like “I will be there as I will be there,” or “I will be what I will be”… ready, willing and able to be present in whatever situation you are in. Rabbi Jonathon Sacks believes that early Christian translations omitted that future tense altogether. He says that in this Name, the Lord claims to be “the God of the future tense.” In this important future tense, Sacks believes that He is a God of surprises, that we will have to learn to trust Him, and that we will only know Him through His moral commitments and His acts, not just His abstract essence.

YHWH, so basic, so mysterious. A personal Name, yet somehow impersonal. It is God’s self-revealed Name, alluding perhaps to His uncreated existence, His eternal personhood, His quality of being, His basic self-sufficiency, and is perhaps a spiritual version of an “act of being” verb. Yahweh, faithfully relational, unchangeably complete, infinite and everlasting. God is the LORD, He will not give His glory to another. There is Yahweh, and there’s everything else.

“What is (the Name’s) mystery? First, it has no vowels. Without vowels it is impossible to pronounce a word. But Y-H-W-H also has no real consonants! Y, H and W really are blowing sounds, rushings of air through the mouth. The point is one of elusiveness or abstraction. The name of God is so subtle it could slip away from you. Y-H-W-H is not a God you can grab hold of and be sure you’ve got it in your mental grasp.” (Arthur Green, These Are the Words: A Vocabulary of Jewish Spiritual Life).

“Exactly two months after the Israelites left Egypt, they arrived in the wilderness of Sinai. After breaking camp at Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and set up camp there at the base of Mount Sinai.”  (Exodus 19:1).

Mt. Sinai, also known historically as Mt. Horeb, is perhaps the most important landmark in the Hebrew Bible. After miraculously crossing the Red Sea to escape from the Egyptians, the Israelites hiked about two months to reach what has been called the “Mount of God.” After their arrival at that mountain, the people were given three days to prepare for the Presence of God there. They were to wash their clothes and purify themselves, and thus be consecrated properly for the Big Moment. They were instructed to refrain from even touching the mountain, that if they even set foot on the mount they would die. Mt. Sinai is located in the middle of the Sinai Peninsula, which since 1979 has ironically belonged to Egypt. The actual location of the sacred mountain is disputed, and three different claims have been made as to the actual biblical site. Rabbinic tradition has believed that, since we don’t actually know where the real Mt. Sinai is located, that it is a sign from God that we are not to remain permanently at Sinai, but instead move forward from the wonders and glory of Sinai and have that be our starting point as we progress on our spiritual journey.

The Ten Commandments. As soon as the Israelites got settled, the first act of God was to talk with Moses at the top of Mt. Sinai and lay out the basics of how the people were to live together in the sight of God. These commandments ever since have been the basis of civil law and have kept many a civilization from degenerating into chaos. They are the bedrock of how to live morally in an immoral world. Straight from the hand of God, here they are: 1. No idolatry; no other gods but the true God; 2. Do not make idols of any kind to worship; 3. Do not misuse the holy name of God; 4. Observe the Sabbath day each week; 5. Honor your father and your mother; 6. You must not murder; 7. You must not commit adultery; 8. You must not steal; 9. You must not testify falsely or lie; 10. You must not covet anything of your neighbor’s. The text of the Ten Commandments appears in three different versions in the Bible: at Exodus 20:2–17, Deuteronomy 5:6–21, and the “Ritual Decalogue” of Exodus 34:11–26.

Terrified. By this time, the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea and Moses had led them to Mt. Sinai, the mountain of God. This is the sacred place where Moses met Yahweh in the burning bush and received his marching orders to free the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt. And now at this holy meeting place they are meant to meet with God as a people. The mystery, majesty and power of God’s presence at the mountain made itself known quite dramatically… loud thunder, bright lightning, billowing smoke, flaming fire, a thick cloud, an earthquake that shook the mountain, and a heavenly trumpet that blared with increasingly louder, unearthly blasts. The Israelites were understandably scared out of their wits. (Ex. 20:18-21). They were terrified of God’s presence, and they didn’t want God to speak to them directly. So they pulled back from the mountain to create some distance, and they asked Moses to be their intermediary. But Moses told the people that it wouldn’t do any good to have this paralyzing fear of God. The Lord wanted to see if they could trust Him even in the midst of His glory. And God wanted them to have a proper sense of awe and reverence. God thought that maybe this holy fear, this liberating fear, would keep the people from sinning out of impudence or arrogance. Experiencing God’s presence in this way was intended to bring them to their knees in humility and respect before the Almighty God. God wanted the people to acknowledge their powerless weakness in the presence of an immensely strong God.

Sightings of God’s Glory at Sinai. Dense cloud; loud thunder; bright lightning; consuming fire; smoke; violent earthquake; increasingly louder trumpet blast from the heavenly shofar. (Exodus 19:9, 16-19; 20:18-19; 24:15-18).

The Sinai Wedding Ceremony Between God and the Israelites. I am suggesting that the following order of events at Mt. Sinai is one way of explaining the “Ketubah,” the marriage covenant that took place at Sinai between Yahweh and His people. It is vital that His Chosen People understand Yahweh as their faithful husband. As the prophet Hosea said much later… ‘I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion. I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as Yahweh, the Lord.” (Hosea 2:19-20)

1. Match Made in Heaven: The Ten Plagues of Egypt served as the Lord’s way of wooing the bride, of preparing the Israelites to be His Chosen People, His bride. He freed them from bondage in Egypt to become His betrothed. The miracle of the Red Sea certified the Lord’s intentions, and made it possible for the Israelites to be ready for their marriage covenant with Yahweh, her soon-to-be Husband. The Lord got their attention, and now they have the freedom to choose the Lord in a special relationship. (Exodus 6-14).
2. The Ketubah: The ultimate wedding ceremony between God and His Chosen People, His Bride. All Jewish weddings since that time were intended to be a reminder of this wedding, this ketubah, the time of God’s marriage covenant.
3. The Wedding Place: On the holy mountain selected by Yahweh, the same mountain, Mt. Sinai, where Moses first met Yahweh in the burning bush forty years earlier.
4. The Husband’s Proposal: “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:3-6). 
5. The Bride’s Acceptance: “So Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all these words which the Lord commanded him. Then all the people answered together and said, ‘All that Yahweh has spoken we will do!’ So Moses brought back the words of the people to Yahweh.” (Exodus 19: 7-8).
6. The Marriage Ceremony: “So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes. Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the shofar was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mt. Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And when the blast of the shofar sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him by voice. Then the Lord came down upon Mt. Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.” (Exodus 19:14, 16-20).
7. The Best Man at the Wedding: Who else but Moses. “Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the shofar, and mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, ‘You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.’ And Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.’ So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.” (Exodus 20:18-21).
8. The Wedding Vows: The vows are contained in Exodus 20:1-23:33. These are basically household agreements, the formal part of how to run the new household. Various marital duties on the part of the bride include such duties as the Ten Commandments, and various instructions regarding such things as the holy altar, treatment of servants, violence taboos, animal control, property rights, moral principles, equal justice, the Sabbaths, the three annual Feasts, and the promise of a special Angel to guide them. Yahweh now makes an astounding promise to the Israelites. He is sending a special Messenger, the Angel of Yahweh, to walk before them on their journey, to bring them into the Promised Land. Yahweh referred to this Angel when He said, “My name is in Him.” (23:21). This Messenger is to be obeyed, they are to follow His guidelines and direction. They are not to provoke the Angel in any way. “So you shall serve Yahweh your God, and He will bless your bread and your water.” (23:25). In other words, the Israelites will be serving Yahweh by obeying the Angel of Yahweh. This Angel is God’s representative throughout their journey. The Angel is acting on God’s authority. This Messenger is Jesus Christ, for He bears the name of Yahweh, the Great I Am. One could say that the Best Man became Jesus at this point.
9. The Bride Affirms the Vows: “So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the teachings. And all the people answered with one voice and said, ‘All the words which the Lord has said we will do… We will hear and we will do!’ Then Moses took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, ‘All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient… We will hear and we will do!’”  (Exodus 24:3,7).
10. The Wedding Memorial: “And Moses wrote all the words of Yahweh. And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord.” (Exodus 24:4-5).
11. Final Marriage Confirmation: “And Moses took the blood of the sacrifices, sprinkled it on the people, and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.” (Exodus 24:8).
12. Making the Husband’s Home: Yahweh intends to remain with His bride, to be present with them, never wanting to leave her side. So the Lord instructs the Israelites on how to make a home for Him with the people on their journey to the Promised Land, in Exodus 26.
13. The Honeymoon. “… The idea of the desert as a honeymoon in which God and the people imagined as bridegroom and bride, were alone together, consummating their union in love. The wilderness was seen by the biblical prophets as a kind of alone-togetherness, in which the people and God bonded in love.” (Rabbi Jonathon Sacks).
14. The Lord Considered Himself a Husband to His People: “For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of Hosts is His name; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth.” (Isaiah 54:5); “Return, O backsliding children,’ says the Lord; for I am married to you. I will take you, and I will bring you to Zion.” (Jeremiah 3:14); “…not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.” ( 31:32); “Thus says the Lord: ‘I remember you, the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved Me and followed Me through the wilderness.” (Jer. 2:2); “I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.” (Hosea 2:19); “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, your God will rejoice over you.” (Isaiah 62:5).

The Future Ketubah. This ketubah on Mt. Sinai is a picture of the wedding that will take place at Jesus Christ’s Second Coming. The Mt. Sinai wedding anticipates the Wedding of the Lamb between Christ and His Bride, His community of believers. Just as God’s covenant with His bride was eternal, this marriage in heaven will be eternal. God will continue to be a Husband, and His people will continue to be His Bride. “Then I heard what sounded like the roar of a huge crowd, like the sound of rushing waters, like loud peals of thunder, saying, ‘Hallelujah! Lord, God of heaven’s armies, the Lord of Hosts has begun His reign! Let us rejoice and be glad! Let us give Him the glory! For the time has come for the wedding of the Lamb, and His Bride has prepared herself – fine linen, bright and clean has been given her to wear.’ The angel said to me, ‘Write this down: How blessed are those who have been invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb!’” (Revelations 19:6-9).

After the Wedding on Mt. Sinai, a Tragic Mistake. “When the people saw that Moses was a long time before coming down the mountain, they gathered round Aaron and said to him, ‘Get to work, make us a god to go at our head; for that Moses, the man who brought us here from Egypt – we do not know what has become of him.’ Aaron replied, ‘Strip off the gold rings in the ears of your wives and your sons and daughters, and bring them to me.’  (Exodus 32:1-2). The forty-year wilderness journey of the Israelites could easily be divided into BC and AC: Before the Calf and After the Calf. The Israelites couldn’t have made a worse mistake. It was the worst thing they could have done. After countless stupendous miracles for their benefit by Yahweh, the people panic and lose hope in Moses’ leadership and Yahweh’s presence. They construct a pagan fertility god to worship. Moses was understandably outraged, and so was Yahweh. After personally witnessing the plagues of Egypt, the Red Sea, miraculous water supply, manna from heaven and the defeat of the Amalekites, one would think the people were grounded in an unshakable faith in Yahweh. But they lost faith, they panicked, and they had a major spiritual weak moment. They fashioned, with the help of Aaron, a golden calf god, and worshiped it with burnt offerings, and peace offerings, and an orgy of dance and sexual self-indulgence. They couldn’t resist the temptation to return to pagan idolatry.

Unfortunately, Aaron was right in the middle of this spiritual chaos. Since Moses was up the mountain talking with Yahweh, the people went to Aaron and asked him to make a god to worship. Aaron, essentially a follower and not a leader in this situation, agreed to collect gold from everyone, and he molded a golden calf. He then made an altar in front of the calf for pagan sacrifices. Moses returned to the people after receiving the Ten Commandments, and he witnessed the pagan idolatry and revelry. He immediately threw the stone tablets to the ground, smashing them to pieces. He then took the golden calf, burned it, and ground it into powder. He took the powder, threw it into the water, and forced the people to drink it. He wanted the people to literally ingest this sinful outrage to remind them to never do this again. That must have made quite an impression. This is when Aaron offered his weak excuses for his involvement. These are evil people, he told Moses. Why, they gave me the gold, I threw it into the fire – and out came the calf! Aaron, give me a break, as Moses no doubt rolled his eyes.

Moses Views the Back of the Yahweh. Soon after Moses interceded for Israel before the Lord because of the Golden Calf, he asked to see the Lord’s glorious presence in this very thin place of Mt. Sinai. Yahweh said that He would pass before him, but that Moses was not allowed to fully see the Lord’s face. So Yahweh came down in a cloud, stood with Moses, and then “all His goodness” passed before Moses there on the mountain. And the Lord declared His Name…  “Yahweh! Yahweh! The LORD! The LORD! A God of compassion and mercy, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness and faithfulness, extending mercy to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin.” (Exodus 33:19, 34:6-7). This is perhaps the most remarkable and profound moment that has ever happened in any thin place on earth, when the Lord God described His character, His essence, His very Being. This was the Lord’s unique self-revelation that has enabled us to see what God is made of. “Mercy is the cause and reason of all that God does. God does nothing, absolutely nothing, except as an expression of His mercy. His Mercy stretches out to both extremes of infinity. All we will ever discover of God will be the deepening levels of His great, abundant, overflowing, rich, endless Mercy.” (Patrick Henry Reardon).

Radiance and Instruction. When Moses came down from the mountaintop,  he was carrying the two new stone tablets and further instructions from Yahweh. Moses didn’t know that his face glowed. He radiated light because he had spent so much time in the presence of the Lord. When the people saw him glowing like that, they were afraid to approach him. But Moses nonetheless explained the Lord’s instructions concerning the construction of the Tabernacle, which will contain God’s presence in their travels, as well as the Ark of the Covenant, the altars, the special clothing for the priests, and all the arrangements of the Holy Place. After they were completed with that Tabernacle, “Then the cloud covered the Tabernacle, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. Moses could no longer enter the Tabernacle because the cloud of God’s presence settled down over it, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. (Exodus 34-40). 

The Details and the Departure from Sinai. The Israelites were at the foot of Mt. Sinai for one to two full years of instruction from Yahweh, concerning everything the Lord thought they needed to know about His holiness and a life following Him as a nation. These details are covered in the book of Leviticus. “In the second year after Israel’s departure from Egypt, the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle of the Covenant. So the Israelites set out from the wilderness of Sinai and traveled on from place to place until the cloud stopped in the wilderness of Paran.” (Numbers 10:11-12). ‘Now whenever the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out on their journey following it. But if the cloud did not rise, they remained where they were until it lifted. The cloud of Yahweh hovered over the Tabernacle during the day, and at night fire glowed inside the cloud so the whole family of Israel could see it. This continued throughout all their journeys.” (Exodus 40:36-38). 

Much later, with Elijah on Mt. Sinai. It is fascinating that hundreds of years after Moses, Mt. Sinai remained a powerful thin place. “And Yahweh said to Elijah, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord.’ And behold, Yahweh passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountain, and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire, a sound of gentle stillness and a still, small voice.” (1 Kings 19:11-12, AMP). 

Elijah is on the run, fleeing from evil Queen Jezebel, and he finds himself on the holy mountain, Mt. Sinai, also known as Horeb. After his 40-day fast and journey to the mountain, he is convinced he is alone in his battles against the pagan rulers of Israel. So he decided to retreat to the historic Mountain of God, and he obeys God’s instructions and goes to Sinai. He came to a cave there, and he begins to engage in a conversation with Yahweh. The Lord tells him to go out of the cave and stand at its entrance. The Lord passed by the cave with a devastating hurricane, then an earthquake, then a consuming fire. Those were all natural manifestations of Yahweh’s presence with Moses on the very same mountain a long time ago, but this time was different and unexpected. The Lord did not speak through any of those manifestations. After the fire, Yahweh spoke to Elijah intimately, quietly, with a hush. There are many descriptions of the Lord’s presence and voice in that delicate moment, depending on the translation… a still, small voice; a gentle whisper; a light murmuring sound; the sound of a gentle breeze; a gentle blowing; the sound of gentle stillness. Rabbi Jonathon Sacks translates the Hebrew as meaning, “The sound of slender silence,” in which one can only hear it if one is truly listening for it. It seems that God is breathing on Elijah, exhaling His breath of life and encouragement into Elijah’s desperate condition. This is God’s exhale that gave Adam life, that brought life to Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones. This is the breath of the Holy Spirit that Jesus breathed onto His disciples after His resurrection (John 20:22). This was the nonverbal breath of love, a breeze from heaven blowing into Elijah’s life at a critical time. God’s whisper coming out of that exhale did indeed encourage this mighty prophet and give him new life and purpose. The Lord told him to return to Israel and anoint three people: an enemy king who will punish Israel, a new king of Israel, and his replacement prophet Elisha. And you are not alone, Elijah, Yahweh tells him. There are 7,000 faithful believers who will never bow down to Baal. So Elijah did as the Lord instructed. And it all started with a divine exhale, a wordless message on the Mountain of God.

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