The Proving
“They saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in its clearness” (Exod. 24.10). A sapphire stone is a very dear stone. A real sapphire is so transparent, and so dear and pure that, when you look through it, you can see plainly what is on the other side. Here, the elders saw the beautiful clearness as of a sapphire stone in heaven, and shining through it the glory of the God of Israel. That is what they described, though even then we are not told precisely what they did see. It is sufficient that they saw something of heaven. What they saw brought joy to their hearts, and no wonder.
From that mountain top, God was about to give Moses laws, commandments and the pattern of the Tabernacle. But first those seventy nobles of Israel were made to see heaven. Then only did they see Moses go up the mount of God and enter the cloud. Without this experience they might have questioned Moses: “Why are you asking us to build such a costly House?” To take away all their doubts and fears, God permitted those seventy men to see into heaven. Listen to what God is saying by this experience: ‘All the things commanded are for heaven and from heaven, and nothing is for earth or of the earth.’
Moses was not introducing anything of his own. As the Lord revealed, so He made him write. Not a single idea came from Moses' own brain. “Look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount” (Exod. 25.40). It was God's direct revelation from heaven to Moses by a pattern or shadow of the real heavenly Sanctuary. That is why, by studying the details of the Tabernacle, we get some idea of God's Spiritual House. Naturally speaking, we might say: ‘Why should we waste time in studying all these details?’ and truly we might get easily tired and bored if we read them without appreciating their meaning. But when we recognise that they are things of heaven, reflecting heavenly principles, then we will read them with love and reverence. God has planned to teach us about heaven in this very simple way. That is why we can say with the authority of His Word that it is most important to study this subject,
Next we turn to the experience of Moses. First, he was made to see only God's glory on the Mount like a devouring fire for six whole days. Then on the seventh day, God called to Moses, calling him to enter the cloud. Moses did so and the cloud covered him so that no man could see him at all. There followed forty days and forty nights in which Moses heard God speaking to him. Here again every detail has some meaning. Before God could speak to Moses, Moses had to see the glory of God. That is why he stood there for six days outside the cloud. The number six in the Bible is man's number and for six days Moses was outside the cloud, till he saw what he himself was as a man, when compared with God in His full glory.
When you compare yourself with your neighbour, you think you are perhaps somewhat better. You can say: ‘I am not such a bad man. Of course, I am a sinner, but not so very great a sinner. How can I be a great sinner? No doubt, I do tell lies, and get angry twice a day, but look at him!’ That is what you say when you compare yourself with other men. But now God was revealing to Moses what He was while Moses stood there before the mountain for six days. As he began to see the glory of God, he began to compare himself with it. How small he became! How insignificant! —until before God he had to acknowledge: ‘O God, I am nothing, I am nothing, I am less than nothing!’ Now, what are we when we measure ourselves by the holiness of God? Only worms of the dust! Thus, to humble Moses, God made him stand for six days in the presence of that glory before he could enter the cloud.
All of us who are proud must thus be humbled. We must wait. We cannot go inside the cloud. Only the humble contrite heart can truly commune with God.
And then came forty days alone with God. The number forty in the Bible is the number of test and trial. Our Lord Himself was tested by the devil for forty days. So forty speaks of the testing given to prove every man. Before Moses could be God's mouthpiece, God's servant, he must go through every test. This again is God's order. Those who want to become God's servants must pass through every trial. They must know what it is to be lonely, cut off from their nearest and dearest; they must know hunger and disappointment and the loss of all things; they must know what it means to be alone with God. Some people think that just by going to a Bible School for three years—by learning Hebrew, Greek and Philosophy—that they can become servants of God, but it is not by such intellectual knowledge that anyone becomes God's servant.
Once I was travelling in a train, and was carrying my Bible. In the train, I closed my eyes and began to meditate and my neighbours thought I was sleeping. They were Hindus. One man said to the other, ‘That man looks like a Padre or a Missionary’. The other said, ‘He cannot be a Padre, he does not look like one! He must be a Preacher’. Then the first replied, ‘He cannot be a Padre. You can see by his clothes that he cannot be a Padre’. The other man said, ‘Then he must be a Third Class Padre’. It is a fact that some people think that by having different ‘degrees’ and by becoming Second or First Class Padres they can become better servants of God. It is not by degrees, either educational or social, that you become the servants of God. It is by learning how to suffer. It is by learning in the school of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, for forty days and forty nights God's servant Moses had to be on the Mount alone with God.
As we come how to the heavenly mysteries revealed Id Moses, it is not just by reading that we shall understand them. It is when we are prepared to go through suffering and hardship and tribulation for our Lord's sake, that God will reveal these things to us in a simple way. These heavenly mysteries are not meant for those who are not prepared to suffer, but for those who are willing to endure. God will teach such, step by step.