THERE was one mountain which the Lord was pleased to call His —that was “Horeb the Mount of God.” On this mountain was the rock which was smitten by the rod of God in the hand of Moses, and from which flowed streams of refreshing for the people in their need—a beautiful picture of Christ, our Rock, smitten for us; and of the stream of refreshing which flowed to us through the Spirit of God.
Here, on this same mountain, the angel of the Lord had appeared to Moses in a flame of fire that came from the midst of the burning bush. Here again, nearly six hundred years later, God met, in a very special way, His prophet Elijah. And from this mountain, burning with fire, and enveloped in clouds and thick darkness, God spoke to the people, and gave to them the ten commandments written upon two tables of stone. We see there was much to mark it as the “Mount of God.”
The whole host of Israel, in their journey toward the promised land, now lay encamped near this mountain of God. And Moses now had the full assurance that God had sent him, and was with him, for these were the words that He had spoken; “Certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.” So here in the plain, at the foot of the mountain was a halting place for Israel.
Moses, doubtless, had often led his flock up and down its steeps, during his forty years sojourn in the land of Midian. When he started on his mission to Egypt, he took Zipporah, his wife, and their two sons with him, but before reaching that land he sent them back. Now that he had returned to the land of Midian, Jethro, his father-in-law, who had heard of all that God had done. for Moses, and for Israel His people, took Zipporah and her sons and went to visit him.
When Jethro drew near, Moses went out to meet him, and he bowed down to him and kissed him, showing thus the reverence which is pleasing to God, who tells us we shall honor the face of the old. After asking each other of their welfare, they went into the tent; Moses then recounted to his father-in-law what the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, and told him of the trials and sorrows that had come upon them by the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. Hearing thus of the Lord’s goodness to Moses and the people, made the heart of Jethro rejoice; and he praised God and offered up sacrifices to Him.
On the morrow, when Jethro saw that the people stood by Moses from morning until evening, bringing their troubles and their questions to him, he told Moses that this was not good; it would surely wear him away, for the work was too heavy for him. He then counseled him to choose out truthful, God-fearing men, and place them as rulers over thousands, and hundreds, and fifties, and tens, and let these rulers judge the people in small matters, and only the “hard causes” should be brought to him; then his work would be lightened. Moses acted on this counsel, doing all that Jethro had said, and then he allowed him to depart.
Dear young reader, we are not brought to a mountain surrounded with darkness and terrors such as the Mount of God afterwards was to Israel, but we are brought to know Jesus who suffered on Cavalry’s mount for us, in order that the darkness might be forever dispelled and the terrors done away.
ML 05/17/1903