Day 24

I have been challenged lately, both in personal reflection, and in purposeful conversation, regarding the parts of the Bible that I have focused on; or better – not focused on. While I had not struggled greatly with the potential that I was neglecting my responsibility to the LORD, I continued to consider the challenge.
As I have stayed in God’s word; however, I have encountered increasing opportunities to share specifically relevant Biblical passages with others in need. In a near miraculous series of events, God has allowed me access (experience and revelation) to His word at times immediately prior to the opportunity to share those specific words with another in need. At those times, I have been increasingly grateful for the ability to recall what the LORD has been teaching me, such that I have been able, without pause, to point to what He has most recently taught me. Whether it be from passages that I’ve encountered during a sermon from my pastor, from a message I heard online, an excerpt from a daily devotion, or a reference I sought in research for a Sunday School lesson: these “words” from the LORD have become seared onto my heart and mind.
As I pray with my children, I find those prayers reflecting quotes from the Bible, and citing God’s Word repetitively. As I am in conversation, I know which words of the Bible I am referring to and can immediately reference what God has laid on my heart. And in consideration of this, I realize that I am not challenged to go to any specific part of the Bible, because “I haven’t yet gone there in depth,” but instead, I am able to acknowledge that the LORD is allowing me to experience His word, in accordance with the needs He knows I will encounter. The LORD is burning His words into my heart. I am experiencing fellowship with the LORD – Yes! I am aware of His presence, and experience joy in knowing His hand is directing my steps – Yes! I am extremely purposeful in the concept of honoring God and reflecting the glory that He exposed me to – Yes! But I am arriving to these places, beginning in His word, the Bible.
I am not attempting in saying these things to raise the profile of “my” personal experience with God – what I am saying is: time with God has a foundation laid in His word. Consider Moses experience on the mountain with God, and look at how “God’s Words” are what was most significant about this encounter:
“The LORD said to Moses, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be prepared by morning. Come up Mount Sinai in the morning and stand before Me on the mountaintop. No one may go up with you; in fact, no one must be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks and herds are not to graze in front of that mountain.” Moses cut two stone tablets like the first ones. He got up early in the morning, and taking the two stone tablets in his hand, he climbed Mount Sinai, just as the LORD had commanded him. The LORD came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed His name Yahweh.” (Exodus 33:1-5)
Before Moses returned to his people, God also told him to “write these words” (34:27-28), which included all that God said. And Moses spent the next 40 days and 40 nights fasting and writing down the words of the LORD. Moses was not given a feeling – or some sort of undefinable experience. He was given the Word of the LORD.

Look at Elijah. Elijah also went to Mount Horeb – the same Mountain of the LORD where Moses had experienced God (a place unknown to us now – but suspected to be in Saudi Arabia – see footnote). There, Elijah stopped after travelling for 40 days and 40 nights without eating. “So he got up, ate, and drank. Then on the strength from that food, he walked 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.” (1 Kings 19:8) He was running from Queen Jezebel, after all the other prophets of the LORD had been slaughtered – he experienced the passing presence of the LORD manifest in a “great and mighty wind…but the LORD was not in the wind.” And “an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake” and “a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire.” But then after this amazing demonstration of God’s power – there was a soft whisper.
“When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Suddenly, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:13)
And Elijah knew that he was in the presence of the LORD, and that God was present in the voice (v.12). He covered his face and went out to listen (v.13). Just as it had been with Moses, the substance of Elijah’s experience was the voice – the Word of God.
“We must learn to be still and listen for the voice of God. But as we do so, it will come to us from the pages of scripture (the Bible – God’s Word) and become a living reality through the witness of the Holy Spirit.”
Find strength in the LORD today – but begin in His Word. This is the substance of our experience with Him.
Footnote: While, officially, the location of Mount Horeb is unknown, Jewish and Christian scholars have long argued as to its whereabouts since biblical times. Elijah is described as having traveled to the site in 1 Kings 19:8, which would imply that its location was familiar at the time that book was written, but there are no biblical references set at a later time.
Still, some have decided that this mountain in Saudi Arabia fits the biblical description, despite the lack of precise Biblical information as to the geographic location of the site. There is an altar at the mountain’s base. There are warning markers around the base that Moses was instructed to make. The rock that gushed water is nearby. The top of the mountain is black because as the Bible says God came down on the mountain with fire.
Visitors are welcome near the site, but the entire mountain is covered in a barbed wire fence and armed Saudi guards that keep patrol, so getting too close is out of the question. The area is supposedly littered with grinding stones for manna, also there are Egyptian and Hebrew carvings on rocks. http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mount-horeb