Between the Lord and us, there is now beautiful peace. Through Jesus’s blood, our sins are completely wiped away and we have been made right with our Maker. And this is what we long for, to know—and to experience in a deeper way—that our God is near. We want to know that the Lord is with us and that He is for us.

When do you feel closest to God? When is his presence the most real to you?

The Lord is always with us, but we enjoy times when He gives a deeper and a truer sense of his nearness.

Perhaps it is when you pray to God in a spirit of humility and love.

Or the Lord’s presence seems very near when you’re hiking in the mountains or standing on the seashore, amazed by his glory and grandeur.

Or you read the Scriptures, and you’re reading them hungrily: eager to be encouraged, or guided, or reassured. Then it can be like the Lord is speaking to you directly, with words meant just for you.

This is the desire of every child of God: to be close to him, to enjoy his presence from morning ‘til evening, for our communion with Christ to be tangible.

But it doesn’t always happen this way. Because our faith is weak, and because our thoughts are distracted or troubled, we can feel far from God’s presence. But still we long to draw near. And God generously lets us come close for Jesus’s sake.

There’s an example of this grace in Exodus 24. It’s when Moses and seventy elders are given the privilege of experiencing the reality of communion with God. They climb Mount Sinai, and in verse 11 it says simply yet beautifully,

They saw God, and they ate and drank.

Up on that mountain, something amazing happens with God.

Exodus is telling the story of how God rescues his people from slavery in Egypt and brings them to the Promised Land. On the way, they make an important detour to Mount Sinai. Here God has made a tremendous display of his power, with thunder, lightning, and the blast of trumpets.

Amidst this uproar, God descended and caused the mountain to shake violently and the whole camp to tremble.

All this was too much for the Israelites. They beg for Moses to speak with them directly, not God. So the Lord meets with Moses and gives his holy will in laws and precepts. Then there is a ceremony of covenant renewal: an altar is set up, and twelve stone pillars, and burnt offerings and fellowship offerings are sacrificed. This is when Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders go up the mountain.

The leaders of Israel climb the terrifying heights of Mount Sinai, and “they see God” (v. 11). 

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