Commentary on Exodus 24:12-18

Juliana Claassens
A central theme in the biblical traditions regards the notion of the divine presence.
Biblical writers imagined various ways in which God is present with Gods people. For
instance, the Priestly writer spoke of the glory of God being present in terms of a
descending cloud and a devouring fire. Elsewhere, God is said to be present in the ark of
the covenant (1 Samuel 4), in the tent of meeting (Exodus 33), and later in the temple built
in Jerusalem (1 Kings 8; Psalm 132. See also the chapter on The Presence in the Temple
in Samuel Terriens book The Elusive Presence that outlines this development).

As Terrien has shown though, this presence of God is elusive. He argues that in the Bible
there exists the dynamic tension between divine self-disclosure and divine selfconcealment. The proximity of God creates a memory and an anticipation of certitude, but
it always defies human appropriation. The presence remains elusive (p. 43).

Something of this elusive presence is also evident in the Old Testament reading for this
Transfiguration of Our Lord Sunday. In Exodus 24:12-18 one finds two distinctive
perspectives regarding Gods presence that are held in tension: God being near and Gods
sovereignty. So this reading is found in the immediate context of the covenant meal that is
held in Exodus 24:9-11 in which Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 leaders of the people
ate and drink together with God -- the communal meal serving the function of celebrating
the sealing of the covenant in Exodus 24:3-8. This text is as a powerful witness to Gods
commitment to be intimately involved with Gods people.

However, the lectionary text for today is also part of the larger context of Exodus 19-24, in
which God is revealed in a display of awesome terror in Exodus 19:6-9 where thunder and
lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain and a blast of a trumpet represent the
presence of God causing the people of Israel to tremble.

As we read in Exodus 19:18: Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord
had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole
mountain shook violently. In Exodus 24:12-18, the multiple references to a cloud and a
devouring fire continue the theme of Gods elusive presence.

It is thus important to hold on to both perspectives of Gods sovereignty as well as Gods

intimate presence when reading Exodus 24. So the memory of God being intimately present
in a type of Eucharistic meal is fresh in the mind. As Brevard Childs proposes: A new
avenue of communication has been opened to his people which is in stark contrast to the
burning terror of the theophany in chapter 19 (Childs, The Book of Exodus, p. 507).

It is further significant that only Moses is commanded to proceed up the mountain to be in

Gods immediate presence, leaving Aaron and Hur to look after the people. Moses stays in
the cloud for 40 days and 40 nights -- a very long time. In yet another encounter with the
Divine in Exodus 34:29-30, we read how Moses face shone because he had been talking
to God.

We thus see how the encounter with God has a transformative effect on those who find
themselves in the presence of God. Moses transformative encounter with God underlies
the Transfiguration of Jesus according to which it is said in Matthew 17:2 that Jesus face
shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. In this New Testament text,
Jesus is thus echoing and embodying Moses encounter with the divine presence as narrated
in Exodus 24.

In the cloud, Moses is said to receive the tablets of stone as well as further instruction that
offers an important link between Gods awesome presence that gives rise to worship and
covenantal demand. This link between law and worship that is at the heart of the covenantal
relationship bestows some important perspectives on both the law, which is to be
understood in terms of Gods enduring presence, and on Gods presence which is realized
everywhere the law is followed.

Finally, the conversation regarding the divine presence is particularly poignant in those
situations in which people have had serious reservations about the presence of God. For
instance, during the Holocaust, which without doubt is one of worst periods in human
history, many scholars have talked about the absence of God -- as indicated by the brackets
around God in the title of Zachary Braitermans 1998 book, (God) after Auschwitz.

In her 2003 book, The Female Face of God in Auschwitz, Melissa Raphael contemplates
Gods presence even in the most abhorrent conditions that marked the death camps like
Auschwitz. Raphael describes in gruesome detail based upon the womens memoirs she
read for the study about the gross indignities of bodily degradation; the diarrhea due to
typhus and other ailments; the lack of opportunities and facilities to wash oneself. A
theology of presence that places God in the midst of such vile conditions thus offers a
serious overturning of the traditional understanding of God turning away from defilement,
positing that God is present in midst of her soiled creation. As Raphael argues:

God knew Israels "unseemliness" but still moved about the camp and did not turn away.
Indeed she was like a mother who will not be repelled by her childs "unseemliness," but in
washing her must come all the closer because of it. (p. 81)

In light of the link between covenantal demand and Gods presence highlighted in terms of
Exodus 24, Raphael seeks Gods presence in the stories of ordinary women who through
the exceedingly ordinary acts of washing or caring for their own bodies or the bodies of
others reflected something of the presence of God. These simple acts of humanity had the
purpose of restoring the personhood that was seriously imperiled by the dehumanizing acts
of the Nazis in the death camps. As she writes: God is present wherever personhood is
honoured (p. 88).