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[This is part 18 of "101 verses you need to know about angels, gods, and demons" which began several weeks ago. To catch up with our conversation, start at the beginning by hitting "Read More" below, then going to "Pastor's Corner" at the left side of the next screen. You will then see (at the bottom) a list of all previous posts, which you can read in biblical order, from the bottom up, for best results.]
I followed the TV show LOST as closely as I could, and when I felt confused I thought I was the only one. So it was always comforting to hear that many others were wondering what in the world was going on. Take the Smoke Monster, for example. Why did it make a clicking sound? None of my friends have the answer, and the last episode didn't settle it either. I'll just have to let that go, as will everyone else :).
Speaking of the Smoke Monster, I have come to wonder if that is a helpful way of putting together some of the texts which tell of God's leadership of the people of Israel when they left Egypt. We're told that "the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud" (Exod. 13:21), and the words translated as "pillar" (ammud, a normal word for post or column) and "cloud" (anan, again a normal word for a that which clouds over or darkens the brightness of the sun) recommend the idea that God led Israel by a thin-ish, darkish, moving object that could also be considered "formless" (cp. Exod. 33:10; Deut. 4:12, 15). We certainly don't have much to go by, though all the verses I can find about this "cloud pillar" remind me of the LOST survivors getting frightened by Mr. Smoke (the Egyptians sure were! Exod. 14:19-20). Take a look at these texts to see if you agree: Exodus 13:21-22; 14:24; 16:10; 19:9, 16; 24:15-16, 18; 33:9-10; 34:5; 40:34-38; Lev. 16:2, 13; Num. 9:15-22.
This kind of smoke pillar would qualify as a "theophany," or form of an otherwise invisible God (as I described in an earlier Pastor's Corner on Gen. 18-19). The Bible makes the strict claim that our God, who exists as pure spirit, does not dwell in a form that can be limited or humanly visualized (John 1:18; 5:37; 6:46; Rom. 1:20; Col. 1:15; 1 Tim. 1:17; 6:16; Heb. 11:27; 1 John 4:12, 20). Theophanies cover a host of situations in which God appeared to appear, though not literally. In each case these appearances were not in human form.
So this leads to our text today, which is more fascinating than any LOST episode: "Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity. But on the nobles of the children of Israel he did not lay his hand. So they saw God, and they ate and drank" (Exod. 24:9-11). What is going on here?
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