My Dinner with God

Scripture: Exodus 24:11 – “God did not lay his hand on the chief men of the Israelites; they beheld God, and they ate and drank.” (NRSVUE)

Have you ever built up doing something you are going to do in your mind and then, when it actually happens, it is weird? It might be a first date with someone. It might be meeting a celebrity. It might be lots of things. You envision showing your best self and impressing this person, but in the end, there is just this sense of awkwardness. When this happens, it is natural to think there is something wrong with you. You did something wrong, said something stupid, or just weren’t cool enough. But sometimes, the situation is just inherently awkward and when that happens, we might discover some positive truths about ourselves in the encounter.

The Book of Exodus is full of weird moments. Once the Israelites are in the wilderness, God is both immediately present but also dangerously unapproachable. The people cower when God’s glory is near for it promises to vaporize them. Moses alone seems to be able to stand before God. But there are moments when God appears to others and one happens in chapter 24, right before Moses goes up to speak to God on Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights. Moses brings seventy-three of the leaders and elders of people with him to see God.

What they see is a bit strange. Exodus only mentions that under God’s feet was “something like a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.” Basically, solid sky. And then God just lets them sit there, and they have dinner together with God’s feet.

What would you do if you got to have dinner with God? Would you ask God all your questions about the meaning of life? Would you share your deepest hopes and dreams? Would you cower in fear and beg for forgiveness? I suspect you wouldn’t want to just sit there in silence.  

A lot of the time, the God we build up in our minds is very different than the way God truly is. And when we are exposed to the shortcomings of our understanding, it feels embarrassing. We may have been certain about who God is and how we should treat other people, but sometimes life proves how wrong we are. When this happens, it is an opportunity to take stock of what really matters in our faith life. Is it being right or being holy? When we are in awkward spaces, we can buckle under our insecurities, or we can embrace the possibility of learning or becoming something new.

Maybe those elders could have spoken with God and learned the secrets of the universe. But they were too afraid and left the interesting part of the story to Moses. Don’t be afraid of the awkward parts of your life. Embrace the strangeness and see what you can learn and who you can be on the other side.

Prayer: God, whether things feel right or wrong, I know you will always be with me. Amen.

Image credit: C MANOJ K, Wikimedia Commons