Exodus 24:18, “So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.”
The people wait. They look up. They wait some more. No movement. No voice. A mountain veiled in cloud. The days go by and the people begin to grow restless. By Exodus 32:1.. “Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
Bosh (pronunciation: bōsh) is the Hebrew word for delay. It literally carries several layers of meaning – “ to be ashamed, confused, disappointed, or put to shame.” (BibleHub)
This wasn’t a matter of time passing, but revealed how the people felt about the waiting. Perhaps for them, the delay and silence caused feelings of embarrassment, uncertainty, even abandonment. “Unbelief and impatience are at the bottom of the greatest departures from God.” — Matthew Henry
As the people continued to look up and wait, there had to have been speculations like, “Something must be wrong with us.” “I guess we are on our own.” “Maybe we can’t rely on God.” “We’ve got to do something about this.” …
And can’t that be true today ? Apply for the job only to be met with silence. Pray for _____________ and there’s delay in the answer. Ask for direction only to be met with clouds and limited visibility. In these kinds of situations we can often experience the same emotional side of delay. Silence begins to whisper its own story to us.
We have to remind ourselves that during the delay God was writing His covenant. He wasn’t distant. He wasn’t distracted. He wasn’t inactive. He was giving instructions that would prepare His people to live in His presence. They may have felt abandoned at the bottom of that mountain, but that did not change the facts. Preparation and planning were going on at the top of that mountain.
And the same is true for us. God still uses delays to prepare us for here and for eternity. What feels like delay does not cancel His faithfulness. Lamentations 3:25 reminds us, “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.”
When we find ourselves at the bottom of a mountain looking up. Let’s wait well. The cloud does not mean we are abandoned. Our feelings don’t change the facts. He is shaping our future. He is preparing us for His presence.
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