Exodus 24

For it is not everyone who may draw near to God but only one who, like Moses, can bear the glory of God. Moreover, before this, when the law was first given, the trumpet blasts, and lightnings, and thunders, and darkness, and the smoke of the whole mountain, and the terrible threats that if even a beast touched the mountain it should be stoned, and other like alarms kept back the rest of the people, for whom it was a great privilege, after careful purification, merely to hear the voice of God. But Moses actually went up, and entered into the cloud, and was charged with the law and received the tables. For the multitude, the tables of law are viewed according to the letter. But for those who are above the multitude, these are viewed according to the spirit.

Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly. Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. [Exodus 24:8] Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

Moses, of course, might be thought to have seen God with bodily eyes, if not only the Wisdom of God which is Christ but even the wisdom itself … [which] can be seen with the eyes of the flesh, or because it is written of the elders of Israel that "they beheld the place where the God of Israel had stood" and that there was "under his feet as it were a work of sapphire stone and a likeness of the firmament of heaven." We might therefore be led to imagine that the Word and the Wisdom of God, who extends from end to end mightily and orders all things sweetly, stood in his own substance within the space of an earthly place. And thus the Word of God, through whom all things were made, is thought changeable so that now he draws himself together and now he expands. May God cleanse the hearts of his faithful from such thoughts! But, as we have often declared, all these visible and tangible signs were displayed through a creature that has been made subject, in order to signify the invisible and intelligible God, not only the Father but also the Son and the Holy Spirit, from whom are all things, through whom are all things, and in whom are all things. Since the creation of the world, the invisible attributes of God, his everlasting power also and divinity, are seen, being understood through the things that are made.

In contemplation, there is admiration, expansion, a transference and restoration of one's self. Hence, "after gazing on God, they could still eat and drink."

Mystically the rolling away of the stone implies the disclosure of the sacraments, which were formerly hidden and closed up by the letter of the law. The law was written on stone. Indeed in the case of each of us, when we acknowledge our faith in the Lord's passion and resurrection, his tomb, which had been closed, is opened up.

The Lord spoke that word to Moses, and Moses, having heard the word, ascended the mountain and received two tablets of stone and the Law and the commandments. In this it is signified that if we wish to arrive at an understanding of the commandments of God, we must ascend the mountain, that is, to the eminence of the mind, because according to the impression of the eternal light the law of nature has been given to us, and according to that light we have received the teachings of the divine law.

Being of itself first falls upon the soul. Now being is twofold, namely created and uncreated, and accordingly justice is twofold: one, by which we are ordered to uncreated being, and another, by which we are ordered to created being. And according to this twofold justice a twofold tablet was given to Moses, namely the first and the second. In the first tablet are contained the commandments by which we are ordered to uncreated being, that is, God. In the second tablet are contained the commandments by which we are ordered to created being, namely our neighbor.

Just as God completed the whole world in six days and rested on the seventh, so the lesser world may be led in most orderly fashion through six stages of successive illuminations to the repose of contemplation. As a figure of this, one ascended by six steps to the throne of Solomon; the Seraphim that Isaiah saw had six wings; after six days the Lord called Moses from the midst of the cloud, and Christ after six days, as is said in Matthew, led the disciples up the mountain and was transfigured before them.

If, then, any one desires to see this Image of God, he must love God, that he may be loved by God; and be no longer a servant but a friend, because he has kept the commandments of God, that he may enter into the cloud where God is.

Christ was such a Center in His ascension. It is written in Exodus: "Moses passed into the midst of the cloud, and there he stayed for forty days and forty nights." And this is what Christ was in His ascension.

Do you now recognize the harm caused by intemperance? Look in turn at the instances of good behavior due to fasting. The great Moses, after keeping his fast for forty days, was able to get the tables of the law. When he came down from the mountain and saw the people's sin, the tablets which he had been successful in obtaining through such intercession he threw down and smashed, thinking it was preposterous that an indulgent and sinful people should receive laws of the Lord's own making.

Moses himself was so purified and freed from his body by a fast of forty days that his whole self took on a glorious appearance of divinity. Still in the darkness of our body, he gleamed with the full radiance of divinity. The eyes of mortals could not gaze upon him who, long nourished by the substance of God, had forgotten all about the aids provided by mortals' food. From this he learned that the sustenance of life does not fail those who live in God's sight and with him.

And like this holy man the blessed Moses also was twice deemed worthy to go unto the thick darkness and to receive the law upon the tablets; and he was made pure by fasting like unto this, and then he was deemed worthy of the terrible sight.