First trip up, Moses was still climbing when God spoke. He gave Moses a message for the people.
 
"This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites" (Ex. 19:3-6).
 
The Lord wanted the people to know: He had delivered them from slavery in order to bring them to himself. He offered them a profound relationship that would call forth their true identity. He pinpointed the key to their becoming who he had created them to be.
 
Trekking back down the mountain, Moses delivered the message. "The people all responded together, 'We will do everything the Lord has said'" (Ex. 19:8).

So Moses headed back up the mountain to tell God what the people had said. I suspect that God already knew what they'd said - and what they would actually do. Still, in reporting back to the Lord, Moses positioned himself to hear further from God. And hear he did. This time, the Lord spoke both of intimacy and of boundaries.
 
He declared that he would come down on Mount Sinai "in the sight of all the people" and speak "so that the people will hear me speaking." He instructed Moses to consecrate the people and to set boundaries around the mountain so no one would try to go up. The penalty for breaking through the boundaries? Death.
 
A second time, Moses trekked down the mountain. He consecrated the people and set the boundaries God required.
 
"On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him" (Ex. 19:16-19).
 
Smack in the middle of an entrance no one present would ever forget, God did an astonishing thing. He paused - and called Moses back up the mountain.
 
"The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up" (Ex. 19:20).
 
I don't know what Moses expected God to say, but he did not expect what God said. Again, the Lord warned that neither the people nor the priests were to pass the boundaries in an attempt to approach the Lord.
 
Somewhat irritated that God had brought him all the way up the mountain a third time, just to repeat an instruction that Moses and the people had obeyed - Moses reminded the Lord, "You said that already. And we have secured the mountain." Undaunted, the Lord repeated his warning a third time.
 
His holiness required the boundaries. His love urged that no one, no one, come beyond the place where they could see him and live.
 
"So Moses went down to the people and told them" (Ex. 19:25). Then God himself spoke the words of the Ten Commandments, as recorded in Exodus 20.

What does intimacy with God look like? It looks like whatever God chooses. If we agree to intimacy only when it's gentle, comfortable and cozy, we may find ourselves doing exactly what the Israelites did after God appeared to them at Sinai.
 
"When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, 'Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.'
 
"Moses said to the people, 'Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.'
 
"The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was" (Ex. 20:18-21).
 
For the fourth time that week, Moses climbed the mountain. This time, he climbed into thick darkness.
 
This time, God said much. He began: "Tell the Israelites this: 'You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold" (Ex. 20:22-23).
 
The Lord had brought the people to himself. After repeating his covenant requirement that they worship him only, he gave lengthy instructions to guide them in relating successfully to one another and to him (Ex. 20:24 - 23:33).
 
Even before Moses descended the mountain, God invited him back.

Returning to camp, Moses wrote down all the instructions the Lord had given. He led the people to offer sacrifices. "Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, 'We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.' Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, 'This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words'" (Ex. 24:7-8).
 
Immediately afterward, Moses set out for his fifth mountain rendezvous with God. This time, at God's invitation, Moses brought Aaron and his two sons Nadab and Abihu, along with 70 elders of Israel. Together, they went partway up the mountain. Together, "they saw God, and they ate and drank" (Ex. 24:11).

We might think, "Great! Moses has met with God repeatedly. He's told the people what God said. He's told God what the people said. He's led the people to enter into covenant with God. He and other leaders have feasted with God. Now Moses can get back to the enormous tasks at hand - feeding, governing and guiding a people en route from slavery in one land to conquer another."
 
Urgent, overwhelming  needs cried for Moses' attention: lack of infrastructure, the people's constant disagreements, threat of hostile nations, desert conditions. Simply finding another day's food and water was itself a full-time task.
 
And yet . . . "The Lord said to Moses, 'Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction'" (Ex. 24:12).
 
If ever Moses wanted to send a proxy, surely this was the time. Come up, stay - and pick up a couple of tablets with written instructions? Surely, surely, he could delegate that visit with God to someone else.
 
Yet, for all that clamored to keep him from it, "Moses went up on the mountain of God" (Ex. 24:13).
 
This time, God did not speak quickly. For six days he didn't speak at all. I wonder if - on the second day, or the fourth, or the sixth - Moses thought about all he wasn't getting done and considered leaving. Whatever he thought, whatever he felt, Moses stayed.
 
"When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights" (Ex. 24:15-18).
 
During those days, God gave Moses detailed instructions - not for governmental infrastructure or military preparedness. God told Moses how to construct and furnish a tabernacle and consecrate priests. We might consider such details tedious and trivial. God counted those instructions crucial. Once the tabernacle was complete, he would inhabit it. He would guide the people from their midst.
 
While the Lord arranged a way to dwell among his people, the people decided: To heck with Moses. To heck with God. While the glory of the Lord blazed atop the mountain in front of them, they trampled underfoot their blood covenant with him. They instructed Aaron to do the foremost thing God had forbidden: "Come, make us gods who will go before us" (Ex. 32:1).
 
Moses' sixth encounter with God ended abruptly when the Lord sent him back down the mountain to find the people worshiping an idol they had made.

After Moses confronted the people decisively and interceded for them fervently, God called him to a seventh mountaintop encounter: "Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain" (Ex. 34:2-3).
 
So Moses "went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the Lord had commanded him" (Ex. 34:4).
 
There, Moses saw God's glory as never before. He heard God's stunning decision to bind himself in covenant with a people who had already broken their vows. Moses wrote what God told him to write, and received what God himself had written.
 
"Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water." When Moses came down, "he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord" (Ex. 34:28,29).

After Moses' seventh mountain rendezvous with God, he led the Israelites to build the tabernacle. Once the tabernacle was complete, God came to fill - and to dwell.
 
No more did Moses have to ascend Mount Sinai to meet with God. Now, "The Lord  called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting" (Lev. 1:1). Now, the Lord instructed and guided the Israelites from his dwelling place in the midst of the camp.
 
"In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out - until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel during all their travels" (Ex. 40:36-38).
 
Wherever the people went, God himself addressed the pressing, overwhelming issues they faced. And though Moses no longer had to climb a mountain, he continued to put everything else on hold any time the Lord said, "Come and meet with me."

Because the Father loved us enough to send his Son Jesus Christ, because the Son died and rose again, and because the Spirit of Christ has come, you don't have to wonder what it's like when the glory of the Lord fills, the presence of the Lord dwells - and everything changes. You yourself can experience it. Maybe you already have.
 
Sadly, many who have crossed out of bondage by the blood of the Lamb do not know God intimately. They have not seen his glory. How about you? How about now? The same eternal, invisible God who met with Moses face to face wants to rendezvous with you.
 
When he calls, he doesn't bargain or beg. He doesn't manipulate, and he doesn't play the guilt card. He simply speaks your name. He may - or may not - show up at your scheduled "quiet times." He knows when you're just checking boxes and when your heart is set to hear and obey his voice.
 
When he summons, the rendezvous may be brief. It may be lengthy. It will almost surely interfere with urgent, overwhelming matters that clamor for your attention. You will think you cannot accomplish what needs to be done if you answer his call. Actually, you cannot accomplish what needs to be done unless you answer his call.

Busy or not, here God comes. At the most inconvenient times, he calls.
 
You'll be tempted to let your to-do list dictate your response. You'll be tempted to turn back when intimacy with him doesn't look like you expected. Instead, press in, daring to obey, daring to invite him to show you more.
 
When he does not speak and time is passing, defy the urge to cut and run. Defy the urge to trash his plan and make your own. Instead, sit before him until your words reflect his words and your face reflects his radiance.
 
When his Spirit floods your inmost being, don't be afraid. Do discern. Don't resist. Gladly yield. Don't let your expectations keep you from entering in. No experience of God's glory looks or feels as you thought it would. He reveals himself differently every time.
 
Never erect a permanent dwelling at the site of yesterday's obedience. Move when he moves. Stop when he stops. Never forget: To go with him, you must continually come to him.
 
Beloved of the Lord, I urge you: Get away with him - whenever he says, wherever he says, as often as he says, for as long as he says. That key opens the gateway for him to manifest his presence in you, to glorify himself through you, every day, everywhere.