The Glory is Here.
The glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountain top. - Exodus 24:16-17
It was no typical day. While the children of Israel camped expectantly in the desert, the Lord descended on Mount Sinai in a radiant cloud and called Moses up to meet with Him. As Moses began to climb, the Israelites gazed at the mountain. But when they looked, they did not see a radiant cloud. To them, the presence of the Lord appeared as a roaring fire.
And this fire wasn’t like any other fire. It did not go ahead of the Israelites like the one in the wilderness or stand behind them in defense like the one in the Red Sea. It did not fall to consume a sacrifice like the one for Abel or pass among pieces to indicate a Mosaic covenant. This fire wasn’t moving. It was resting because it represented the glory of God. It sabbathed on the top of Mount Sinai like morning dew on the meadows and remained there for days to shift Israel into a habitation of glory. The Israelites had never seen fire quite like this, and yet, they could trace manifestations of fire that had led them to this point: God spoke to Moses from a burning bush, rained hail and fire upon Egypt during the plagues, led the children of Israel with a pillar of fire, protected the nation with a wall of fire, and had just descended in a fiery cloud. He kept allowing the Israelites to witness fire for a reason: What we behold we become.
God consistently appeared in fire because He wanted Israel to become His fire in the earth, or to become the tangible sign of His presence. The same way that He used fire to assure them of His presence, He wanted to use Israel to assure the world of His nearness. He kept manifesting in fire so the Israelites could get a glimpse of their prophetic future.
That future began to unfold in Acts 2 when the fire of God came to rest on the disciples like it did on Mount Sinai. That fire never left their lives, because it was a mark of God's abiding glory, and it is still available to us today. If we embrace Holy Spirit, who is the wind and fire of God, He will transform us from glory to glory and use us to manifest the very essence of the Lord. When that happens, like Moses and the disciples, we will live in the fiery presence of God instead of watching it from a distance.