Beam Me Up

It’s funny how words come and go out of style.  Today it seems like you can almost invent any words you want.  And, if you can get enough people to go along with your “strategery,” your inventive word might be formally added into the lexicon of popular speech.

 It’s sometimes sad to see a word go.  Until recently the word “religious” was held in high esteem, but even that word is diminishing from our vocabulary.  

Very few folks under the age of 40 would be caught dead claiming that they are “religious.”  More and more people today will self identify as “spiritual,” but not “religious.”  Being spiritual is good, but being religious - not so much.

To hijack a famous line of Dorothy’s from the Wizard of Oz, words seem to “come and go so quickly here.”  I bet just about everyone would agree that there was a time when, “beam me up Scotty” would have had no meaning at all. 

Prior to Captain Kirk’s famous command to be transported into or out of the heavens, the phrase may only have referred to lifting up a piece of lumber to an awaiting carpenter.

For all you Trekkies out there, I have some disappointing news.  Captain Kirk was not the first person to be beamed up or to have their face turned sparkly upon being energized!

Moses may have been the first human to be beamed up and energized.  When the Israelite where in the wilderness of the Sinai, God called Moses to climb to the top of Mt. Sinai.  

This was the time and place where God established His great covenant with Israel, and where Moses received the Ten Commandments.  We all know the Hollywood version of the story, but Hollywood forgot about the beaming!

You won’t believe what happened when Moses ascended through the smoke and thunder to reach the top of Mt. Sinai.  According to Scripture, either Moses or the mountain was “beamed up” to heaven to be in God's presence, or, “God bowed down the heavens onto Mt. Sinai and Moses (Deut. 4:11). 

Whatever your stance on what was “beamed,” one thing is certain – Moses encountered God and that spiritual moment visibly altered him (For a scholarly look into this see The Bible As It Was, by James L. Kugel).

Here’s the strange part.  Moses not only was “beamed” back down from the heavenly realm, he was beaming.  It was like rays of light were beaming from his head.  The literal Hebrew for the phenomena emanating from his head can be translated as “horns of light” (Exodus 34:29-35). 

In fact, some of the ancient paintings and sculptures depicting Moses show him with horns!  One of the most famous is Michelangelo’s rendition.

Did you know that Moses had horns?  It may not have been a religious encounter, but you can’t get much more spiritual than this.  If you’re a person who identifies themselves as spiritual but not religious, I invite you to come and worship with us this Sunday as we conclude our series on the Kingdom of Heaven with “Looking Heavenly.”  Not even Captain Kirk was ever energized like Moses.  What about us?