Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.

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 commands I have written for their instruction."

Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God (Ex 24:9-13).

What a phenomenal experience. On the way up Mount Sinai, Moses, Aaron, his sons and seventy elders had an encounter with God. The stone underneath God's feet, translated here as sapphire, was a deeply intense blue rock that can be highly polished. God was revealing himself to them. Not only did they see God, but they also ate and drank with Him.

The Lord then told Moses to go to the top of the mountain. So Moses set out with Joshua. Who? Who was going towards the top?

Aaron was possibly the most surprised with the appointment of Joshua to go up the mountain. Aaron was the older brother of Moses, had personally witnessed the Lord perform ten plagues simply by the movement of their hands, and had seen the God of Israel firsthand. To his mind, Aaron was certainly the second in command to Moses. Joshua was only the captain of an army of Israelites.

Let us look at three ways that the Lord had used Aaron prior to taking Joshua up the mountain of God: during the plagues, in the defeat of the Amalekites, and in meeting the Lord.

During the plagues, Aaron knew the key role that he played in getting the Israelites out of Egypt. Twice Moses questioned the Lord because of his faltering lips (Ex 4:10-13; 6:12). On the third time, the Lord gave Aaron the responsibility to talk to Pharaoh instead of Moses (Ex 7:1,2). Then in the first four miracles, the Lord spoke to Moses but it was Aaron that performed the miracles instead of Moses:

• Aaron used his staff and his hand so that the Lord could turn his staff into a snake (Ex 7:10).
• Aaron stretched his hand and the Nile was changed into a river of blood (Ex 7:19,20).
• Aaron stretched his hand and more frogs came into Egypt than anyone could possibly imagine (Ex 8:6).
• Aaron stretched his staff and there were gnats everywhere (Ex 8:17).

In the second plague, after the frogs were covering the land and after Moses spoke to Pharaoh for the first time, Moses did command the frogs to go away (Ex 8:10-12). It was not until the sixth plague that Moses himself performed one of the ten plagues by tossing soot into the air (Ex 9:10). Moses was initially so unsure of himself that Aaron had to first demonstrate the technique of miracles.

Aaron and Moses were the ones used by the Lord to perform the ten plagues; Joshua was not even a part of this. In fact, the first mention of Joshua in the Bible was thirty days or so after they crossed the Red Sea, and that was the defeat of the Amalekites (Ex 17:8-16).

The second way the Lord used Aaron was in the defeat of the Amalekites (Ex 17:8-16). Aaron might have thought something like: "I remember the battle that you, Joshua, fought against the Amalekites. Joshua, it was not your prowess that won that battle, but it was because Hur and I helped hold up the hands of Moses. You were losing that battle but we stepped in to help." Aaron knew the key role that he had played in that battle and he knew that Joshua would have been defeated without their help.

The third way was immediately before the Ten Commandments were spoken; the Lord instructed Moses to bring Aaron with him to the top of the mounta in (Ex 19:24). Aaron had been chosen by the Lord.

Prior to Exodus 24:9-13, Aaron had the position of second in command to Moses. Joshua had only commanded the army to defeat the Amalekites. Joshua is described as the aide to Moses (Ex 24:13), but notice the order of presentation in Exodus 24:9: Moses, Aaron, Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders. Even if Joshua was one of the seventy elders, he was not mentioned by name.

I can imagine Aaron asking "Why, then, dear brother Moses, have you selected Joshua to go up the mountain with you?" Aaron was likely expecting to be selected once again to accompany his brother. Why then did Moses select Joshua to go up on the mountain of God? What was it that placed Joshua in this second in command position? Why not Aaron?

Moses stayed on top of that mountain for forty days with Joshua nearby, and the Lord gave instructions that are documented in Exodus 25 - 31. At the end of that time, Aaron yielded to the beckoning of the people and made an idol out of gold in the shape of a calf (Ex 32:1-5). Aaron showed himself to be weak in the sight of his fellow Israelites, but why was he so weak? It appears that Aaron yielded to the people's wishes to "make gods" because a spirit of jealousy came upon him over the appointment of Joshua. We may never know if that is so, but there may be no better explanation of Aaron's behavior.

Thomas Clarke is an author, gardener and developer of computer software. He is president of Prayer Gardeners and can be reached at www.PrayerGardeners.com.