Six Days Before the Voice

In 2018, mountaineer Adrian Ballinger sat at Camp 4 on Everest — 26,000 feet up — waiting. The summit was close enough to see, but the weather window had not opened. For six days he lived in that thin, brutal air, rationing oxygen, melting snow for water, watching clouds roll across the peak like a living wall. Other climbers grew restless and turned back. Ballinger stayed. On the seventh day, the wind shifted. He summited without supplemental oxygen — one of fewer than 200 people ever to do so.

When the Lord called Moses up Mount Sinai to receive the tablets of the law, Moses climbed into the cloud and waited. Six full days passed before God spoke a single word. Imagine that silence — the greatest prophet in Israel, sitting alone on a mountain wrapped in fire and smoke, with no agenda, no timeline, no guarantee of what came next. Only the command to come up and stay.

We live in a culture that treats waiting as wasted time. We want the summit without the six days at altitude. But God has always done His deepest work in the waiting. The cloud that covered Sinai was not an obstacle — it was the presence of the Almighty Himself, preparing Moses to receive what no rushing could have earned.

Sometimes the most faithful thing you can do is stay on the mountain when every instinct says come down.