How does Jack Miles use imagery in God: A Biography?

Miles notes that the Book of Exodus concludes with Moses overseeing the construction of an ark to contain the written law over which he sets a ritual "throne" for God to sit upon - notably not any of the cultic objects the Israelites would have been familiar with form the cultural milieu. God descends upon the Israelites in a cloud by day and a fire by night - volcanic imagery reminiscent of Baal.