And so we reach Israel’s breathtaking encounter with God’s holiness at Sinai. One of the greatest moments in history, one of God’s greatest acts of self-revelation. If we absorb it, it will help us grasp both the huge difference between their situation and ours, and also the real continuity. And we’ll have taken a big step towards grasping the point of the old testament!
`And the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow… Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, `Be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death’… On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently… When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not let God speak to us or we will die.” The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was` (Exodus 19, 20:18-21).
Let’s pause to grasp this imaginatively, and then, in sheer awe, to worship. It’s a momentous thing to meet with God. (Once in a while I need to recall this on a Sunday!) What we have here is what God is like – or, rather, one vital aspect of what He is like, the aspect He chose to reveal first. BUT!!- thank God we’re not in same situation as Israel. `When they saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not let God speak to us or we will die.”’ That is not our situation (hallelujah!); Jesus has come, and died, and adopted us, and that has changed all this. Israel knew they were in desperate need of a mediator; we have One, who has both died for the sins that barred us from God’s presence, and put His Spirit in us; and so we can come (indeed, are already) in God’s very presence, as His beloved children!
The best summary of this huge change is Hebrews 12: `You have not come to a mountain that… is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded… The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”’ The change is wonderful, and absolutely massive!: ’But — you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect; to Jesus` – Jesus who is `the mediator of a new covenant’; a whole new wonderful, welcoming arrangement…!
Yet alongside this we still have to ask ourselves, Why (and it happens in so many other ways in the old testament) does God go to such lengths to communicate first His awesome, even intimidating holiness? And we understand it as we see how Hebrews 12 continues. What happened on Sinai, it emphasizes, is still hugely relevant to us: `See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from Him who warns us from heaven? Therefore… let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”’
This is our God too, says Hebrews! We new testament Christians still need the `fear`, that is, the deeply-seated reverence and awe, at our majestic and awesomely holy God, that keeps us from sinning. Exodus 20:20 records that Moses said at this time to the people, ‘Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning…’
This `fear of the Lord`, says Proverbs, `is the beginning`, the vital starting point, `of wisdom.` Our names are each written in heaven, and we are invited, unbelievably, and joyously too, right into God’s very heart as His children (Heb 10:19); but we must pray still that the vision He was careful to give us first sinks deep into our imagination; so that (to quote Ex 19:5) we do indeed obey Him fully, and so experience (as that verse continues) being His own `treasured possession`…
