Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. (Ex. 20:18-21)
The invitation to draw close to God and hear Him speak is understandably daunting, especially when your experiences of Him are as a consuming fire, a devastating conqueror of the superpower of your time and One whom no man can see and live. Those credentials don’t make it inviting at all to draw closer to Him. Hearing these Ten Words that this awesome voice through a cloud has uttered makes Him all the more … unapproachable. Think about it – He is speaking through a cloud, He is giving Ten Words that appear in themselves to be somewhat overwhelming and extremely challenging – after all who can live up to them all?
The response of the people of Israel to all the pomp and ceremony that surrounds His Majesty The Lord of Hosts is more than understandable. If you take Moses’ words as well into account, you could be lead to believe that the sole motivating factor behind obeying these Words given by this awesome new ruler is fear. You’ve seen what He does to a super power that dares oppose Him. You’ve seen how He deals with army and indeed the human god of this power. You’ve seen His entourage in terms of the thunder and lightening. You know this God is not messing about. Don’t mess with this one.
This should not be overlooked or casually put away to present the soft cuddly God who just wants us to love Him. This should not be explained away as the angry God with a headache who eventually gets an aspirin realises these people ain’t so bad after all and even sends His Son to die for us all and turns out to be all about love and not war at all. Such reasonings are heretical because they miss out on who God is.
He is terrifying. He is awesome. Like your dad when he gets angry or has to exercise discipline, you wouldn’t like Him when He’s angry. Just because He’s slow to anger, doesn’t mean He doesn’t get angry … it just means He gets there slowly and if we’re mindless to ignore the many warnings of this then that which is scheduled for us is inevitable and not pretty. Not only that but in the larger scale of things it is a just anger. These are not the erratic emotional moody lashes of that petulant child who doesn’t get His way. This is the natural conclusion of one who has continually ignored the warnings and urgings and dares to defy the Almighty Creator of all.
And yet to just take this on board as the basis and motivation for drawing near to God does not work at all. It works as a motive for not sinning – it’s back to the old family scenario, to avoid getting the punishment from my parents I’d better make sure I do what they told me to do and not do what they told me not to do. The motive behind embracing, approaching this God, however, is the heart of spiritual intent. It is found as with all things that work so well with God in the beginning.
In the beginning this glorious God chooses to exercise His creative abilities in putting the universe we know together in six days and six nights. In the beginning He crowns His creative work with man made in His image and likeness. In the beginning He further glorifies this mankind by making two become one and enjoy unity and have dominion over His creation like no other aspect of His creation has on this world. In the beginning He does this and crucially engages with man, showing His character for man to know and exercise as he goes through His God-given responsibility over the earth. So man’s basis for life is utter dependence on the God who created Him.
Then that basis was sadly shifted by revolt and rebellion. With that basis shifted the consequences were deadly crucially because that which informed all life was missing. That which informed healthy relationships now missing provoked distorted, dysfunctional, deceived, distraught, disappointed and damaged relationships and societies and world.
Yet the basis remains. The primary relationship is still extended and with it all that comes with it in all of its beauty, wisdom, glory and eternal wonder. The primary relationship is extended in its appeal to us through rescue and redemption. Though our default function is not to live on the primary relationship, our original nature can be returned to us again through He who set up this primary relationship in the first place. Once in place and suffused with His character of love and truth then things change in how we engage with others and the world around us. What once appeared to be hopeless and destined for misery and disaster, now has the seed of a kingdom come and kingdom to come that will see the old replaced with the new and heartache replaced with eternal joy.
All as we learn from the Creator His law and order – the spiritual intent behind it that informs us of who we are and whose we are. As we accept His invitation to come, the darkness becomes light and death becomes life in the reflection of His glory and grace.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
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Life With CD 