Terrified

Exodus 20:18-21

The people of Israel hearing the 10 Commandments from the voice of God were terrified. They knew they were going to die. They turned to an intercessor, Moses. This fear of God was a starting point, but it was temporary and insufficient. The grace of God was the fulfillment through another intercessor: Jesus.

We would have died on Moses’ mountain too. We can climb Jesus’ hill and know God.

Guardrails

Driving with Jono, turning left across road, right over Median.

Realizing I was about to cross… then across the boundary.

Rolling down in van with family, upside down, held up by a bush, looking up at the guardrail from the wrong side.

Terrifying!

Book

Exodus 20:18-21

18 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 19 and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”

20 Moses said 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.”

21 The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

Mount Doom

But the people were curious. They were interested. God told them not to get too close, implying that perhaps some wanted to. And then… God began to speak.

Now there was plenty going on that was terrifying. There was thunder and lightning, trumpets, a smoking mountain. As we said, this was Mount Doom. But that was also all happening before God started speaking. Something shifted in the course of God speaking these 10 words.

The people of God became terrified.

These 10 commandments are repeated in Deuteronomy 5, and Moses recalls this encounter and adds in some of the missing details.

Deuteronomy 5:22-29

22 These are the commandments the LORD proclaimed in a loud voice to your whole assembly there on the mountain from out of the fire, the cloud and the deep darkness; and he added nothing more. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

23 When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, all the leading men of your tribes and your elders came to me. 24 And you said, “The LORD our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even if God speaks with him. 25 But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer. 26 For what mortal man has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived? 27 Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says. Then tell us whatever the LORD our God tells you. We will listen and obey.”

28 The LORD heard you when you spoke to me and the LORD said to me, “I have heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was good. 29 Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!

They were terrified. Why? They saw the glory of the Lord and heard his voice from the fire.

And they knew they simply couldn’t take any more.

And, this is what really blows me away, Yahweh, the LORD, hears them say this, and He says “Yup. Accurate. “Everything they said was good.”

Is I Going to Die?

Now everything about this whole encounter is terrifying… but what led to the sure knowledge that they would simply die if they were in the presence of God any longer, if they stood near to listen?

Was it just the volume of God’s voice? If that were the case, you freak out at the second word. “I am the LORD” OOOOWOWWWW. Stop. Too loud. Moses, you go. You’re old and hard of hearing, God’s freaky loud voice isn’t too loud for you.

The voice maybe was awesome, awful, in every sense. The atmosphere was dramatic and terrifying. But the Israelites made it through the 10 words… and at that point, they knew they could hear no more.

What if it was, on top of the voice and the thunder and lightning, on top of all of that, they heard the content of God’s 10 words, his path of Righteousness, and KNEW that they were unrighteous.

With sudden clarity, they were rocking along, and they suddenly see… the barrier looming before them. And as God continues to speak, as conviction rocks their world, they realize they have smashed right off the path of righteousness. They are past the barrier, they are on the wrong side of this road.

And they are going to die. The experience of hearing the law, of seeing what Righteousness actually looks like… and then comparing it against my life. Of seeing God’s heart… and then seeing my heart.

Maybe they could convince themselves for the first few. No manipulating God through idols or manipulating others through his name? Well, that is most of the point of religion, but I suppose I could stop doing that.

No other gods? Kind of greedy, but this God seems pretty powerful, so we can do that.

Sabbath? We just sort of started that, and there’s not much choice with the Manna, so okay.

Honoring parents? Have you met my parents?

No murder? What about hatred, murder of the heart?

Absolute covenant faithfulness to my spouse? Have you met my spouse? What about in the secret of my imagination?

And it gets worse. No thieving. How are we going to get ahead in life? Integrity in dealing with one another, not bearing false witness.

And then… and this is so straight to the heart… no coveting what someone else owns. But that is the human experience? That is so much of life! That is so internal, so unenforceable, such a matter of the heart…

And if this is God’s standard… then I am on the wrong side of His boundary.

A descendant of these first hearers described his encounter with the law this way centuries later.

Romans 7:7-10

7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.

They were convicted. They knew they were unworthy of the presence of God. They were unworthy of the voice of God.

An Intercessor

And so… they begged for someone to stand between them and God. An intercessor. An intermediary. Someone to approach God and get the details while they nursed the death inside of them. While they recovered from conviction.

They sent one of them up before God to get all the details. And they swore that they would obey whatever came back down.

They were committed, they were convicted, they really were going to TRY. And why not? They had discovered their sin, they knew death awaited them, they were afraid… and few things motivate a human being like fear. And God knew this… He says this, and hear the yearning in it:

Deuteronomy 5:

29 Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!

They fear me, and rightly so, for I am terrifying. And what a starting point, if they stayed there, they could keep my commands and it would be so good for them…

But what is implied here. But they won’t. They won’t. Fear can get you started… but it can’t keep you going. Fear wears off. The strange and amazing spectacle of God… it becomes the mundane and tedious stuff of life. You get used to it. The people of Israel got used to manna miraculously appearing on the ground… and they got tired of that!

Fear can get you started… but it can’t keep you going.

And Moses was the greatest intercessor the people of Israel ever had. A prophet in a class all by himself. And he got the details, we’ll hear a bit about that. He saw a greater glimpse of God… we will hear about that.

But from this moment, from the start surely, God knew that Moses could never save His people.

“Oh… that they would keep my commands always…. Oh, if only that were the road… Oh, if only you humans could keep your promises like that… It would save you so much pain… So much death… so much darkness… Oh…”

The Ultimate Intercessor

And so… God sent his son. The intercessor. He chased after all those children who could not approach the mountain. Man could not approach the glory of God.

So God hid His glory in a Man.

Paul continues his encounter with the law with His encounter with the Intercessor. Law exposed the death within him, condemning him.

Romans 8:1-3

8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.

The fear at Mount Sinai was a starting place. Fear can get you started… but I can’t keep you going. Law can show you what Righteousness looks like, but only as one terrified, standing outside the bounds… and knowing there is no way to get back on the path of life.

Jesus picks you up off the side of the road. Cleans you up. Carries you back on to the Road of Righteousness and says “I’m going to drive.”

Imagine this in that context of Mount Doom. All the people terrified. The voice of God giving the Law. A Law laying out Righteousness…

But Jesus comes down from the mountain, grabs your hand, and says, “It’s okay, I’ve taken care of all of it. Now come see the top of the mountain, it’s amazing.”

Grace to You

Now, just maybe, in the weeks as we have studied these commandments… you have felt a little bit of conviction. A little bit of condemnation. We hear the Righteousness of God and we always find ourselves wanting. We fall short of the glory of God.

We know that. And we may tell ourselves at times that it doesn’t matter, but we still feel guilty. We still feel unlovable. We still feel that we don’t deserve grace or forgiveness. And you want to run away from the presence of God. From the voice of God.

Send someone else!