Let not God speak with us, lest we die

Moses had gone up the mountain, where the Lord had given the ten commandments among thunderings, lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When they saw it, the people trembled. And they told Moses “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (Exodus 20:1-19). Moses had brought the people out to meet with God, and the sound of the trumpet had been very loud, the smoke had gone up like a furnace, and the mountain itself had trembled (19:16-18). All this had, to coin a phrase, put the fear of God into the people, and in a sense who could blame them. But in fact what they were doing was choosing rules over relationship. And the problem, if we do that, is that it is His rules, not ours. And the people were saying not only will we listen, but we will obey, for this is the force of the Hebrew word listen.

We can still choose rules over relationship, but we need to realize it is His rules, and that there needs to be perfect obedience. “For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend on one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). Good luck with that! There is none of this “He will balance my good works with my bad,” or “I'm a good person.” For “there is none good but God,” and “we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Matthew 19:17; Romans 3:23). God does not want to improve us, He wants to kill us “for he who has died to sin, is alive to God” (Romans 6:11, 13). In fact Christ “died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:15).

But was it really necessary to scare the living daylights out of the people? Well, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). And since our propensity is to go astray (Isaiah 63:6), the Lord in His wisdom uses both the carrot and the stick to wake us up and bring us to our senses. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10), and I for one want to be clothed in His righteousness on that day (Isaiah 61:10; Philippians 3:9). But in any case, I will choose relationship over rules I cannot possibly obey any day. I need to fear, but I need to let His perfect love case it out (1 John 4:18).

Father, thank You that You cursed the earth for my sake (Genesis 3:17 NKJV). You twerked reality so that poor choices produce bad consequences (Galatians 6:7). And it was the consequences of my poor choices, and my inability to keep the law that showed me my need of You. Thank You Lord. Thank You that You are no celestial Scrooge, but that at Your right hand are pleasures for ever more. I know Lord that in this world I will have trouble, but I thank You too, that You have overcome the world in Jesus Name Amen