17 And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.
18 Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
None of us can fully grasp how holy and glorious God is. I read this passage this morning. It got me to thinking about how casually we come into God's presence. Have we lost the fear of the Lord? Do we revere Jehovah? Do we really know Him or press in to know Him?
He is greater than we know. He does not fit into our box. He is grander than we have ever thought. We are ever going to truly discover Him we need His help. We need Him to reveal Himself to us. We also need Him to elevate our minds to be able to think about how grand He is.
Who can fathom His greatness. God came down to meet Moses. God warned the people not to step on the mountain. He invited Moses to meet Him on Mount Sinai. There was thunder, lightening and a thick cloud on the mountain as God made His entrance. The people were frightened witnessing all t this.
Mount Sinai was enveloped in smoke because Yahweh descended in fire on it. The whole mountain shook and quaked violently in the presence of the Almighty. A sense of holy awe settles over me even writing about it.
Several years ago I preached a youth camp where we worshipped outdoors. One night I preached on this very passage. Suddenly a thunderstorm whipped out of nowhere. The sky lit up with lightening and the ground shook from the thunder. Soon the rain pounded that little tabernacle. The noise of it all grew so loud I had to stop preaching for awhile. I was powerless to speak over the thunder and the rain on the tin roof.
The scene on Mount Sinai dwarfed what happened at that youth camp. Yet think of how causally people enter into devotions and public worship. We do not act like a holy, majestic, righteous and glorious God is in the midst. What if just once God manifested His presence like He did on Sinai or at the dedication of the temple after King Solomon's prayer? We shake in our boots.
It is hard to eve write this. The words fail me. I am awed but my vocabulary cannot capture the intensity of that thought adequately. It impacted the way I prayed this morning. I had to repent. I spent more time in private worship than in petitioning Jehovah for anything.
He is so much more than we know and have ever experienced. Do we really want to know Him? Do we dare to keep drawing nearer? He is greater than my imagination can conceive. We cannot think thoughts that lofty without His revelation and elevation of our minds. That is what I am asking for all of us. More revelation of Him. More elevation of minds to think about Him.
No comments:
Post a Comment