And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.  And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.  And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.

Moses Goes Between

Even far away from the Mountain of God, the Hebrews cannot bear the power, fury and awe of the presence of the Holy God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They cry out Moses, You speak with us and we will hear you, but do not let God speak with us, or we will be killed.

The people directly hear the voice of the One who spoke the universe into existence from nothing. They see the power of his presence in the fire, smoke and lightning upon the mountain, and yes it terrorizes them.

They can understand first hand what Paul describes in Hebrews 10:30-31 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

The Ten Words of God are spoken aloud but the people can’t bear the words because of their fear. They are rightly afraid of the voice of the holy and righteous God. And they and we also should be afraid.

On their own they cannot face God. They plead with Moses to go for them. He will go up, into the dark clouds, the fire, and the smoke. Moses will go into God’s presence and bring back the Law of God.

Without Moses the people have no one to act on their behalf. No one who can intercede with God. No one who can speak directly to God. Only Moses, God’s chosen servant, can act as a go-between. In Moses they have hope.

Jesus Our Intercessor

Like the people at Mt Sinai, we stand today before a holy and righteous God. No, we can’t experience Him as they did. To be honest with you I wouldn’t want to, any more than I would want to stand below a volcano as it erupts in fire or a tornado as it falls from above and destroys everything in it’s path. But I can experience the power, the fury, the holiness, the judgment of God here in this Book which contains not only the 10 words of the commandments, but all the words of God given to us throughout the ages.

In this Book, the Word of God, I find that just as there was a barrier to keep the people from the Mountain of God, there is also a barrier that prevents me from going to where God is, a barrier that the law shows me.

Isaiah 59:2 puts it this way, But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

Like the angel’s sword that kept Adam and Eve from reentering the garden, like the gulf that Jesus described in the story of the beggar Lazarus there is a separation between us and God, the vast gulf of our sin.

Like the children of Israel we hear the Ten Commandments. We hear and know that we are guilty and that guilt means I cannot approach the Holy and righteous God. What hope then can we have? Where is our Moses, our mediator? Who is worthy enough to ascend to God? Who is loving enough to bring down grace and forgiveness instead of judgment and wrath?

There is One, who declared Himself mightier than Moses. One who came down to earth from the Father’s throne, One who lived with us and showed love, mercy and grace. That one is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Very God of Very God, God in the flesh.

John wrote in his Gospel, John 1:14 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

John calls Jesus the Word because like the revelation of God on Mt Sinai that day, Jesus is the revealed God to us.

He also is our mediator. Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 2:4-6  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.  For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;  Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

In Jesus we have hope. God knew that we could not keep the law. He knew that we could not come up to him, and so He come down to us through Jesus Christ. God’s own Son took on human flesh became a man and lived a life without sin. He fulfilled the law that we could not keep. He then laid that sinless life upon a cross to be crucified for us. He paid the price for our sin, our failure to live up the standard of God’s holiness. Only He could do that. He died on Calvary that we might live.

The same prophet Isaiah who saw God high and lifted up in the Temple also saw the One who would make us able to be with God. Isaiah 53:3-6  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

We must go to our mediator, Jesus. We must see our sin, so clearly made visible by the unmerciful law, our sin laid up the sinless shoulders of Jesus and there in our sorrow and shame, our fear and our failure, there find the mercy of God only the Son can bring to us.