| HOLY AWE |
| Israel soon learned that it takes more than the natural birth into a Jewish family to belong to the people of God. There is nothing special or sacred in anybody's blood lines. God chose to reveal His word to Israel, and those who we willing to submit to His word would be identified as the Elect, the Chosen, the people of God. It would be difficult to imagine that any parent would proudly point at a son and say, "There is my child as this young man treated him with total disregard and showed no respect for what he had to say." One might love this son, but he would have to accept the reality that there is no relationship of a father-son nature. The broken relationship was due to the fact that the son was determined to go his own way, do his own thing with little regard for the father that loved him. God warned Abraham from the very beginning that there was something special about anyone marked as one of the Elect. He says in Genesis 17:10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee: every male among you shall be circumcised. In the 14th verse, the Holy One used circumcision as one example of the importance of obedience: And the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant. Despite the Father's great love for His children, He cannot have a loving relationship with the rebellious children. Despite the fact that our Father wants us to take His word seriously (This word eventually became flesh to die for us) Solomon made it clear in 1 Kings 8:46-50 that he dared approach his Father God as an imperfect human being in need of mercy and grace as he spoke for the Israelites: When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to the land of the enemy, far or near; yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of those who took them captive, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong, we have committed wickedness’; and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who led them away captive, and pray to You toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name: then hear in heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You, and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against You; and grant them compassion before those who took them captive, that they may have compassion on them. Luther is supposed to have used the expression Sin Boldly, but he did not mean to go out and violate God's word through sinful behavior without any limits. He meant that as sinful human beings we are to be bold in our confidence that our Father loves us and will provide for us the means we need to have victory over the sins that would destroy our relationship with our Creator. Rejoice in God's love and mercy, but remember also that the Almighty had Israel stand in His holy presence to give them a sense of awe and the need to be obedient sons and daughters. We can only wonder how they felt as they went to sleep knowing that they would stand before the Holy One the next day. There was probably a lot of twisting and turning as they sought to get some sleep. It was not long before God had their attention as they felt the ground shake, heard the thundering sound and watched fire descend from heaven onto the mountain. Just as they thought they had seen all they wanted they heard the trumpet of heaven (shofar) announcing God's arrival in their presence as the sound grew louder, louder and louder. Their hearts must have pounded as they shook in hear wondering what was going to happen to them once they were in God's holy presence. It was a sobering encounter with the living God, listening to His voice announce: “You shall have no other gods before Me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. “You shall not murder. “You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.” No wonder Luther introduced the explanation of each commandment with the phrase: You shall fear and love God . . . . At the time of the giving of these commandments, no one needed to be told this, but future generations tended to be forget what it means to stand in the presence of the Holy One. The problem with human beings is that they easily forget what it means to be accountable before God for their obedience to His word. It was only around 40 days later that these same people built a golden calf despite promising to obey God's commandment to have no other gods before him and not to make any images. These people would be punished severely for creating an idol. Some of them would humbly repent and serve their God, but most of them just tried to act like they were obedient. They may have been afraid to challenge God right away, but they did not love Him. God invites all of us to 'fear and love Him.' He does not want terrified children unaware of His mercy and grace. He does want obedient children who love Him so much they seek to know and do His will so they will honor Him as their Father. Prayer: Lord God, I offer you my heart, mind, soul and strength. Fill me with your Spirit and help me to live a life that brings honor to you as my Father God. Amen. |
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