The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice! Let the many coastlands be glad! Clouds and thick darkness are all around Him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. Fire goes before Him and burns up His adversaries all around. His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.
(Verses 1-5)
It was the third new moon after the Israelites were delivered from Egypt. On that day they entered the wilderness of Sinai and set up camp near the mountain. While the business of creating a campground carried on without him, Moses climbed Mount Sinai to be with God. "Tell the people this," declared God from out of the mountain. "You saw what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. So be obedient to My voice, keeping My covenant, and you will be My treasured possession forever, for all the earth is mine."
"Everything the Lord said we will do!" The people shouted it when Moses delivered God's message to them. And they meant it!
They were to consecrate themselves, clean up their bodies and their clothes, and wait for the Lord to come in a thick cloud. "I am coming in the cloud so that the people may hear when I speak to you," God told Moses. On the morning of the third day the Lord came as promised. Mount Sinai looked as though it would blow up. Lightning and thunder shook it to its foundations making the thousands and thousands of Israelites tremble in fear. "Don't touch the mountain or come near its edges!" ordered Moses as, out of nowhere, a trumpet blasted long and loud. The nation then came near the bottom of Mount Sinai, scared out of their wits. Awaiting a message from God--one that they could hear with their own ears. Suddenly the mountain was wrapped in smoke that came up from it as from a kiln, thick and dark like incense. It shook making the ground beneath their feet unsteady as they grabbed onto each other for balance. The trumpet blast grew louder and louder, filling the wilderness with its noise, as Moses and Aaron ascended the mountain's craggy heights toward its peak. Moses spoke to God and He answered the prophet in thunder as the mountain burned with the same holy fire Moses had seen in the burning bush. "I am the Lord your God Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me nor make for yourselves any images of gods. For I the Lord your God am a jealous God."
Later, in Deuteronomy 4, Moses recalls this event to the people and describes it this way: "You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud and gloom." They heard only a voice. No form to ogle. No face to recall. Just power manifested in sound and sights too vivid to forget. No image to conform an idol to. Bigger than our hearts can imagine is this God Who descended on Mount Sinai and made it quake and stagger like a drunk. Who could have melted it into a pile of oozing lava had He so desired. This God is too big to replicate. Too complicated to be hammered out into a golden image of His power. For He dwells in incomprehensible light as He rules all--Earth and every other universe, galaxy, planet and star. Our God doesn't want to be held in our hands nor worn around our necks. Our response to Him is reverence and obedience because when He comes to us in power we are reduced to the dust we are. But God came to the mountain to reveal Himself to His people. To let them hear Him--know Him. Because obedience to Him flows from our understanding that the fire of His presence flows to the heart of heaven. God decided to come to a mountain and nearly blow it up so that we could taste what it means to be near to Him. So in the shaking and quaking we'd understand not only God's omnipotence, but also grasp His desire to relate to us.
A God this powerful should indeed be worshipped. Is there another choice? I hear the coastlands every night clapping their hands as the sound of it lulls me to sleep. Earth gets it. So should we. Clap our hands and move out feet in praise to our God Who is able to melt rock and fling stars yet sets His foot on a mountaintop to mingle with our humanity. To say, "Serve and honor Me because I am omnipotent, yet I have chosen you. Carried you on the wings of a mother eagle as she catches her babies when they learn to fly. Delivered you from slavery by defying the very nature I set into motion. Love me back. You are my treasure."
And so God chose to live in their midst, in a tent, like they did. And smoke would come down upon it as Moses spoke with God as friend to friend. Fire led them by night and a cloud by day. God never forsook them. Kept His promises in the face of their broken ones. And all along He knew--even before the mutiny in the Garden--He'd step on Earth as man. This time the mountain wouldn't light up. Crack and spew and tremble. This time the mountain would be drenched in holy blood which would cry out to the heart of heaven to plead for redemption and grace because we broke all our promises to the Lord our God. Our God took the wrath His own holiness made necessary. In Christ, the Godhead paid the debt that His wrath at our sin demanded. Righteousness and justice are the foundations of His throne. They demand payment for our wayward walking. For the filthiness of our hearts, minds and actions. But the Lord our God, Who stands on holy mountains where trumpets blast His righteousness, satisfied His own requirements, dying in our place. God reigns over even His own plans for man. Over our disobedience and hubris. Like God bore up Israel on eagles' wings to deliver them from slavery, Jesus has borne our grief and carried our sorrows and stood between us and the evil one to buy us out of slavery to our own destruction. And the earth quaked and the sky turned black in the middle of the day. And from Mount Golgotha God spoke once again. "It is finished." And the love of God ushered out the wrath of God. The New Covenant bought by His blood that reaches to the heart of heaven.
(Verses 1-5)
It was the third new moon after the Israelites were delivered from Egypt. On that day they entered the wilderness of Sinai and set up camp near the mountain. While the business of creating a campground carried on without him, Moses climbed Mount Sinai to be with God. "Tell the people this," declared God from out of the mountain. "You saw what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. So be obedient to My voice, keeping My covenant, and you will be My treasured possession forever, for all the earth is mine."
"Everything the Lord said we will do!" The people shouted it when Moses delivered God's message to them. And they meant it!
They were to consecrate themselves, clean up their bodies and their clothes, and wait for the Lord to come in a thick cloud. "I am coming in the cloud so that the people may hear when I speak to you," God told Moses. On the morning of the third day the Lord came as promised. Mount Sinai looked as though it would blow up. Lightning and thunder shook it to its foundations making the thousands and thousands of Israelites tremble in fear. "Don't touch the mountain or come near its edges!" ordered Moses as, out of nowhere, a trumpet blasted long and loud. The nation then came near the bottom of Mount Sinai, scared out of their wits. Awaiting a message from God--one that they could hear with their own ears. Suddenly the mountain was wrapped in smoke that came up from it as from a kiln, thick and dark like incense. It shook making the ground beneath their feet unsteady as they grabbed onto each other for balance. The trumpet blast grew louder and louder, filling the wilderness with its noise, as Moses and Aaron ascended the mountain's craggy heights toward its peak. Moses spoke to God and He answered the prophet in thunder as the mountain burned with the same holy fire Moses had seen in the burning bush. "I am the Lord your God Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me nor make for yourselves any images of gods. For I the Lord your God am a jealous God."
Later, in Deuteronomy 4, Moses recalls this event to the people and describes it this way: "You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud and gloom." They heard only a voice. No form to ogle. No face to recall. Just power manifested in sound and sights too vivid to forget. No image to conform an idol to. Bigger than our hearts can imagine is this God Who descended on Mount Sinai and made it quake and stagger like a drunk. Who could have melted it into a pile of oozing lava had He so desired. This God is too big to replicate. Too complicated to be hammered out into a golden image of His power. For He dwells in incomprehensible light as He rules all--Earth and every other universe, galaxy, planet and star. Our God doesn't want to be held in our hands nor worn around our necks. Our response to Him is reverence and obedience because when He comes to us in power we are reduced to the dust we are. But God came to the mountain to reveal Himself to His people. To let them hear Him--know Him. Because obedience to Him flows from our understanding that the fire of His presence flows to the heart of heaven. God decided to come to a mountain and nearly blow it up so that we could taste what it means to be near to Him. So in the shaking and quaking we'd understand not only God's omnipotence, but also grasp His desire to relate to us.
A God this powerful should indeed be worshipped. Is there another choice? I hear the coastlands every night clapping their hands as the sound of it lulls me to sleep. Earth gets it. So should we. Clap our hands and move out feet in praise to our God Who is able to melt rock and fling stars yet sets His foot on a mountaintop to mingle with our humanity. To say, "Serve and honor Me because I am omnipotent, yet I have chosen you. Carried you on the wings of a mother eagle as she catches her babies when they learn to fly. Delivered you from slavery by defying the very nature I set into motion. Love me back. You are my treasure."
And so God chose to live in their midst, in a tent, like they did. And smoke would come down upon it as Moses spoke with God as friend to friend. Fire led them by night and a cloud by day. God never forsook them. Kept His promises in the face of their broken ones. And all along He knew--even before the mutiny in the Garden--He'd step on Earth as man. This time the mountain wouldn't light up. Crack and spew and tremble. This time the mountain would be drenched in holy blood which would cry out to the heart of heaven to plead for redemption and grace because we broke all our promises to the Lord our God. Our God took the wrath His own holiness made necessary. In Christ, the Godhead paid the debt that His wrath at our sin demanded. Righteousness and justice are the foundations of His throne. They demand payment for our wayward walking. For the filthiness of our hearts, minds and actions. But the Lord our God, Who stands on holy mountains where trumpets blast His righteousness, satisfied His own requirements, dying in our place. God reigns over even His own plans for man. Over our disobedience and hubris. Like God bore up Israel on eagles' wings to deliver them from slavery, Jesus has borne our grief and carried our sorrows and stood between us and the evil one to buy us out of slavery to our own destruction. And the earth quaked and the sky turned black in the middle of the day. And from Mount Golgotha God spoke once again. "It is finished." And the love of God ushered out the wrath of God. The New Covenant bought by His blood that reaches to the heart of heaven.
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