Imagine for a moment. I want you to be a time traveler. You are a saint. Part of the Church - Christ’s Body. Justified. But you are going back in time to the wilderness. The wilderness that Israel wandered in for forty years. Hold on to that thought for a moment.
You are now an Israelite. You are at the base of Mt. Sinai. The entire nation is gathered around the Mount. It is time for God to give the Law.
You wait, with millions of your people, for God to descend.
You wait for God’s presence on the mount.
You wait for Him to come and speak with you - His people.
But you wait at a distance. This mountain will be inhabited by Yahweh’s Shekinah glory at any minute. Everyone stays well away. No one dares approach such holy ground.
And you continue waiting.
He is coming.
The God who brought you out of slavery is coming to speak. With you.
What will it be like?
And the ground begins to quiver. Just gently at first. Then it trembles. It rolls beneath you. You stumble to your knees. Black clouds race in like a terrible army and obscure the sun.
But there is a light. There - above the mountain. It grows closer. It fills the mountain. It seems almost that the mountain itself is on fire. A dreadful heat pushes at you. Deep, black clouds churn wildly. Lighting pours on the mountain like a rain storm. You shield your eyes.
Yahweh has come.
And then…the noise - the noise begins. A noise of great howling winds - the winds of the most fearful storm. It chills you to your bones. The roar of flames. It seems to be a fire ready to consume you. The rush of a thousand waterfalls. You can no longer hear your own thoughts. The yell of a battle cry that cuts through your soul. The sound of a thousand warriors marching. It is earth shattering and devastatingly beautiful. The sound cannot be described, but it strikes fear in you like never before.
Yahweh is speaking.
And you can not stand it. If He does not stop speaking, the sound might kill you. You feel smaller and smaller. Yet not small enough. You wish you could disappear. You shrink from the voice, but you can not back far enough away. The voice is like a vice around your body. Your head pounds and sweat drips down your back. Your legs hurt from trembling. Your mouth is too dry to suck in air. You’re suffocating.
Children cry. Mothers wail. Men bow their faces to the ground in fear and shame. The animals join in the cacophony and protest the thundering. A dog gets loose and runs in panic directly for the mount. No sooner does it touch the flaming rock, than it is incinerated. Nothing can touch the holy mount and live.
Still, He speaks.
You are overcome with your own unholiness. Your head burns and your throat constricts. You feel you might be sick. Every fiber of your being screams at you. Run. Hide your face. Shrivel into nothingness. Disappear. Be gone! Moan and writhe in agony for every cell in your body is at enmity with the Living God in whose presence you now stand! You are sinful. You are so small and worthless and so…nothing. Utterly sinful and wrong. And Yahweh is here. On the mount. Speaking. He is here in glory and power and terror.
Such small, inadequate words for the awesomeness of His presence.
He is here in infinite holiness.
You can not even begin to grasp the concept of true, undefiled holiness. What is infinite holiness?
You try to glimpse the mount and instantly you bury your face again. Your eyes burn from the searing brightness. And yet, you and your people are suffocating in darkness. Your limbs feel like lead weights. The darkness pushes you down to the ground. You try to cry out for the voice to cease, but your lips won’t move. Your voice is paralyzed.
And you are covered in filth. Putrid, sticky, wretched filth. Your own sins cover you like so much vomit. You can’t stand your own smell. You stand there, in the presence of the God who breathes out galaxies, in nothingness. Bare and vulnerable and so weak, you may as well be dead. In fact, you wish for death. You would pray for it if you dared. But it will not come.
Stop. Wait a moment.
You are not actually an Israelite. Remember? Do you remember who you really are?
The voice calls your name. Yours.
“Come,” He thunders.
He calls you to step forward. The crowd parts. You look up. You take one step towards the burning mount. And another. And another. You've left the masses behind you now. The heat is growing. But Yahweh has summoned you onto His holy ground. He called your name. The heat and light grow stronger. Your pace quickens. Your heart catches in your throat.
“Come boldly,” He beckons you.
Closer to the mountain - to the roar and the trembling rock and the pouring lighting.
How can you keep moving closer? You will die. Yahweh has commanded you to come forward, to be destroyed. So you walk forward to your death.
And you look down at your filth - but it is gone. You are clean. Your skin is smooth and soft and flawless. Your rags have disappeared. You are dressed in the softest, purest white. Suddenly, from nowhere, strength pulses through your veins. Boldness enters your heart. You begin to laugh. And to run. You run towards the mount. You are clothed in the righteousness of your Savior. You are forgiven. And accepted. And loved. You have been declared worthy. You are now called the righteousness of God in Christ. You have been redeemed from all your worthlessness. You no longer need to tremble when faced with the very holiness of God Almighty. Yahweh speaks to you - to you - to come be with Him. You step on the foot of the mountain and climb. You race for the top. The intensity of the heat is unbelievable - and yet you are not hurt. The light is blinding, and yet you stare right at it. The voice still shakes the earth, but now you tremble with joy. Faster. Climb faster. The Creator has asked for your presence on top of His mountain. He wants to sit and talk with you. He wants to be with you. Because you have been made worthy. You share in His holiness. The holiness that shakes the earth and rips the sky apart, has been bestowed upon you.
Yahweh sits on his holy mount and waits for your presence. Come boldly before the dreadful and wonderful God, because you who have trusted in Christ, have been made worthy. Dear child of the living God, come boldly!
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