“Access to Climb the Dreadful Mountain of God”

Exodus 19:17  “Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God…”

It makes me nauseas that human beings (myself included) don’t really care to meet God.  We are either apathetic to the cosmic bombs of God’s glory that are going off just before our eyes…. or we are blind to them. 

Israel was not blind nor apathetic to the spectacular glory of God exploding before their eyes in Exodus 19, no they weren’t blind at all.  Rather, they were terrified.  God had just rained down his wrath on Egypt in 10 mighty plagues and rescued his people from slavery.  Now in Exodus 19 the people of Israel stand before Mount Sinai and God comes down to reveal himself.  God comes down in a thick cloud (v.9) and commands that everyone consecrate their selves and wash their clothes (v.10), he commands that no one even touch the edge of the mountain, and if they do they must be put to death (v.12).  And not just any death, but the person (or animal) that touches the mountain where God is must be shot or stoned because no one can even lay a hand on this damned individual (v.13).  When God comes down there is thunder, lightening, a thick cloud, and a loud trumpet blast that causes everyone in the camp to tremble with fear (v.16).  God descends on Mount Sinai in fire and smoke rises up all around as the entire mountain shakes violently (v.18).  The trumpet blast grows louder and louder and the people are warned again not to cross the limits that have been placed for if they do God himself will break out against them and they will perish (v.21).

How great is our God that he has made a way through his son and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that we may now cross over the limits that Israel could not and climb this dreadful and awesome mountain of God!  As we climb the glory only gets more majestic and more intense.  Every step that we take up this awe filled mountain we are stunned by the mighty power of our God.  We are blown away that as we climb, this mountain continues to tremble and the fire continues to burn but because we are covered with the blood of Christ we are not harmed, rather we are caught up into this glorious journey of seeking our Almighty God.  This journey should daily take our breath away.

The sad reality is that we have lost this desire to climb the mountain of God in our Christianity today.  Instead of realizing that the blood of Christ gives us access to climb this awesome and dreadful mountain without being incinerated, we have falsely understood the blood of Christ to pacify this mountain.  Once we have embraced this horribly wrong docile view of God, we have become blind to how marvelous he is, and we are now wandering in the dessert trying to satisfy our desire for splendor with other things. 

God is not docile, simple, or tame.  He is extraordinarily powerful, eternally complex, and very dangerous.  If you look at Christ’s death on the cross these things will become apparent.  Trust in Christ and know that his death and resurrection gives you access to climb this glorious mountain.  We will climb it for all of eternity and we will never ceased to be amazed at our amazing our God is.