James P. Gills - Come Unto Me: Gods Call to Intimacy

CHAPTER 4
Meeting with the Master

G od sent Moses to Pharaoh, fully intending to bring the Israelites back to Himself. He promised Moses, When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain (Exodus 3:12). Mount Sinai was only a stopping place on their way to the Promised Land, but it was by far the most important stop.

The first leg of the journey lay behind them. God had taught them some basic principles by which they were to live, and He showed them that He was greater than every circumstance they would encounter. Now they were to learn that God wanted fellowship. While the Israelites camped at the foot of Mount Sinai, Moses received the following reminder from the Lord:

You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

EXODUS 19:46

There were those words, I brought you to Myself. God led the Israelites out, wanting them to enter that special place He had set aside for them. The offer was made, the promise extended, and the conditions stated. Obedience!

The people heard these words and readily agreed. Without considering the cost, and without the slightest hesitation, they declared, All that the LORD has spoken we will do (Exodus 19:8). Certainly their intentions were good, and the thought of being a kingdom of priests and a holy nation was sufficient enticement to warrant their desire for obedience. Their hearts were in the right place, but they did not yet understand the total transformation His holy love demanded.

God told Moses to get the people prepared for their meeting. To come into His presence they had to sanctify themselves and put aside all uncleanness for three days. Then God would descend upon the mountain and speak to Moses in their sight. Were they as ready for this encounter as they believed themselves to be? From the account in Scripture, it is obvious they were not.

Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.

EXODUS 19:1618

Even from where they stood at the foot of Mount Sinai, the reality of Gods presence was overpowering. Thunder rocked the mountain to its foundation, as fingers of lightning played upon the peaks. This was too much for the Israelites to take, especially without the comforting presence of either Moses or Aaron.

What happened while these two men of God were in the heights above? Even as God was declaring to them the Ten Commandments, the hearts of the Israelites were growing faint and their knees were weakened.

Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off.

EXODUS 20:18

God brought them to the mountain to meet with Him, but they chose not to remain. Nothing in the land of Egypt or their wilderness experience had prepared them for this. When Moses returned to them from the mountain, they were quick to say: You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die (Exodus 20:19).

There is a message here that every born-again Christian should understand. Although it is easier to be taught about God by another person, that is only second best. That is the way of the Old Covenant, where the priests were the only ones allowed into the tabernacle. It is not the way of the New. God calls each of His children into His presence to hear the voice of His Holy Spirit, to learn of Him, and to experience His love. Yes, we are to submit to the churchs divinely appointed leadership, but we are all to experience the fullness of a personal relationship with Him. In fact, because of Jesus, we can now come boldly before the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16).

How it must have grieved the Father-heart of God when His children ran in fear. How much more it must grieve Him today when we refuse to come to Him.

The presence of God is such that no man can enter it without being transformed. The Israelites sensed this. They knew that if they remained near the mountain, their innermost selves would be exposed. Then, if they remained, their selfish desires would fall aside, hindrances would dissolve, and they would become new creatures. When this realization dawned on them, any thought of their earlier promises of obedience faded.

With the establishing of the Law and the Ten Commandments came a new way of life. It was not intended to bring them into bondage. On the contrary, it was meant to set them free from every selfish delusion, to open their eyes to the awesome holiness of God, and to make preparation for the coming Messiah. By pointing out Gods call to holiness and mans inability to be holy in his own strength, the stage was set for the need of a Savior. Even as Christians, we experience the results of that same call.

At the moment of our second birth, we begin trying to serve God. We know very little about Him, but we give Him everything we haveincluding ourselvesand He leads us to the mountain to meet with Him. We, like the Israelites, must come to God and allow Him free rein in our hearts. We have an advantage over the Israelites of old because Jesus Christ sent the Holy Spirit to live and work within us. He gives the strength to endure the death of self and the uniting into the wounds of the Crucified One. As we saw earlier, death must come before new life can freely flow.

Jesus Christ, the Messiah, came to fulfill the requirements of the Old Covenant Law. In His Sermon on the Mount, He told the assembled multitudes:

Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

MATTHEW 5:1718

IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES FROM MOUNT SINAI

Mount Sinai holds such significance for the child of God that it is hard to say which particular aspect is central to all else. They are all important. There are, however, several points that form a distinctive core of truth that we should wholeheartedly embrace. Some of these we have already touched upon, so now we can bring them into focus to see what the overall picture reveals.

The giving of the Law and its fulfillment by Jesus Christ began on Mount Sinai in an encounter with the living God. We mentioned how the Old Covenant was to prepare the way for the New by revealing to each of us our own sinful nature. Even living under the New Covenant of grace, this mountaintop experience must take place within every believer. Just because we have been saved by grace does not mean that we have experienced all the intimacy that God invites us to experience. Too often we still depend on ourselves instead of Gods grace.

Even worse than this is the possibility of giving in to the all-too-common philosophy that holiness is beyond our grasp. Or, as the devil would have us believe, that because we are forgiven we need not worry about those little besetting sins. The devil would try to convince us that it is beyond our capacity to live holy lives. It is true that by an act of grace, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from our sin. However, when Jesus fulfilled the Law, He simply made it possible, through the power of the Holy Spirit, for every believer to be holy. If we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).