This week we will be exploring Exodus 20:18-26, Hearing the Voice of God. Last week we finished the Ten Commandments but we didn't finish chapter 20. We will be examining these verses this Sunday as well as introducing the next section of Exodus, the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 21-23). So if you are following along in the study guide, then you have an extra week to catch up 🙂! Let's again imagine the scene at Mount Sinai. Israel, a motley bunch of redeemed slaves who have seen God's miraculous hand in numerous ways, arrive at Mount Sinai. They have spent 50 days in the desert. They have experienced hunger, thirst, and war. But, in each situation, God has shown His grace to them and provided in ways that they could only stand in awe of. Now they gather around Mount Sinai to hear God's voice. The whole nation is there--men, women, and children. God, their Sovereign King, speaks from the mountain in all His power and holiness. The earth shakes. The mountain smokes. Lightning flashes. And the voice of God thunders from the heavens. Ten Words. Ten Commandments. Ten Rules to govern all of their relationships, to God, to their family, to one another. Now the people shake. I can only imagine that God's voice not only overwhelmed them in its power, authority, and volume but it also pierced deep into their hearts. They must have heard the words and felt their weakness and sinfulness at the same time. When God is done speaking, the people are more ready to run than to obey. But Moses steps in as their mediator. He is both God's prophet and their priest. The one who led a bunch of wandering, stubborn sheep up the mountain a year earlier is now leading a wandering, stubborn flock of people in the very same place. While the people drew back, Moses drew near. We will look at the fear of God, the mediation of Moses, and the book of the covenant this Sunday. This will give us a good introduction to the next three chapters of Exodus which are sometimes hard to understand and to interpret. Thank God that we have even a greater Prophet, Priest, and Mediator than Moses! And because of our Mediator's work on the cross, we do not not have to draw back but are invited to draw near, into the very presence of the holy, powerful, sovereign Creator God! This Sunday we will also celebrate communion together as blood-bought, beloved, redeemed sheep of God! May God stir our hearts to sing His praise!
