Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”-Exodus 20:20
Today’s post marks the completion of my treatment of the 10 Words of God, and boy what a roller coaster ride that was!
I don’t know about you but I definitely experienced a couple of major paradigm shifts in my thinking while closely studying these commandments.
While much of what I studied reinforced what I already knew or thought to be true, many other assumptions were completely overturned.
That’s what happens when you take the time to sit down and read the Word of God for yourself, instead of relying on church doctrine or what is force fed to you from the pulpit.
Well, it had been a tremendous day for Israel!
The people had not only heard YHVH speak to them in His own thunderous voice, but He had manifested Himself via an awesome display of violent thunder and lightning.
The people were literally trembling with fear.
In fact, they were so afraid that they asked Moses to speak to God for them.
This raises the question of why would YHVH put on such a terrifying display of power and glory?
Did He want the people to be afraid of Him?
Well, Moses answers that question in verse 20 and he starts by telling the people to “not be afraid”.
He gives three reasons why the Lord is appearing to the people in such an intimidating and awesome display of power and might.
First, it was “to test” or to put Israel “on trial”.
The Hebrew word for trial here is NACAH.
However, it does not mean that the Lord is gleefully throwing challenges or obstacles into lives, seeing how we handle them, and then depending on how we do, judging us.
It is more about the Lord gradually teaching us His justice system and how to walk in His ways.
We’re talking about the growth process every believer must go through AFTER salvation.
Second, God is displaying His might because the people should have a healthy fear of God.
There should be a solemn reverence for His Holiness and of course confidence in God’s power to help us in times of need.
Again, I’m talking about a “healthy” fear here.
Those that truly love God and earnestly seek to do His will never need to have a horror of God.
Third, the Lord through the 10 Words and the 600 or so “commands” to follow is demonstrating to the people what His holy nature is all about.
Through the Lord’s Torah or His “teaching”, Israel will now be able to develop their own unique philosophy, culture and religious doctrines SEPARATE from their pagan neighbors.
But more importantly, Israel will also learn how to live a life that does NOT offend or transgress against the Holy One.
They will learn how to walk in obedience to God.
And again, I’m not talking about obeying God’s commands as a means to achieve salvation.
I remind you that Israel has already been saved by faith through grace.
I’m talking about post-salvation obedience here.
Finally, the Lord tells Moses to remind the people of two things.
That it was He Himself that spoke all these words.
And that these words were not just directed to Moses but to ALL the people.
It was done publicly, so there would be no doubt that these Words were from HASHEM.
Potters Clay;;; 3/15/2016 is really 7001-7002..
For those that have eyes to see and ears to hear… Just a thought, that will come to pass…
The word for “fear” in those days means to “”Have Reverence” for your Creator.. and “Know That I AM GOD…”””!!!!!
It does not mean to fear for life or death, or fears of the mind, or awed at death… It is appointed once for man to die…GOD Raised His only begotten Son of GOD your Creator.. Fear means !! Respect for your life” given to God that which is come from God.. “he who has eyes to see and ears to hear… Shalom… Potters Clay I am just a messenger ..
Wake up the Vergin Church Bride;;; Jesus is comming , to get your “OIL” be Watching””
Virgin Church Bride Sorry, i am just a simple man.. Shalom
>>>>While much of what I studied reinforced what I already knew or thought to be true, many other assumptions were completely overturned.
That’s what happens when you take the time to sit down and read the Word of God for yourself, instead of relying on church doctrine or what is force fed to you from the pulpit.<<< Wonderful! A man after my own heart. I had to get rid of a lot of teachings in order to hear God speak. The teachings I had learned were blocking my understanding, which gave new meaning to "The god of this world have blinded their eyes and stopped their ears". The false teaching of modern christianity had blocked my understanding and blinded me to seeing what was written. I seek truth and God honored it,"Seek me and you will find me". One I threw off the false teachings the Revelations began to flow and things that had puzzled me for years now made sense.
Thanks for sharing Pastor Russ!
>>>And again, I’m not talking about obeying God’s commands as a means to achieve salvation.<<<>>I remind you that Israel has already been saved by faith through grace.<<< Israel was Saved as long as they maintained the Laws of God and Laws of Moses. The word "Grace" just means "Favor". When God "Favors" us it means that all that He has is granted to us, because of that "Favor". What is He granting us by favor? The ability to be "Delivered from evil". The modern concepts of eternal punishment and forgiveness of sins [plural] is not a biblical concept. It only becomes a concept when the definitions are changed to support extra biblical suppositions. Much of modern christianity teachings are build upon and only upon suppositions.
Once I began to see God for who He was, there was no fear. The creator of the universe has other things to do than get me. People are so fearful of God seeking them out and punishing them. They are not that important that the Creator who spans all of time and space needs to focus in on them. When people understand that the known universe is about 12.6 billion years old and that it spans 12.6 billion light years across and it takes the most fit of us to run a 3min mile and the creator fills all with His presence, there is nothing to fear. My finite little mind and body is not something that God is going to be bent out of shape about. The ultimate goal of our Creator is to bring us into His world and see and understand from His perspective.