Up Close and Personal with Yahweh

In Exodus 19, the Israelites come to the Wilderness of Sinai three months after leaving Egypt.  They camp before the mountain of God.

Moses went up to God, and received instructions:

Y'all have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought y'all to Myself.

Now obey my voice and keep my covenant - for the whole earth is mine - but y'all shall be my own peculiar possession and treasure from among and above all people.

Y'all shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.  Tell this to the Israelites.

And Moses gathered the elders, and all the people answered, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do."

Then Moses pack-muled that answer back to God.

God promised Moses that He would proclaim this promise to Moses before all the people (so they will believe you and remain steadfast forever.

The people sanctified themselves for two days, washing themselves and their clothes, and abstaining from sex - in order to be ready for a visit from God on the third day.

On the third morning, there was thunder and lightning, and a thick cloud upon Mount Sinai, and a very loud trumpet blast.  The Lord descended to the mountain in fire and the whole mountain quaked.  This whole time, the trumpet blast kept getting louder.

Exodus 20

The God spoke the words (of the Commandments)

Meanwhile, the people heard and felt and saw the thunder and lightning, and the blast of the trumpet, and the earthquakes and the smoking mountain.  They trembled with fear - fell back and stood afar off.

And they said to Moses: You speak to us and we will listen. But don't let God speak to us, lest we die.

That's the easiest way for humanity to relate to God: from far away - lest we die.  The raw power and holiness of God is uncomfortable, even deadly, to a fallen human.

The Israelites felt, at least a little, of the fear that Adam and Eve experienced as they were hiding in the Garden.  They instinctively reached out for Moses as a mediator between themselves and God.

The God we can meet without experiencing fear and awe is not the Living God; instead it's a God of our own imagination and construction.