Drawing Near #1
Lessons from Mt. Horeb
(Some ideas from Drawing Near, John Bevere)
Exodus 19-20, 33, Deuteronomy 5
SCRIPTURE READING: Exodus 19:3-6
INTRODUCTION:
Last summer … when I was on Sabbatical … I read a book called Drawing Near by John Bevere. The main thing I got from that time away was a fresh understanding of how much God desires to have a personal connection with me. That is something that is hard to comprehend. I know enough about God’s Nature to believe that he LOVES me. I know that He is willing to SAVE me. But to think that he really ENJOYS the idea of being close to me … to think that God actually TREASURES time spent with me … now that is something hard for me to understand.
Today I want to look at some familiar scenes from the Old Testament … but I want to look at them in a new way. We all know how God chose Moses to lead the Children of Israel out of slavery. We remember the Burning Bush, the 10 Plagues on Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, and so on …
But WHAT MOTIVATED GOD to do all of that? What did God WANT out of the bargain? Amazingly, what we’re going to see is that what God wanted was very simple. God wanted a to get up-close and personal with His People.
First, let’s examine the scene at the burning bush.
1. The scene at the burning bush - God Instigates a Relationship
At the beginning of Exodus chapter 3, we see Moses tending sheep on the back side of the desert. He’s minding his own business when suddenly God instigates contact with him. God catches his attention with a Bush that won’t stop Burning. Moses could have ignored this strange sight, but instead, he drew near. And when he did, God spoke to him --- audibly --- from the bush.
Most of us know that at this point God told Moses to go back to Egypt and rescue the Israelite slaves. But I had never stopped to notice the REASON God wanted to do this. Look at Exodus 3:12 where God told Moses, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
Now, “this mountain” was Mount Horeb --- also known as Mount Sinai. God wanted to bring His People to the Mountain for one purpose … so they could draw close to Him in worship.
Which takes us to the next familiar scene of Moses before Pharaoh.
2. The scene of Moses before Pharaoh - God Issues an Invitation
Once again, most of us are familiar with the scene of Moses standing before Pharaoh demanding: Let my people go! But look at exactly what Moses said to Pharaoh in Exodus 5:1 “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ’Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.’”
I must admit, I usually blew past that verse because I thought the big deal is that God wanted to get His People to the Promised Land … the land flowing with milk and honey that would some day belong to them.
But I see now that the FIRST thing God wanted was a big worship celebration. Do you see how significant that is? God wanted to “party” with his people! It’s as if He sent the Israelites a special Invitation to a big party given in His honor.
Look at the loving way God worded this special invitation. In Exodus 19, we see God opening His heart to show how much he values these invited guests. God told Moses, "This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: ’You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you [a] will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites." Exodus 19:3-6
Do you see how God is revealing his heart to his people? God made Himself vulnerable by showing how much he loved them. He called them His treasured possession. He honored them by calling them a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. He showed how much he cared for them by saying, I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.
Getting these beloved guests to his big Worship Party was important to God. Think of all the trouble He went to in order to clear the way for His People to attend: He sent Moses and Aaron to tell Pharaoh “Let my people go.” He sent 10 plagues to convince Pharaoh to just say “yes!” He parted the Red Sea, led the way with a cloud and a pillar or fire. He fed them manna every morning and made sure their clothes wouldn’t wear out.
He did all this in order to get them to the address of the big party: Mount Horeb … the same place where he originally spoke to Moses from a Burning Bush. Exactly 3 months after they left Egypt, the Israelites set up camp at the foot of Mount Horeb. Now, most of us are also familiar with this next scene. For one thing, Mt. Horeb (Mt. Sinai) is where God gave the TEN COMMANDMENTS to His People. But we’re going to look at some less-familiar details about the scene at Mount Horeb.
3. The scene at Mount Horeb - God honors our response
Picture this: the invited guests have finally assembled at the foot of the Mountain of God. They have spent 3 days preparing for the big event. They are wearing freshly cleaned clothes. They have all been through special cleansing ceremonies. They are finally ready to meet the ONE who invited them to His party. They are ready to meet the ONE who expressed His love to them and who rescued them with power and miracles. Moses warned the people not to try to force their way up the mountain because the ONE they were about to meet deserved complete respect and awe.
Then God Himself came and spoke to them. Look at the description of this scene in Exodus 19: Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Horeb was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him. Exodus 19:17-19
This entire group of people … probably about 2 million of them … actually HEARD the voice of God. Do you know what God said to them? He gave them the 10 Commandments. Most of us know that the 10 commandments were chiseled in stone when God gave them to Moses at the top of the mountain. (They were written on stone twice, in fact --- since Moses threw the first tablets down in anger because of the Israelites’ sin.)
What we may not realize is that before the 10 Commandments were written in stone, God himself RECITED them out loud to all the people! God did not want them to have any doubt about where those commandments came from. He wanted them to know His heart and His nature FIRST HAND. God wanted to connect with His people in a direct and personal way.
God wants --- in fact, he passionately wants --- to connect with us in a very real and personal way. God instigates the relationship. He issues the invitation. But then God will wait for our response to him. But what happened next shows us that God will not force us into a personal relationship with Him.
a. The Israelites drew back
Moses and God had planned a worship experience unlike any ever planned before. In a very literal way, God showed up at church and preached the sermon himself. But look at how the Children of Israel responded when God spoke to them:
When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die." Exodus 20:18-19
These people actually HEARD the very voice of God. But such a close connection with God was NOT what they wanted. The same guests God had invited to His party basically said, “We’d rather party among ourselves over here …while you and your friend Moses stay way over there…” What a bitter disappointment that must have been to the God who wanted to draw near to His people.
This was a heart-breaker to both God and Moses. But look at the gracious way God responded. Moses told the people, The LORD heard you when you spoke to me and the LORD said to me, "I have heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was good (well-said or true).
The next thing God said shows his deep disappointment. I can hear these words being said with a sigh: Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever! Deuteronomy 5:28-29
These people had a certain kind of fear of God, but it was not the right kind. They were terrified of God. They wanted to avoid him. This showed that they still did not understand the nature of God. What a sad and anti-climactic event we see here. The Worship Service that might have been greater than anything ever experienced before ended --- not with a bang --- but with a whimper … God said, “Moses, send them back to their tents. The party is over.”
But the story doesn’t end there. Look at the difference between the response of the People and the response of Moses. The People drew back from God. But Moses drew near.
b. Moses drew near
Look at what God said to Moses: "Go, tell them to return to their tents. But you stay here with me… Deuteronomy 5: 30-31 And that’s exactly what Moses did. God gave Moses an invitation to draw near, and Moses took Him up on that invitation.
While the people went to their tents and ate their Manna sandwiches, Moses stayed at the worship party and enjoyed direct communication with His God.
Look at this incredible description of the relationship that developed between Moses and God: The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Exodus 33:11 Isn’t that incredible?
THAT is what God really wants. God wants an actual FRIENDSHIP with you and with me. THAT is the nature of our God.
CONCLUSION:
I saw a vivid example recently of someone who had NO understanding of the Nature of God. The example came from a recent movie called Grizzly Man. It was a documentary about a man named Timothy Treadwell who spent 13 summers in a wilderness park in Alaska because he loved Grizzly bears and wanted to live among them. (Unfortunately, the story had a “grizzly” ending because he and his girlfriend were killed and eaten by a bear.)
The part of the show that stands out in my mind was Timothy Treadwel’s attempt to pray to God. Most of the movie was made up of video he shot of himself. In this case, he filmed himself praying for rain. Because of a long drought, there wasn’t enough water for the Salmon to get up-river … and his beloved Grizzly Bears were starving. What astounded me about this video-taped prayer was that he screamed, blasphemed, and cursed the very God he was petitioning. Besides that, he didn’t know for sure who he was praying to, so he prayed to Buddha, Allah, some assorted Hindu God, and Jehovah all at once.
The fascinating thing is that soon after this prayer, rain came down in torrents. But I felt sorry for the poor guy because he didn’t know who to THANK for the rain any more than he knew who to ASK for the rain. Obviously he did not know God --- or he would never have addressed him in such a crude and disrespectful way. I think maybe God sent that rain in an attempt to get Timothy Treadwell’s attention before it was too late --- before he would face the God he had ignored, made light of, and disrespected. Perhaps God hoped a torrential rain storm would cause this man to give some effort to finding out who God really is!
Anyone who takes the trouble to learn God’s true nature will find out that God wants to have a close and personal relationship with His People. He is a God who wants to carry us on Eagles’ wings. He is a God who values all of us as His treasured possessions.
These are the lessons we learn at Mount Horeb. We learn about the Nature of the True God. You see, our God desires a very real, personal, one-to-one kind of relationship with His People.
• Just like with Moses at the Burning Bush, God has instigated a connection with you … will you come closer to Him or will you walk away?
• Just like with the Children of Israel, God has invited us to join Him in a wonderful Worship Celebration … will you accept His invitation or will you stay away?
God won’t force himself on anyone. He will honor your response.
If you will draw near to Him, you can be sure that God will draw near to you.
