In Deuteronomy chapter five, God speaks to the people face to face, but they are afraid. Again, it is their problem, not God’s. Moses stands in the gap, but only because of the fear of the people. God never intended for anyone or anything to come between His love and our souls. The people asked Moses to intervene so they could remain as they were, wishy washy in their faith. They sound very religious in verse 25 as they lament “But now, why should we risk death again? If the Lord our God speaks to us again, we will certainly die and be consumed by this awesome fire”. I wonder who told them that? Could it be the father of lies? I have no doubt. Satan always deceives people with a mixture of truth and lies. They end up asking Moses to represent them to God, and get out of having to submit and obey God themselves. This is the beginning of the notion that we need intermediaries like pastors, priests, and other, more Godly people to intervene for us. This is not God’s plan, but man’s idea of relating to God.
I need to jump ahead in the storyline here. After God comes to the earth, and suffers for His creation, a new, powerful and intimate relationship with God is established through Jesus Christ. 1John 4:16-19 describes what this new experience with God means. There is no longer a need for us to be afraid of God. If we are experiencing daily face to face connection with God through Jesus Christ and His spirit within us, we may be in awe of His presence, but we should never be afraid of Him. Perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. We should feel conviction regarding our sin, never condemnation. Remember to embrace conviction, but reject condemnation. Conviction drives us on to take action and clean up our act, condemnation leaves us in a pity pool, lamenting about how we will never change. Be in awe of God, but if you are afraid Him, find out why and take action. He is always waiting in love to forgive, restore, and strengthen you to know Him better!
Ezra 10:1-4- Ezra falls face down in repentance for the nation of Israel. To lay face down is a humbling thing for a leader. He openly wept for the sins of the people. A crowd gathered, and were stirred in their hearts by this public display of humility and brokenness. This man didn’t care about how he looked because he was weeping to God for his people to repent. The people see this broken and contrite man crying out to God for them, and they are moved to repent and take action to cleanse themselves for service to God. They saw their sin in the light of another person’s brokenness, and it led to new life.
Isaiah 6:1-8-Isaiah is an awesome record of a righteous holy God taking to task a people who have become unrepentant of their sin. God chooses Isaiah to bring his message of conviction, consequence and second chances to the people He is going to use to bring His son into the world. Isaiah sees God and fears death as he is a sinner in the presence of a holy God. He describes the vision in front of him, then gets ready to die. He laments in verse five “I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips and I live among people with filthy lips. Yet now I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s army”. It was believed that a human could not look at God and survive. That was not the truth, but fearful men had planted the lie in people’s minds, and it became a lie that was believed by many. Isaiah also realized that he had made mistakes as had the people he lived amongst. He felt a legitimate need to be cleaner than he had been in his daily life. This conviction led to humility, something to which God always responds in love. An angel brings a coal and touches his lips, signifying his clean state before God. God wants us to see him, He will not smite you for looking into His eyes of love. Sometimes our decisions and actions can cloud God’s countenance, but conviction and repentance cause us to come back to holy living. Jesus cleans us up so we can experience Him with no fear!
In Daniel chapter six, we see a Jewish slave elevated to a top position in the kingdom of a Godless leader named Darius. Daniel’s total obedience to God led to God giving him favor in the eyes of his captors. When they looked at Him, they saw him through God’s eyes, and liked what they saw. This ‘Favor of the Lord’ is a powerful thing, drawing people to people as God leads the way. This led to the other leaders feeling envy and bitter jealousy towards Daniel. They tried to find fault with his governing, but he was too successful and favored as a leader. They used the King’s own pride against him, and had him sign a law that condemned anybody worshiping anybody other that King Darius. The king didn’t realize that Daniel faced toward Jerusalem three times daily to worship God. Facing Jerusalem was like facing God for Daniel. Not that God dwells in this time and space, but because Jerusalem was where He came to meet the world face to face. Even after he heard about the new law, David risked his life to pray this way, and it led to a miracle that changed the ungodly kings life.
Revelation 1:12-18- John turns in his vision and sees Jesus fully restored to His holy presence among the trinity. Jesus is brilliant in color and light. He is dressed as a king, and literally on fire with righteousness and holiness. John faints when He sees Jesus, but Jesus revives him. In our human form, we are limited as to how much holy experience we can handle, and sometimes the over stimulation of our senses knocks us for a loop. God is always waiting for us to look to him. He will not kill us, but strengthen us to experience more of Him each day. He will strengthen us in our spirit, mind, and body to experience Him more and more.