Holy Smoke!

At Mount Sinai, the people of God were instructed to make themselves ceremonially clean in order to hear and receive the Word of God.

For the Hebrew people – and throughout the Hebrew Testament – the people were excluded from drawing close to their God because, as Moses said to the LORD and we’re told in Exodus 19:23, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, because you yourself warned us, ‘Put limits around the mountain and set it apart as holy.’”

When the Israelites saw the thunder and lightning, the mountain in smoke while the trumpet sounded, what did they do then?  They trembled with fear.  They kept their distance and stayed away.  And they pleaded with Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen.  But do not have God speak to us or we will die!” 

Now, that’s the part about this passage that really got to me:  What was it that scared them?  That they would die?  That they would draw close to God?  That God wanted to touch them personally and instill in each of them a fear for the LORD?

Indeed, they should have been scared! 

Why?  Because they knew that God had come to test them.  Because they knew God wanted them to keep from wandering.  Because they knew that God expects respect and to be revered.

But what did the Hebrew people do during those 40 days when Moses was with the LORD on Mount Sinai receiving these Ten Commandments (and other laws)? 

They turned to Aaron … building and worshipping a golden calf!

Over the years, many – maybe millions – of messages and sermons have been based on worshipping idols or on one or more of these Ten Commandments.  Here, instead, I would like to focus on the fears of the Hebrews and their words: 

“Speak to us yourself and we will listen.  But do not have God speak to us or we will die!” 

The people are telling Moses, “YOU do it … not us.  You tell us what the LORD God says.  We’re afraid to hear it directly from God.  We don’t want to die!”

None of us wants to deal with death or dying.

That we’re going to die doesn’t frighten us as much though, I suspect, as how we’re going to die.

What concerns us, really, is:

--Will we lose our minds?

--Will our bodies betray us?

--Will we be by ourselves, left all alone?

--Will we suffer a long and debilitating disease that leaves us without dignity, let alone our humanity?

No, I’m really not afraid to die at this point.  Oh, I’m scared of flying over the Atlantic to Spain and going down in an airplane.  I’m afraid of the doctors telling me that I have something incurable that needs to be removed … and then they keep cutting and cutting and cutting until there’s nothing left of me.

I guess what I’m saying is that, like many of us, I don’t want to feel pain and hurt, whether mine or others'.  Like most of us, if I had my druthers, I’d rather meet my Maker quickly than to lose my mind or have parts of my body taken from me.

What, I believe, it really comes down to for most of us is that dying means ceasing to be.  There’s no more “me.”  And that part of myself which I refer to as “me” isn’t body or mind … it’s something much more vital: my spirit, my soul.  It’s that God-given spark that defines who I am.  Take that away from me and I’m no longer myself, a separate and unique being.

That’s what I’m afraid of losing, when I think about dying.

And you know something?  I believe even Jesus feared that, too.  Remember when, in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed, asking that – if possible – this cup be passed, that he didn’t have to die for us to be born again?  Then, He quickly recanted and said to God, “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done!”

The Israelites knew something that many people, by and large, have forgotten: The thought of approaching the Holy One is a fearful thing, not to be tread upon lightly. 

Therefore, staying at a distance can be prudent.

Then, again, what they didn’t know is that God has authored a New Covenant with God’s people, where the sacrifice for all sins and wicked ways has been paid and given freely to us in the gift of grace.  We are the righteousness of God now in Christ Jesus … and God welcomes us, spiritually, even into the Holy of Holies!

Jesus refers any number of times to the need for us to die to old ways – to leave behind ourselves – and, come, follow Him.

Dying to ourselves and our self-centered lives is an exercise in that we need to do daily, day after day.

“If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.  For whoever wants to safe his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it,” Jesus tells us in Luke 9:23-24.

In other words, when we die to ourselves, we indeed are born again to a new life in the Lord.

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.  But if it dies, it produces many seeds,” says Jesus in John 12:24.

And ain’t that the truth!

Those who choose to follow Jesus and His teachings will make physical sacrifices – even unto death – for spiritual rewards.

Calling the crowd to join his disciples, Jesus warned, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.  If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.  But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.  And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?" 

That, my friends, comes from Mark 8:34-36.

Yes, God does call us to give up our souls, to forfeit ourselves, to die if you will, for the sake of God and God’s Kingdom.

I truly understand how scary that can be.  But I have also seen what becomes of some people who consider themselves more sacred than the Holy One of Israel and refuse to let go.

A few weeks ago, we visited and paid our respects to Riverside Baptist Church where we had the honor of worshipping with Rev. David Holladay and his congregation. 

These words, used at the church to introduce the Prayers of the People and the Lord’s Prayer, are the same words with which I’d like to conclude this message:

“We fear to approach you with our confession, holy God, for you may require changes in us that are costly.

“You ask us to have the mind of Christ, a mind free of pretense and self-interest.

“You challenge us to lay aside our advantages, to go where you send us.

“We fear loss of security and loss of advantage if we are obedient.

“We confess our need for you and our desire to find your purpose for us.

“More than any change for which we yearn, we need a change of mind.  Inspire in us the mind that is in Christ … who humbles himself and is obedient, who is faithful to your will even unto death on a cross.

“Help us to follow him as faithfully as he has followed you, Lord, and we will serve others as he has served us.”