Listening to God

Start today’s study by reading Exodus 20. Ask God to reveal Himself to you in a fresh way today.

Background

In Exodus, chapter 20, we see the first appearance of the 10 Commandments in the Bible. God’s free but wandering people have come to Mt. Sinai, God has promised to set them apart if they obey, and the people have agreed to do all that He says. They have prepared themselves for his promised arrival, and God has indeed arrived. Read again in Exodus 19:16-19 of the first appearance of God on the mountain:

On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai 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.

After God arrived, his first instructions to the people were what we called the Ten Commandments. In summary:

1. I am God; do not put any other gods in front of me.
2. Do not make an idol of anything, do not worship it.
3. Do not misuse my Name.
4. Remember the Sabbath. Set aside a day of rest where you remember me.
5. Honor your parents.
6. Do not murder.
7. Do not commit adultery.
8. Do not steal.
9. Do not say things about people that aren’t true.
10. Do not desire what your neighbor has, not his wife, house, servants, livestock or anything else.

Hearing from God

Today’s focal passage is Exodus 20:18-19.

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.”

I have to say, these two verses landed on me like a ton of bricks. Do you see what the people are doing? God came to them and wanted to reveal himself to them in a totally new way. He wanted to settle on the mountain and speak to them directly. He wanted to tell them the best way to live, to reveal his charge to all human beings. He has set them apart for a special purpose and the moment has arrived.

The people’s response to God through Moses was, “Tell Moses what you want us to know. We don’t really want to hear from you directly, we want you to just talk to Moses and have him tell us what you think. Moses is a man like us. We would rather hear it from him.” It is almost as if they have smacked God in the face.

At first, I questioned my response to this verse. Surely that’s not what happened; they didn’t teach me this in Sunday School; why would they reject God that way? I had always thought that God was the one who only wanted to talk to Moses. But read Moses summary of these events in Deuteronomy 5:5:

At that time, I stood between the LORD and you to declare to you the word of the LORD, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain.

Moses spells out clearly in Deuteronomy why he received the commandments from God instead of God revealing them to the entire nation. The people were just too scared.

What does this mean for us?

Deepening our relationship with God can also be scary for us too. He doesn’t show up in a mountain in a cloud of smoke, fire, and lightning. But he does ask us to change. He does tell us that an encounter with him will not leave us the same.

Has there even been a time in your life where your fear of God has kept you from approaching Him? What was is the source of that fear? Was it a fear of change? Was it a fear of rejection? Was it shame for who you have been and what you have done? God again and again reveals to us throughout His word that he wants a relationship with us (see the God’s Desire section from last week’s study). This theme continues throughout the entire Old Testament and into the New. Ultimately, God sent his son Jesus to the earth to reveal Himself to us.

The beautiful thing that we see in Exodus, is that God wanted to reveal himself. However, the people could not approach him that way. Later in history, He sent them prophets; he sent them great leaders; he also allowed them to have no-so-great leaders. He was faithful to them and blessed them when they listened. When they went astray, he allowed them to suffer the consequences of their actions to teach them and bring them back to Him. Finally, God wrapped himself up in the skin of a man, and came to live with mankind so that we could approach him and not be afraid of His incredible glory. He ate, and walked, and taught, and died at our hands.

In 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul is talking about Jesus when he says:

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

The Message paraphrase says it this way:

How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.

When Paul speaks of us becoming the righteousness of God here, he does not mean that we become perfect. He means that we become right with God. Being right with God is all about the relationship.

The amazing thing about God is His consistency. His ultimate purpose in relating with the Israelites was to reveal himself to them and to build a relationship with the people. His ultimate purpose in sending Jesus to this earth was to approach us so that we can be rightly related to Him. Since the first tick of the clock, God’s whole purpose has been to reveal himself to us so that we can have a relationship with Him. If we make our faith about anything else, then we have missed the entire purpose for our existence.

So today, how do we tell God that we understand that he wants to know us, and we would like to know him back? How do we start that relationship? We simply talk to Him. Tell Him you want to start a relationship with Him. Below are the steps that He gives us in the Bible, to start that relationship with him.

1. Admit that you have not always lived in the way that He would have you to live. You have sinned against God. (Romans 3:23)
2. You believe that God has revealed himself to the world (including you) through Jesus. He came, lived, died, and rose again to bridge the gap of our sin and fear so that we can know God. (Romans 10:9-11)
3. Tell God that you want to live in a way that honors your relationship with him and that He is now the first priority in your life. (2 Corinthians 5:15)

If you have talked with God and started a relationship with Him, it’s important to find people who share your commitment. You can contact me or talk to someone you know who has a relationship with Jesus. Find a group of believers in a local church who can be a support to you as you journey together.

Thought Questions

1. How does the consistency of God throughout time affect your faith in him?
2. What can you do to be more willing to listen to God as He approaches you?
3. Has there been a time in your life when deepening your relationship with God was frightening? How did you respond?

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