The people are gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai. The presence of the Lord has descended upon the mountain in smoke and fire while thunder rumbles and the earth shakes and a trumpet sounds. The Lord has something monumental to say and He has the people's attention.
He is going to call Moses and his brother Aaron up onto the mountain but the people must keep their distance. They have already been warned not to try to come up onto the mountain into the presence of God lest His indescribable holiness and righteousness consume them in their weak, mortal, human state. He has granted a special dispensation of immunity to Moses and Aaron for the purpose of the roles they are called to fill, but the assembly must not rush up the mountain or even so much as touch it while the Lord is present on it, as we learned in yesterday's passage.
"The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up and the Lord said to him, 'Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the Lord and many of them perish. Even the priests, who approach the Lord, must consecrate themselves, or the Lord will break out against them.'" (Exodus 19:20-22) The people were already warned in yesterday's passage but the Lord feels the warning is worth repeating, especially since the priests might not have interpreted this rule as applying to them. The priests are already in the habit of regularly consecrating themselves before performing their duties. They are already in the habit of acting as intermediaries between the people and the Lord when offering up prayers, incense, and sacrifices. Some of them might misunderstand and think that the instructions for the Israelites as a whole don't apply to those who are used to ministering before the Lord on behalf of the people.
There are rules everywhere we go in life. There are roles we fill that allow us access to certain things and certain places. For example, I have a key to my workplace doors but non-employees don't. I have access to the cash drawer at work but non-employees don't. I have the authority to sign checks out of a checkbook at work but non-employees don't. When the Lord gives the ten commandments, He grants more access to Moses and Aaron than He does to anyone else because in a way we could say Moses and Aaron are His employees. They have rights and responsibilities that others do not have. In order to fulfill their duties they must be allowed a higher level of access than others, so God will keep them safe when they come up on the mountain, but He has not granted this level of access to all the others. It's not necessary for the assembly to have such access and if they take it upon themselves to cross the barrier and go where they've been forbidden to go there will be fatal consequences.
I don't know why this little incident popped into my head just now but I remember a time when I was a kid when I thought a rule for the whole class didn't apply to me. I disobeyed the rule and suffered the consequences. It seemed to me that I was the favorite student of my second grade teacher. That very well may have been true; she was a close friend of my mother's and was also my mother's Sunday school teacher and she regularly wrote very nice things about me in the report cards that were sent home every six weeks. So I don't think it was all in my own mind that I was either her favorite or at least one of the top five! But one day we were working in our math books and a few students were having some problems with something new we were learning that week and she told the whole class to be quiet and listen while she went over it again. She said everyone was to stop what they were doing and for no one to be talking or asking questions until she was finished. Well, I thought her instructions didn't apply to me, so in the middle of her explanations I raised my hand to ask a question about something on the next page of our math books, and to my horror she snatched me up out of my seat and spanked me across the bottom two or three times in front of the whole class. (This would have been in about 1977 when that type of discipline was still administered in schools.) I don't think the spanking actually hurt but the humiliation did. The spanking was the embarrassing consequence of my disobedience. But at least I lived to tell about it. The priests won't be so lucky if they disobey the Lord. When the Lord tells Moses to be sure and warn the priests not to think the rules don't apply to them, He has a good reason for believing they really may think the instructions don't apply to them, for the positions they hold may lead them to think they are especially favored.
Moses thinks an extra warning isn't necessary. "Moses said to the Lord, 'The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, because You Yourself warned us, 'Put limits around the mountain and set it apart as holy.'" (Exodus 19:23) He says, "The people have been advised of the dangers. We've put a barrier at the foot of the mountain. They know better than to push their way through."
Ah, but the Lord understands human nature better than Moses does! The Lord knows it's a human tendency to want to push boundaries, to resist being told what to do, and to want to see things for themselves. If we didn't already know this, some of the things that have happened during the Covid-19 outbreak should have clued us in. Look how many deny that the pandemic is even real. Think about all the weird conspiracy theories that have cropped up saying that the virus is just a "front" or "cover-up" for a sinister threat that's being perpetrated against us. Consider how many people have outright refused to follow any of the guidelines even when not following them puts themselves and others in danger. For example, at my work we've put up markings and boundaries to aid our staff and customers in safe social distancing practices but a number of our customers have ridiculed these measures and have basically called us foolish for believing they're necessary. Some of them have said that this pandemic is either not real at all or---if it is real---it's no worse than a cold or flu. Two customers deliberately pulled down the caution tape that they were supposed to stand behind to keep them six feet from me while I was waiting on them at our front desk. We can easily understand why the Lord feels further warnings are necessary. Here in Exodus 19 the Lord knows just how likely it is that one or more people will cross over the boundary or scoff at the idea that it's dangerous for a weak and sinful human being to step into the very presence of a God whose holiness is so great it cannot even begin to be fathomed by the human mind. So the Lord repeats His request for Moses to warn the people once more, and while Moses is down there he's to collect his brother to bring him up onto the mountain with him. "The Lord replied, 'Go down and bring Aaron up with you. But the priests and the people must not force their way through to come up to the Lord, or He will break out against them.' So Moses went down to the people and told them." (Exodus 19:24-25)
Join us tomorrow as the Lord begins to provide the very holy set of rules that we know as "the ten commandments".
No comments:
Post a Comment