Before the Lord gave the ten commandments, when all the people assembled at the foot of Mount Sinai to hear what He would say, there were mighty peals of thunder and an earthquake, the top of the mountain was engulfed in a fiery cloud, and a long and loud trumpet blast sounded from heaven. Something similar appears to happen when the Lord concludes the giving of the ten commandments. "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)
They say, "This is too much for us! We cannot endure this every time the Lord has something to tell us. From now on, let Him relay His instructions to you and then you can pass them along to us. Seeing and hearing all these things on a regular basis will kill us!"
The Lord's intent is not to kill the people. They think this awesome display of His majesty is going to be too much for the human body to bear, but Moses tells them they need not fear God has shown up to take their lives. God isn't going to reveal more of Himself than they can take. He's giving them this tiny glimpse of His power to show them He is a God to be feared and obeyed, but it's for their own good that they fear and obey Him so they won't go astray and fall into sins that will ruin their lives or endanger the destiny of their eternal souls. "Moses said to the people, 'Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.' The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was." (Exodus 20:20-21)
The people are asking that Moses serve as a mediator between themselves and God. This is the role he will perform during the years he leads the people in the wilderness. The small hint of God's glory that the people have experienced has shown them He is a God to be reckoned with, a God who is holy, a God whose standards are so much higher than man's standards that they know they can never perfectly keep the ten commandments, much less the book of the law that's going to be given next. Intensely aware of their weaknesses and inadequacies, they feel unworthy to approach the presence of God and they ask Moses to be their intermediary. He faithfully performs this task but, being a mere human himself, is unable to permanently be the go-between. He cannot negotiate a deal between God and man that is eternal. But Someone is coming who can: the holy and perfect Son of God, the Word of God who will become flesh and dwell among human beings. The One who will be born by a supernatural transaction between a human woman and the Holy Spirit will be the perfect mediator of a new and eternal covenant between God and man. He will be able to completely understand what God wants. He will be able to completely understand what human beings want. He will perfectly see everything from both sides and can orchestrate a new covenant that fulfills everything God requires and supplies everything man needs.
The work Moses does on behalf of the Israelites is symbolic of the work Christ will do on behalf of the whole human race. Moses mediated the old covenant, which was between God and the people of Israel. Christ mediated the new covenant, which is between God and anyone of any race or nation who wants to be a child of God. The covenant Moses mediated required sacrifices for sins to be made year after year after year. But now that the perfect mediator has come, and now that He has orchestrated a covenant through His blood that is eternal, no further sacrifices for sins need to be made. Christ is the only one who can offer us this covenant with God---this peace with God. "For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all people." (1 Timothy 2:5-6a)
We have peace with God the Father through faith in God the Son. We cannot perfectly keep the ten commandments no matter how hard we try, for while Christ preached to man during His days on the earth He pointed out that we can break the spirit of the commandments even if we don't literally break them. (He stated that hating a fellow human being is committing murder in our hearts and that lusting for someone else's spouse is committing adultery in our hearts. In those cases we've broken the spirit of the commandments though we may not have physically broken them by committing murder or adultery.) We can't perfectly keep the book of the law either. As we get ready to move on into the portion of Scripture that will contain the various laws we will see just how many of them there are and just how impossible it would be to remember them all, much less fulfill them.
Under the old covenant the people were continually aware of their shortcomings because they were continually exposed to the law. The most they could do is repent every time they became aware they had sinned and bring the appropriate sacrifices and offerings as an acknowledgment that they had sinned. These sacrifices were an acknowledgement that they deserved to have their own blood shed (their own lives lost) for breaking the laws of a holy God but that a sacrificial animal was taking their place on the altar. This process had to be repeated over and over as long as a person lived. But Christ gave Himself once and for all for our sins, and His blood is so holy that it will forever cover our past mistakes and our present mistakes and our future mistakes, and we no longer have to live under the heavy weight of continually knowing we are falling short of God's commandments and laws. Christ bridged the gap for us. He stood in between us and God. He did for us what we could never have done for ourselves. This is why the Bible says, "He Himself is our peace." (Ephesians 2:14)
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