We began in Hebrews 10 and 12 where Paul explained the things that took place at Mount Sinai. Now here we are, in Exodus 20, right at the Mount. Notice the context, which we will pick up right after God gave the Ten Commandments, the law that defines what is evil and what is good.
That is why God is so concerned about us fearing Him - if we fear Him we will depart from sin. Brethren, fearing God is an essential element of godly character. Developing this vital attribute will bring about abundant blessings in our lives. It is a part of the very process of salvation because we must choose to fear God in the face of all the carnal fears there are before us. And we find in I John 4 about how to cast out fear.
But even this love does not cast out all fear. There is a fear that we should have. We should fear electricity; we should fear tempting God. There are things of which we should still be afraid. God is not concerned about these, but He is concerned that we not lose our fear of the lake of fire. We must not lose our concern or understanding that in Him are the issues of life - and that God alone can revoke the penalty of sin, which is death in that lake of fire.
So we have found that godly fear is a choice; it is morality; and it is departure from evil. If we do not fear God we will not be humble. And, if we are not humble, we will not submit to His way. The fear of the Lord expresses itself in submission to His way and submission to His way is the substance of true religion - without which one will not have clear direction and purpose for one's life. The issues of ethics and morality, therefore, will become blurred and vague. So the fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, of understanding, and of wisdom.
This is just about where we got to last week. God spoke directly to the assembled Israelites, and He was communicating with them directly—even as I showed you that God communicated with Abraham ("the father of the faithful") directly—thus establishing a pattern that is going to be duplicated somewhere along the line. And it is going to be important to you and to me in terms of this government that we have come under.
God also communicated directly to Moses. Now here He is communicating directly to the children of Israel, but He did it in such a way as to inject a sense of the awesomeness of this privilege that He was extending to this people. That is, the privilege of having direct access to Him! Not through intermediaries, but He was offering them the opportunity to have direct access to Him. But He wanted them to know that this is a very great responsibility!
We see that they very quickly rejected it. And they asked Moses to stand between them and God. Moses, then, officially becomes "mediator." He was performing this function before, but now it is official—he will stand between them and God. So his responsibility was as an advocate of the people; that is, he laid the people's problems before God, but he was also an interpreter of God to the people. So, he was "the go-between."
At this time, brethren, when God was about to begin His formal governance of Israel, His people, those who had consented to be ruled by Him, there was nobody between them and God. There was no governmental structure. God spoke to them face to face, and they rejected it!
I believe that Exodus 20 was indicating that God was prepared to do for the entire nation of Israel the same as He had done with Abraham, with Moses, and with others as well. But He presented Himself in such a way as to impress upon them the weighty responsibility of such a situation. (Paul said, "Our God is a consuming fire.") And they quickly chose a mediator to stand between them and God.
