Why would God deliver his people from Egypt and then proceed to terrify them? Why would he redeem them to himself and then tell them that if they came near to him, they would die? With everything that God does he is revealing something about himself. The Israelites had experienced God’s compassion and his grace but now they must experience his holiness. ‘Holiness’ refers to God’s absolute distinctness; his transcendence. It also means that God is absolutely pure. This, however, raises a problem for sinful people. For God’s holiness also means that the only way God can deal with guilty people is to destroy them. It is impossible for a holy God to have fellowship with someone who is sinful. God was about to show his people how he would solve this problem. He was about to show them, through the symbolism of the temple sacrifices, what he would do in Jesus Christ to deal with his people’s guilt and give them access to him. But, for this to have any meaning, his people had to feel the gravity of the problem. This is the part that we often try to avoid. We want to experience the joy of forgiveness and grace but not the pain of our guilt and the dread of conflict with God. There is no joy in forgiveness if you have not allowed yourself to feel the pain of what requires forgiveness. You must face the harsh reality of your sin before you can embrace the wonderful truth of forgiveness.
Confess your sins to God and thank him for what he has done in Christ to pay for your guilt.
Read Exodus 19:10-25
