AT THE MOUNTAIN OF GOD
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Only two months removed from Egyptian slavery, the people of Israel returned to the place at which God had broken His generational silence, appearing to Moses with the assurance that He had seen their suffering and He would intervene.
Now, the people of Israel were confronted by a mountain-sized “burning bush” experience. Making camp in the wilderness, the people were confronted by thunder, lightning, and a cloud dominating their view of the mountain and shaking the ground beneath their feet. And shaking the people to their core. Moses ordered the people not to go too close to the mountain, to sound the trumpets as loudly as possible, and to purify themselves in preparation to encounter God. Like Moses some months earlier, they were standing on holy ground and were rightly afraid of the Power and Presence before them. But then God introduced Himself to the people: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (Exodus 20:2). The God who was shaking the mountain in front of them and the ground beneath them was on their side. The God who had caused the ruin of Egypt and destroyed their armies and chariots was their God. And, although they were afraid, they were afraid in the best possible way. God had changed their history, and now He was inviting them to share the future together with Him, establishing a new kind of nation that would honor God and be a light to the surrounding nations. His presence among them and the laws He would give were important steps in restoring the relationship that God had created and intended for humanity.
Rejecting oppression and fear, their nation would be shaped by the fear of God in the best possible ways.
