“My heart standeth in awe of Thy Word.”―Ps. 119:101
THE skin of Moses’ face so shone when he came down from the presence of God, that Aaron and all the children of Israel were afraid to come nigh him (Ex. 34:3030And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him. (Exodus 34:30)). When of old the God of glory descended upon Mount Sinai, there was a thick cloud, and fire, “and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.” Without one who should stand between them and God, the children of Israel could not endure the sight, nor the word spoken. Therefore “the law was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator” (Gal. 3:1919Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. (Galatians 3:19)).) They received the law by the disposition of angels (Acts 7). And now when Moses came down from “the place of the sight of the glory of the Lord,” a veil ministered between his brightness and the people. When Ezekiel saw the throne “in the visions of God by the river of Chebar,” between it, and the living creatures that bore it, was interposed the likeness of the firmament, and the appearance of fire, to mark the immeasurable distance between it and He who sat thereon, (who is the Head of all principality and power) and them. O child of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, brought nigh as thou art to Him by the shed blood of Christ, and perfected forever by that one offering, having also confidence to enter into the holiest of all, in fellowship with the Father and the Son, let thy heart stand in awe of His Word!
God dwelt between the cherubim, and none but Moses or Aaron could go before the veil to hear the voice of God speak from the mercy-seat and throne of grace―to hear and to receive the lively oracles. If, when of old, God at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake by the prophets, and they to whom the Word was thus brought were charged to circumcise their hearts and their ears, now that He hath spoken by His Son, are the gracious words which come forth from His lips less in majesty through their sweetness?
Moses’ slowness of speech veiled (as was indeed needful) the words which, in their depths to faith, were spirit and life. Moses’ veil covered that Truth which was from the beginning, and which waited for the fullness of time to be seen, heard, and handled (1 John 1) Yet to see, to hear, to handle, to taste, to perceive the fragrance thereof as thou shouldest and wouldest, O redeemed and reconciled child, let thy heart stand in awe of His Word!
Wouldest thou search into the things that are thine? Let Him who is the wisdom and power of God descend unto thee. Wouldest thou ascend whither He who is thine has entered in as thy Forerunner? Let the Father and the Son come and make their abode in a heart emptied of all things, purified through faith―a heart capable, by the Holy Ghost, of taking in as its own the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Though the darkness has passed away, and the True Light shineth, still thou halt that which is “enmity against God.” The flesh, which lusteth against the Spirit; the body of sin and death in which thou dolt groan, being burdened, turns away from, and refuses the manifestation of the glory of God in the person of Christ, as much as ever the uncircumcised heart of Israel of old did from the then appointed way of God’s drawing nigh unto them. They knew not the Cross, which is thy glory. There was no Cross presented openly to their gaze, as to ours; but to receive Christ into the heart in living power, to be able to say, “I know in whom I have believed, I know Him who is Holy and True, I know Him and the power of His resurrection: this is to stand in awe of His Word.