WHEN God came down on the top of Mount Sinai, the people who had come out of the camp to meet with Him were frightened.
The mountain was smoking and quaking before their eyes; lightenings were playing throughout the heavens, and loud thunder& met their ears; added to this was another strange sound—the blast of a trumpet long and loud, which grew still louder and louder. Terror filled their hearts and they went back and stood afar off. They said to Moses, “Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” The glory and majesty of God were now realized in such a way by the people that they recognized it would be death to approach. Moses told them not to fear, for God had come to prove them. It was not His wish that they should die, but He would have His fear before their faces, that they sin not.
God proves His people now also; not with the thunders of Sinai making them tremble lest they die. He would have them walk before Him in love, in holiness and “without blame.” Being brought near to God and put in the children’s place, He would have His people walking as “obedient children,” and serving Him “acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” But even now, although there is fulness of grace, God speaks of Himself as a “consuming fire”—a fire that will bring His chastening hand in judgment upon those of His own who are not walking in holiness and obedience. The fear of the Lord is necessary now, even as it was of old. It is indeed the first step in wisdom’s path, for God tells us, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Its absence is that which characterizes the wicked. “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” They go on their own way, regardless of God, not recognizing that He will, punish them for their evil doing.
God was teaching His people a lesson as to this at Mt. Sinai. “God is come to prove you, and that His fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.”
Let us walk in wisdom’s ways, having the fear of God before us!
“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.” “The fear of the Lord prolongeth days.”
“The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life.”
“By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.”
“By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honor and life.”
“Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.”
ML 06/28/1903