Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.
Most people in our world seem to have one of two responses to Christianity, both described in Deuteronomy 18:15-19. Some of them, fearful of what might happen if they are confronted by God, are like those of verse 16. “Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord!” The presence of the creator of all is a terrible thing. He is described as a consuming fire, possessing glory which will kill those who gaze upon it. Many who are afraid of God’s confrontation are intimidated by all His commands as well. They flee from a life regulated in ways which go against their own inclinations. They find God’s identification of sin repugnant. In this headlong flight from the true and living God, they prefer “dead” gods, those made in the human image, including physical idols and idols of their own imagination.
Others like the idea of God visiting the world, but they misunderstand the glory and majesty of God. They say they want an unmediated encounter with God. They pursue spiritual experiences, emotional highs, and seek to be ushered into the spiritual presence of God. Some turn to mediums and spiritists, ending up in the presence of evil spirits. Some turn to experiential forms of Christianity and try to be whipped into an emotional frenzy. They don’t consider the fact that an unmediated encounter wtih God is exactly what brings death and destruction throughout the Scripture, because only that which is holy and pure can stand before God.
My hope and prayer is that all these people, in both categories, will be frustrated and their desires will be unfulfilled. Both groups are going down a path that leads to eternal destruction.
What is the alternative? As God raised up Moses, a prophet who would speak for him in the presence of the people. in these last days, just as He promised, God the Son, Jesus, has come. True God, yes, but clothed in humanity, he mediates the presence of God for all who look to him. Being without sin himself, he alone is able to stand in the presence of the holy Lord. Being truly human, he alone is able to represent all humanity before God’s throne. He is the one we are to hear and believe.
Verse 19 leaves us with a sobering thought. We can stand before God in the mediating presence of Jesus, or we can stand before God without Jesus’ protective care. God requires this perfect obedience, perfect holiness, perfect submission, from someone. Are we prepared to stand before God in our own selves? Not at all. We need a mediator, and in Jesus we have exactly the mediator we need. Lord, give us grace to hear and believe him.
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