“I stood between the LORD and you at that time.” Deuteronomy 5:5
Here is an easily overlooked reason to cultivate the fear of the Lord.
Fearing the Lord will lead you to seek a mediator. When God came near on Mount Sinai to give the Ten Commandments, the people cried out, “This great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, we shall die” (5:25).
So the people said to Moses, “Go near and hear all that the LORD our God will say, and speak to us all that the LORD our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it” (5:27).
Then Moses said, “The LORD said to me, ‘I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken’” (5:28). It was a good thing that they saw their need of a mediator.
When you see the fire on the mountain, when you see the awesome holiness of God, when you see that “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31) and that “our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29), you will want to find a mediator too.
The fear of the Lord drives us to Jesus Christ. God has provided a better mediator than Moses. Moses went up into the presence of God; Jesus Christ has come down to us.
We have a better place than Mount Sinai to learn the fear that love brings. When Jesus went to the cross, the fire of God’s judgment on human sin was poured out on Him. He went into the fire for us. He entered our hell on the cross.
Have you felt the need for a mediator between yourself and God? What role has the fear of the Lord played in your faith?
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