Imagine standing at the bottom of a mountain, elbow-to-elbow with everyone in your community. Thunder and lightning flash; you hear an earsplitting trumpet blast. Amid flames, God descends on the mountaintop. The summit is enveloped in smoke; the entire mountain begins to shake, and so do you (Ex. 19:16-20).
When the Israelites had this terrifying experience near Mount Sinai, they begged Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die (20:19). The Israelites were asking Moses to mediate between them and the Almighty. "So the people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was" (v. 21). After meeting with God, Moses brought God's messages back down the mountain to the people below.
Today, we worship the same God who displayed His staggering greatness on Mount Sinai. Because God is perfectly holy and we are desperately sinful, we cannot relate to Him. Left to ourselves we too would (and should) shake in terror. But Jesus made it possible for us to know God when He took our sins on Himself, died, and rose again (1 Cor. 15:3-4). Even now, Jesus is the go-between for us to a holy and perfect God (Rom. 8:34; 1 Tim. 2:5). Jesus bridges the gap between God and us.
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