Prepare
Opening Prayer
Thank the Lord for the rich blessing of his Word, worshiping him as holy and asking the Spirit for true reverence and awe.
Read
Scripture Passage
The People Afraid of God’s Presence
18 Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. 19 Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”
20 And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.” 21 So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Ex 20:18–21.
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
Israel trembles before thunder, lightning, trumpet, smoke, and God's voice at Sinai, asking Moses to mediate lest they die. Moses explains that God has come to test them and set his fear before them so they will not sin. The devotion distinguishes slavish terror from reverent awe before the holy God.
B — Best Verse
A Verse That Summarizes the Passage
Exodus 20:20
Distilled from the devotional exposition; the speaker did not explicitly name a best verse.
And Moses said to the people, do not fear, for God has come to test you. and that his fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.
Neither Bryan nor his child co-host announces a best-verse selection. Verse 20 is distilled because it directly explains the purpose of God's fearsome revelation and grounds their discussion of reverence that restrains sin.
C — Called or Christ
C — Called to Do
Cultivate a large, sober view of God. Revere him as holy, powerful, and sovereign so that awe of who he truly is deepens hatred of sin and shapes a faithful walk before him.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
Well, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Welcome to coffee and devotions. This is where every day I should have coffee we should be together in the morning and we'll get into God's Word and we'll grow in our love for the Lord together, but Life is real And this last night, there was a meeting this morning. I had meetings. And so sometimes you get behind. Sometimes things happen. This is a life lesson that I'm going to use. Right. What do you do? Do you give up on the plan for devotions? No. Roll with the punches. It's OK if you get behind. We're not about legalism. It's about growing in grace, growing in our love for the Lord together. So instead of stopping, we get right back into it. So here we are at Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20, beginning at verse 18. Let's have, well, I don't have coffee.
Let's pray and we'll get into God's word. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the rich blessing it is to get to come to your word. Lord, you are a holy God, perfect in all your ways. We pray that we would worship you in spirit and in truth, that we would know who you are, and that your spirit would teach us to reverence you. Give us a heart, Lord, to stand in awe of who you are in Jesus's name. Amen. All right, so we're at Exodus chapter 20, beginning at verse 18.
Now all the people witnessed the thunderings and the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet in the mountains smoking. And when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, you speak with us and we will hear. But let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said to the people, do not fear, for God has come to test you. and that his fear may be before you, so that you may not sin. So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.
Well, we need to ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, oh, hi. You want to do coffee and devotions with me? Yeah. Can I read it again with you? Okay, here we go. So now all the people witnessed the thunderings and the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet. Can you make a trumpet sound? Yeah. And the mountain smoking. And when the people saw it, they trembled. Do you know what trembling means? It means like they shook.
And they stood afar off. Then Moses, then they said to Moses, You speak with us, Moses, and we will hear. But do not let God speak to us, lest we die. And Moses said to the people, Do not fear, for God has come to test you. and that his fear may be before you so that you may not sin. So the people stood far off. But Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.
Well. What was it like that day at the Ten Commandments, you remember, there was a mountain. And what was going on with the mountain? Yeah. And the people were what? Scared. That's right. The people were scared. And they said, God, don't talk to us anymore, but let Moses talk to us instead. They were scared of God. Is that a good thing to be scared of God? Maybe. Maybe not a slavish fear, but a fear out of awe or reverence. Because perfect love casts out fear, but it doesn't cast out reverence. And so we can reverence God as holy. But God teaches us his holiness, so we might not what? You want to know why? God wants you to know that he is powerful and he's mighty, that he's strong, that he's holy. So you don't sin.
Did you know that? The bigger God is in your heart and in your mind and in your eyes, the more and more that you hate sin. yeah yeah so do you want to have a big view of god oh don't touch that do you because it makes hands it makes noises on the microphone do you want to have a big view of god or a small view of god what do you think Big view of God right a big view right look at me We're talking look at me we're not doing Elsa we're talking hey We want to have a big view of God we want to reverence him and fear him Okay, it's like standing all like wow.
He made those trees. He brought the storm He controls the world Yeah, who brought that storm? God. And would we let you play outside? No. Why not? Why wouldn't we let you play outside in that thunderstorm? We could. Because why? It could get you electrocuted. It could get you electrocuted, right?
So do we have a respect for the storm? But we also have a respect for the God who brought us the storm. Well, it'd be real life. It was this was real life, too. It really happened. You ready to pray? OK, God, we thank you so much that this is a real story. and that you really, really did reveal yourself. We pray that we would have a real reverence for you, that we would stand in awe of who you are, that you would be big in our eyes and in our hearts, that we might walk before you with a sober mind of who you really are as God. In Jesus's name. Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. And I'll see you tomorrow. You want to say goodbye? You say goodbye? Elsa goodbye!
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.