Last night our brother Bobby shared about the holiness of God. He mentioned the time when God was speaking to Moses, how the mountain itself became holy because of God's presence there. God shows up, a whole mountain is untouchable for humans.
A whole mountain, he told us, as only Bobby can.
On the ride home I got thinking about that. To me what is amazing is not that the mountain itself was made holy and untouchable by the presence of the living God, but that it was confined to just a single mountain!
God contained himself to just one mountain, and that was a mercy. Out of love for his people he contained the full measure of his holiness, knowing that mankind could not survive any one on one encounter with him.
Reading the gospel of John today,
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind." 1 John 1-4 (NIV)
And jumping down to verse 14, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
Jesus Christ, the living God, took on flesh.
Paul tells us,
"Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!" Philippians 2:6-8(NIV)
Think about that for a moment. The God who is Holy. The God who created everything. So beautiful he created mountains to express an aspect of that beauty. So powerful he created crashing waves that can roar like a lion, or lightning that lights up the sky expressing his unpredictability and dangerous nature.
As David expressed,
"When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?" Psalm 8:3-4(NIV)
Truly, who are we? In light of this amazing and awesome God, who are we?
We are to him not what we deserve to be, but what he desires us to be.
Here is a final thought from the book of Romans.
"The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba,Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory." Romans 8:15-17 (NIV)
