Why did God come in fire and thunder at Sinai? In Exodus 19, God descends on Mount Sinai in fire, smoke, and thunder, and the whole mountain trembles. Dr. Toby Holt explores this terrifying display of God's holiness. Three months after leaving Egypt, Israel reaches Sinai, where God meets them in fire and trumpet blasts. No one may touch the mountain and live; the people must consecrate themselves to approach a holy God. The nearer we come to God, the more we see our sin. The good news: when Christ died, the temple veil tore, and through Him the holy God is now approachable.

Questions this study answers:

1. Why did God appear in fire and thunder? To display His holiness and authority as the Lawgiver. The awesome scene taught Israel to revere Him.

2. Why couldn't the people approach the mountain? Because God is holy and they were sinful; to touch it meant death. It showed the distance sin creates.

3. How can sinful people come near a holy God now? Through Christ. At His death the veil was torn, opening the way for believers to approach God boldly.

"...if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people…" — Exodus 19:5 (NKJV)

Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.

In Exodus 19, the people met God at Mount Sinai.

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From the base of the mountain, they watched as thunder, lightning, and fire rained down.

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In today's sermon, we'll consider this divine encounter with a holy God

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and what it can teach us all these centuries later.

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As we start this morning, I'll ask you a thinking question here.

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A few weeks ago, we considered a most amazing passage back in Exodus chapter 3.

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in Exodus chapter 3, we considered the events surrounding the burning bush. You have Moses,

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he's out tending the flocks of his father-in-law. He's been there a long time, upwards of 40 years.

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And then on the back edge of the wilderness, he sees something that he hasn't seen in the past

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40 years. He sees a bush, it's burning, it's on fire, and yet it's not consumed. Now, here's the

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question. Where was this located? Sometimes when we read these events, we disassociate them from

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a real time and a real place. Where was this bush? Think through that as we go. Think through the

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location. Well, in Exodus 3, back when we studied it, the answer was right there. In Exodus 3,

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it said that Moses had been tending the sheep, and in verse 1, he led the flock to a place called

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Horeb, the mountain of God. So as we try to figure out where this is, we have at least a partial

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answer. We see this reference to a place called Horeb. Now, throughout Scripture, Horeb is used

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interchangeably with another name, which is what? Sinai. You ever hear of Mount Sinai? Well, Mount

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Horeb, they are the same place. They're used interchangeably. Now, with that said, you would

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think that right away we could go onto Google Maps and go, well, blank, there it is. Well, again, not

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so simple. Over the centuries, there have been two prevailing locations where people believe Mount

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Sinai is located. The traditional site occurs at a place called the Sinai Peninsula. It's called

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the traditional site not because it has the best theological evidence to prove it, but largely

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because a long time ago a Roman Catholic monastery was built there. The alternate location for Mount

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Sinai is across the Red Sea where you would expect it to be, on the edge of Midian which you would

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also expect it to be. We'll get into this a little bit later, but for the purposes this morning,

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the point is that in today's text, the reason it matters where the burning bush was is because

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God is going to tell Moses that he's going to come back to the same spot with his people.

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In other words, when Moses was to deliver the people from Israel, they weren't just to go to

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all points, north or east or south or west. Rather, God had a specific location in mind.

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God told Moses way back in Genesis 3, he says, you're going to go out and deliver them. And the

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proof that you're going to deliver them is that when you're done with it, you're going to end up

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right back here talking to me once again. Exodus 3.12, God told Moses, he says, I'm going to be

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with you as you do this deliverance, and this will be the sign that I've sent to you. When you've

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brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. This mountain, Mount Horeb,

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Mount Sinai, was important in the economy of God, and in God's time, the people, once they were

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delivered. We're going to turn to this place to meet with him. All right, let's return to verses

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one and two, and then we'll work our way through the balance. Verse one. In the third month after

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the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day they came to the wilderness

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of Sinai. For they had departed from Phidim, had come to the wilderness of Sinai, and had camped

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in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain. All right, let's stop there.

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In verse 1, we see it took them three months to get to Sinai.

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That also is one of the ways that you can deduce where Sinai is

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because you can figure how long it takes to move from point A to point B.

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With that said, once they got there,

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how long do you think they stayed at the base of Mount Sinai?

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God brought them from point A to B, took them from Egypt to Sinai.

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It took three months to get there.

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How long did they stay?

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Well, what we see throughout Exodus and into Numbers

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is it looks like it was just under a year that they stayed camped out at this location.

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From roughly here in Exodus 19 all the way to, I think it's Numbers 10,

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is when you see them debarking from Sinai.

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Now, in verses 1 and 2, Moses does something interesting, and he does it three times.

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He refers to this not just as Sinai, not just as Midian,

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but he refers to this area as the wilderness, the wilderness of Sinai.

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he re-emphasizes this point three times in two verses, that this area, it's like being on the

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far side of the moon. You know, for people in our day and age, I don't know, wilderness is relative

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to me. I've never been a hunter, so I haven't gone in a lot of places you might consider

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traditional wilderness. If I go to Wiggins, I feel like I've been there.

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I'm sorry if you're from Wiggins. All right, so with that said, it's safe to say that this

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particular region was particularly stark. These were people who lived a great swath of their life

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outside. These were people who knew what it was like to camp under the stars, and to them,

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this was wilderness in Sinai. And we know it was an undesirable, uninhabited place for a number of

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reasons, one of which is no one came looking for it when they were there. You'd think that people

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come into the territory and they camp out, that if it belonged to anybody, if anyone cared for

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this property, this location, that they would have encountered opposition. And while they were

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camped there, they did not. Now, how did they survive if this was the wilderness? Well, we

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considered that last week, and we saw that God provided. The people wondered how they'd survived

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in the wilderness. They wondered what they were doing there, too. And yet God says, I've heard

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their cries, I've taken them out of Egypt, and I'm not going to let them starve to death here.

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I will provide for them. And so he provided in last week's study two things. First of all,

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there was quail, and the second was what? Manna. The quail and the manna. He also provided water

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from rock. He was not going to let his people starve while they were there. This might have

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been the wilderness, but God's hand was upon them. All right, let's look at verses three through nine.

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Verse three. Now Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying,

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Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel,

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You've seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.

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Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant,

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then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine.

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And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

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And these are the words that you shall speak to the children of Israel.

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So Moses came and called for the elders of the people

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and laid before them all the words that the Lord had commanded him.

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Then all the people answered back, and they said,

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All the Lord has spoken, we will do.

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And so Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord,

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and the Lord said to Moses,

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Behold, I will come to you in a thick cloud,

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that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe you forever.

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So Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.

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All right. Over the first 18 chapters or so, if you were to assign a label to Moses,

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if you were to say Moses is blank, what type of job or vocation did Moses have? Well, if you were

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one of the Israelites, you might have said Moses is a deliverer. Moses is the rescuer. Moses is

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the guy that God chose to rescue and redeem us and deliver us from Egypt.

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So that's his job in a general sense for 18 chapters.

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As of today's reading, for the rest of his life, he would have a different job.

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At this point, he would step into a new role, a new responsibility.

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He would be known as a mediator, as the mediator between God's people and God himself.

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Now, when you think of mediation, you usually think of a third party

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that helps bridge the gap of two other parties or helps facilitate communication. In a generic

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sense, that applies. However, there's much more to that word, biblically speaking. We'll get to that

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at another point. Now, with that said, God has chosen Moses to be his mediator between himself

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and the people. All the people weren't going to be permitted to march up the mountain to meet with

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God, but Moses was going to be able to do it. And if anyone else touched the mountain, even the foot

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of the mountain, they would perish. Now, once God met with Moses, once Moses went up and talked with

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God, God did something that he consistently did. He reminded Moses, and he wanted the people to be

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reminded of what had just happened. He wanted them to remember the Exodus. He says, the same God that

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you're going to meet with here, the same God that's meeting with you in the fire and here on

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Sinai, is the same one who rescued and redeemed you from Egypt. Same God. Remember, at this time,

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the pagan peoples thought that God's like AM radio. If you travel a certain way, there's a

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different signal, maybe a different God. God had limited jurisdiction. Well, God says, nope, nope,

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nope. I'm the same one, the same one that rescued you from Egypt. That's the one that's speaking.

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So he says, you tell that to all the people, Moses. Beyond that, you tell the people that I've chosen

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them. I've selected them. Of all the nations on the earth, I didn't choose Egypt. I didn't choose

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pharaoh to be my mediator i did not choose egypt i did not choose the philistines i didn't choose

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the moabites i did not choose these but i chose you to be what well these verses declare to be

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to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation i've called the people out to myself and they were the

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least of all peoples in fact they were just slaves like a few weeks ago i chose for me a people that

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were not chosen because they were powerful not chosen honestly because they were more pious than

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anyone else i've chosen who i've chosen for the reasons that i've chosen and my intention is that

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they would be a holy people unto me but that's going to involve not just my promise to them but

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also their responsiveness if i'm to be your god and you're to be my people then that relationship

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works on the basis of me giving you wisdom guidance instructions laws commandments and you

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obeying them. Remember verse 5 said, if you will indeed obey my voice, if you'll keep my covenant,

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then you shall be a special treasure to me above all the people for all the earth is mine. Well,

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in verse 7, Moses, he brings all that back. He brings that back to the people and he says, look,

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good news. God has not left us behind. The God who rescued us, who sent all those plagues,

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who ushered in the Passover, who freed you and then fed you, he's not going to leave you. Remember

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at this time they might have felt like any given day they're going to wake up and God's not going

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to be there and if you and I are honest there's times in our life where we have that fear too

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where our circumstances may grow dark and because they're dark we wonder is he really there is he

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attentive or have I done messed up so badly that now I'm outside of his grace well that's never

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the case and Moses tells the people the good news that God has rescued you he's still God he's still

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there, and he wants you to be his people. Not Egypt, not Philistines, not the Midianites, you.

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Now, when the people heard that, they said, that sounds great. That sounds great. They liked the

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sound of that. In fact, in verse 8, the people answered together, and they said, all that the

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Lord has spoken, we will do. Now, would they do it? We're going to see in the chapters ahead.

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They liked the idea of being special. At this point, everyone's on the same page. God says

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are special. People like to be special. Everyone's in agreement at this point. However, if you'll

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notice, the Ten Commandments had not been yet given. In fact, the bulk of the ceremonial and

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civil laws had not yet been given. They had a desire to have a special relationship with God,

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but they didn't really know who he was yet, and they didn't know what he expected of them.

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The more they learned about this God and who he was and what his expectations were upon them,

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the more they started to evaluate that relationship on the basis of whether they liked what he said or not.

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People still do that today.

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If you tell anyone that God has made you special, well, everyone wants to hear that.

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You grow up, your mom tells you you're special, you smile inside.

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You like when people tell you that you're special.

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That's not the hard part.

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The hard part is when the same God who made them, who called them out, who said that they were special,

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also said that this is the way that you as special people are to live.

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This is the way that you are to be holy and set apart in a kingdom of priests.

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And when those responsibilities conflicted with the way they wanted to live,

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well, we'll see how that turns out in the chapters yet to come.

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All right, let's look at verses 10 through 15.

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Then the Lord said to Moses,

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Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow.

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Let them wash their clothes.

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Let them be ready for the third day.

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And on the third day, the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

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You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying,

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Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up the mountain or touch its base.

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Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.

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Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow.

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Whether man or beast, he shall not live.

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And when the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain.

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So Moses went down from the mount to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes.

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And he said to the people, be ready for the third day.

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Do not come near your wives.

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Throughout the Old Testament, something ironic occurs.

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Now, what is that?

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Well, every time that God's people are brought closer to God himself,

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every time God's people are brought closer to God,

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they simultaneously recognize just how far removed they really are from him.

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Let me give you an example.

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Remember the prophet Isaiah.

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In Isaiah 6, he has a vision of God.

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He has a meeting with God.

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He sees the Lord God high and lifted up in the year that King Uzziah died.

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He has this encounter with God himself.

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And how does Isaiah react?

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How does Isaiah respond?

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What does he do?

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He falls down on his face.

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Now, was Isaiah some weakling in matters of faith?

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was he some low-level prophet? Absolutely not. Isaiah was Isaiah. And yet even Isaiah,

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when he came into the presence of God himself, his response was to realize just how far removed

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God truly was from he himself to the point he falls down and he says, woe is me. Woe is me.

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I'm an unclean man with unclean lips. I live amongst a people of unclean lips and my eyes

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have seen the king. He realized at the moment of proximity with God just how far removed and how

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far God transcended him. Well, that's the irony we find at other intervals throughout the Old

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Testament in particular. You see interactions where people are drawn into close encounters

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with God, and the moment that they have a close encounter with God, they simultaneously realize

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just how holy and magnificent and awesome and transcendent he is. Well, in this case, the same

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is true. The people are going to have a close encounter with God and simultaneously they're

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going to recognize just how holy he is, just how transcendent he is. This is not one of the

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Egyptian deities that were like demigods or half crocodile, half man or stuff like that. This was

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not like that. This was a God that transcended all of that pantheon of gods and all of the created

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realm itself. And when the people came into contact with him, they recognized that in a way

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that they did not previously.

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So you'll see that in today's text.

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We also see in verses 10 through 15 something interesting.

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We see that when the people were called to meet with God,

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there was an aspect of preparation.

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When the people were called to meet with God,

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there was an aspect of preparation.

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I assure you of all the things that have gone missing

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across several thousand years of ministry,

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one of them is this.

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We are nowhere near as reverential as we ought to or need to be

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given who it is we're worshiping.

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And so God says, before you meet with me,

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you are to prepare yourself, prepare your hearts,

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wash your clothes, wash your bodies,

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not because the grime itself was the problem,

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but because that's an outward sign of an inward cleansing

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that anyone is going to ultimately need in order to dwell on high.

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And ultimately is accomplished through the work of the Holy Spirit, through our faith in the Son.

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With that said, there's a lot going on here when he says, clean yourself up, because we're going to meet with God.

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An encouragement I would have to all of us is to approach what we do here as we're meeting with God.

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On the one hand, we're meeting others in the context of the fellowship we're enjoying.

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Yet at the same time, this is not functionally about you meeting you, meeting you, meeting you, meeting me.

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This is about us corporately meeting God,

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and it should be done with all the reverence we can bring to the table.

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So we see that in these verses.

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Beyond that in these verses, we see that these individuals here in this text,

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once they were clean, once they were prepared after several days,

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they were also told that even if you're clean,

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you're not going to just go marching up the mountain.

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In fact, you're not even permitted to touch it.

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Such a one, even if an animal from the field touches it, such a one should die.

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there was a danger with coming in contact with a holy and radiant God. Let's consider that danger

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a little bit more as we look at verses 16 through 25, where that danger is demonstrably illustrated

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for us. Verses 16 through 25, then it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there

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were thunderings and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the trumpet was

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very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out

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of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was

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completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke

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of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And when the blast of the trumpet

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sounded long, it became louder and louder. Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. Then the

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Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of

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the mountain, and Moses went up. And the Lord said to Moses, go down, warn the people, lest they break

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through to gaze at the Lord, and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near the

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Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them. Even the priests know this.

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But Moses said to the Lord, the people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you warned us,

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saying, set bounds across the mountain and consecrate it. And the Lord said to him, away,

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Get down and come up, you and Aaron with you.

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Do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord,

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lest he break out against them.

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So Moses went down to the people and spoke with them.

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God's warning to Moses.

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Moses seems to say, hey, God, we got this.

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We told everyone they know the drill.

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And God says, I don't think they understand.

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In fact, I know they don't understand.

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You go down.

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Roughly seven times across the next few chapters,

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Moses is going to go up and down in his meetings with God.

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In this particular case, God is saying that people really need to understand what is taking place here.

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Now, earlier this morning, I mentioned that there's at least two modern mountains that archaeologists have identified as possibly being the real Mount Sinai that we see here in Exodus.

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And as I said, the traditional site where the Catholics have built this famous monastery is located in a region we call the Sinai Peninsula.

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However, the other location that I'm personally persuaded is more likely is in modern-day Saudi Arabia.

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It is a mountain that is called, by those who live there, Jebel al-Lawz.

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Now, one of the most interesting characteristics of this particular mountain, Jebel al-Lawz,

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is that the whole top of the mountain, to this day, is blackened.

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And even secular geologists and scholars alike acknowledge that what's happened up there

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has probably occurred through some form of fire.

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I don't know whether it's a real mountain or not, and it's not really relevant to matters of faith,

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but it is interesting, and it's worth your consideration if you're so inclined.

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With that said, I do know this much from our study in Exodus 19.

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I know that whatever mountain got touched by the presence of God

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was absolutely charred by His presence.

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In this text, we see God's presence is real, and it burns and consumes all that it touched

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and turned the top of this mountain into a furnace of sorts.

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In fact, that's the word that's used.

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You picture a furnace, you picture not only the flames,

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you picture the billowing of smoke.

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All of that's what happened, combined with lightning,

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combined with thunder, combined with an earthquake,

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combined with a trumpet.

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You think God wanted the people to know

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that he was their God, that he was the maker.

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He was not a God amidst a pantheon of other gods,

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but this is the God who came down from heaven

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to meet with his people, and when he met with his people,

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Interestingly, at least in this Old Testament, Old Covenant encounter,

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he met with them manifest in fire,

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similar to the fact that in Exodus 3,

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he met with Moses in the burning bush, also manifest in fire.

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These are not accidents.

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Now, in these verses from Exodus 19,

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especially if this was all I had to read about this God,

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I would find myself a little conflicted, to be honest.

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And that's because the God that I see in these verses,

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at least based on what I see here, seems inaccessible to me.

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What do I mean by that?

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Well, again, think what this text says.

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We see lightning and thunder that startled and scared and frightened.

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We see the ground shaking beneath people's feet.

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We see a trumpet that sounds and it gets progressively louder and louder and louder.

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Being honest, I hear this and I think of the fire and the smoke and the furnace

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and all the things that are going on here.

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I can't help but be frightened, even just looking back at it through the corridors of time,

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even just reading about this, to think that's the God of all creation?

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I can't help but both be impressed, awed, and honestly, a little anxious about this God

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based on the attributes that are illustrated here.

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Well, you know what? That's the point.

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That was the point with the Israelites, to understand that they had a problem,

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that the God of all creation was holy and that they were not.

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Remember I told you, the closeness of the proximity they had with this encounter,

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simultaneously they realized just how transcendent this God was.

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That was the point.

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If any man amongst them thought, well, I'm better than Bob or my neighbors

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or Stu or Fred or what have you,

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maybe that will let me get halfway up the mountain.

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Being better than Bob or Fred or Stu or Frank or Marv or whoever

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does nothing for you in the economy of God.

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It doesn't allow you to let one foot on one rung

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up to his golden shores.

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God is holy, holy, holy.

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And that's what we see in this.

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And it was intended to shake the people

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out of any complacency they had

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about their standing with him.

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They had a problem.

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With one blast from his nostrils,

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he could eradicate the entirety,

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not just of them, but of all of fallen humanity.

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Furthermore, as we see elsewhere in Scripture,

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he would be fully entitled to do so

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because he's the lawgiver

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and humanity has broken the laws.

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Now let me stop and ask you a question.

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Is God still as holy now as he was then?

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Let's try that again.

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Is God still, right now, today,

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every bit as holy as the God who came down in fire

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around the mountains. Is he as holy now as he was then? Absolutely. God doesn't change. He's not a

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God whose holiness ebbs and flows like your cholesterol. God's holiness, God's holiness does

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not change. God is not going to be less holy tomorrow. He's not going to wake up and be more

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holy. If he was, then he wouldn't be God on any given day. If he could be a better God tomorrow,

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he's as holy now as he was then. Now, wait a second. If the same God is in the same heavens

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and he's as holy now as he was back then,

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and you and I are no less sinful

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than those Israelites who met with him there,

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uh-oh, uh-oh, we have a problem.

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The good news for us, though,

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is there's a solution to our problem

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by which this inaccessible God

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becomes eminently approachable.

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The path to God is not cordoned off at the base of some mountain that you're not allowed to touch.

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At one point, this was the case.

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At one point, the mountain was cordoned off.

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At one point, only one guy, one guy, one mediator that they had this time, his name was Moses,

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was even able to go up and talk with God.

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One guy was the mediator.

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Everyone else had to stay at a distance.

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They couldn't even so much as touch the mountain.

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Now, if you are an Orthodox Jew in the present, is that still what your theology teaches you?

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That God is inaccessible and unapproachable?

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Yes, yes, and yes.

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If you're operating under an old covenant with an old mediator, the answer is yes.

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Nothing has changed.

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That is sad, that is depressing.

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That is a terrifying worldview to perpetually be under.

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However, in the New Testament economy following the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ,

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something has happened by which we no longer have one mediator named Moses.

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We have a better mediator named Jesus, who lives, breathes, and died,

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and even now sits at the right hand of God the Father making intercession for us.

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And this one, this Jesus, has cleared the path through his own flesh, has made possible

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our close interaction with God to the point that the author of Hebrews says this,

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we can now approach his throne boldly. The sort of boldness you did not see in Exodus chapter 19.

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With our remaining time, let me linger on this. There's more we could talk about about the

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mountain. There's more we could talk about about this Old Testament group of individuals. But let

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me talk about how this text relates to you and I this day, how it gives us hope. We've talked thus

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far this morning about this biblical event that occurred at the base of the mountain some, I don't

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know, 34-odd, 400-odd years ago. We talked about this one event. Well, let me talk about a second

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event that occurred about 1,400 years after Sinai. Roughly 1,400 years after Sinai, there was a day.

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There was a day that at the start of it looked just like any other day. There was a day where

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if you were outside in the field, seemed like the days before, all the days before. The sun came up,

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the wind blew across the fields, the sky looked as it usually did. But then at noon, something

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happened. At noon, something changed. At noon that particular day, the sky drew dark. In fact,

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saying the sky drew dark is a misnomer. The sky didn't grow dark. Scripture says that on this

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particular day, the sun stopped giving its light. It was altogether different from just saying it

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got dark out. The sun stopped giving its light. And as a result, darkness gripped the whole

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landscape, particularly around Jerusalem and the temple. And in the temple, something else happened.

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In the temple, there was a veil. There was a veil in front of the Holy of Holies. It was huge. It

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was 30 feet tall, about four inches thick. It was big. It was impressive. It was a piece of fabric

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like nothing you've ever seen, and its purpose was what? To separate, to separate he who dwelt

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behind the veil in the Holy of Holies from everyone else. And only occasionally, once a year,

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could a priest with a rope tied around his foot, lest he died, walk in there. There was a veil in

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the temple that separated God from man. However, on this day, on the day when the sun stopped giving

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its light. On the day that Jesus Christ died, at the moment that Jesus Christ died, what happened

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to the veil? If I thought ahead, I'd have an object. Listen, I'd rip something here. It was

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ripped into, is rent into this veil, this thing. You and I could go out and try to do anything with

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it. We couldn't shred it with our hands. And yet the hand of God took it from top to bottom, which

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symbolizes something important as well, ripped it in two. What does that demonstrate? It demonstrates

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that through the death of Jesus Christ,

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we no longer have a veil that separates us from God,

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but we can now approach and we now have access to the Father

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through the veil of flesh of His Son.

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When Jesus Christ died,

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He satisfied the law's demands on our behalf.

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When Jesus Christ died, the perfect Passover lamb,

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when He died and His blood was substituted for ours,

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then we who have faith now have access to the same Father that He has.

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And because of that, as the author of Hebrews 12 says,

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we no longer stand at a distance staring at him, scared to even hear his voice lest we die,

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not willing to even touch the foot of the mountain lest we die. Instead, now in the present,

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we can walk boldly to his throne of grace for help in our hour of need. That was not possible

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through an old covenant and an old mediator. It is possible through the new covenant and the new

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mediator. That is what we see throughout the book of Hebrews. The author of Hebrews was telling

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that something has happened that allows us to filter that inaccessible God from Exodus 19 and

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to recognize that although he himself has not changed, he has, through Jesus Christ, ordained

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and decreed the means, the pathway, so to speak, by which we can now ascend the mountain.

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Do you remember that moment way back in the book of Genesis? We have this image that's called

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Jacob's ladder, this vision of Jacob's ladder. Well, later on, Jesus said, hey, you know what?

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The vision of this ladder that goes up and down from heaven with angels going up and down it,

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Jesus later said, that vision, given all the centuries ago in the book of Genesis,

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that vision was about me. I'm the ladder. You can't ascend up a mountain. You can't ascend

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through an escalator. You can't ascend through a ladder, through steps, through anything on the

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basis of your own virtue or your own righteousness, but you can ascend through faith in me. I am he

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who allows you to run up the mountain, so to speak, into the arms of your Father. Jesus Christ is the

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fulfillment of everything we're going to see throughout our study in the book of Exodus.

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Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all these different things, and it's important that we

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understand that. Otherwise, we look at Exodus 19 and all we see is a God that we can't draw near

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to. This morning closing, it is fully appropriate and wise and important for you and I to understand

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that God is holy and he hasn't changed. And we should approach him corporately and individually

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with reverence that is his due. God is holy. It's fully appropriate to understand what even the

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author of Hebrews understood, that our God is a consuming fire and that hasn't changed. But the

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good news of the gospel that we take with ourselves out these doors this morning, the good news of the

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gospel, is that through the death, through the resurrection of God's Son, the penalty for our

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sins has been paid in full, and you and I now have full, unfettered, unveiled access to the Father.

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This week, no matter what you've done this past week, no matter what you've done in years past,

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the God who has made you is not giving you the divine stiff arm, but through his Son,

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he's inviting you close. He says, run to me, run to me. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne

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to grace and we may attain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. This week, run up that

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mountain you are now invited to through the person and work of Christ. Let's pray.