Our Amazing God

Deuteronomy 5:22 puts a period at the end of the Ten Commandments. God speaks from the fire, the cloud, and the thick gloom with a great voice, and “he added no more.” The scene is dramatic, even traumatic, because God is not a little man behind a curtain trying to drum up fear. God is simply present, and his presence is enough to make sinful people tremble.

The word of God carries real gravity here. God’s speech must be studied carefully, obeyed seriously, and communicated faithfully. The word of God must not be used for flights of fancy, and hard doctrines must not be thrown out just because they make people uncomfortable. Where God closes his holy mouth, faithful people ought to desist from inquiry.

Israel hears the voice from the fire and realizes that God has spoken with man, “yet he lives.” God’s glory and greatness unsettle them, and his holiness presses down on them. The people are like pepper scattering from the soapy finger in the bowl of water. God is perfect, man is sinful, and the difference is not small. The holiness of God exposes the foolishness of anyone saying that God owes answers before obedience. God owes man nothing, while man owes God the very breath in his lungs.

God answers Israel’s fear with surprising tenderness. God hears their concern and says they have spoken well. God longs for them to have a heart that fears him and keeps his commandments, “that it may be well with them and with their sons forever.” The God of the Old Testament is not a harsh rival to the God of the New Testament. God is one, and his character has facets like a diamond: kindness and severity, wrath and love, justice and grace, all perfectly held together.

Moses becomes the go between because God makes provision for the trauma of holiness. God tells the people to return to their tents, while Moses stands near to receive the commandments, statutes, and judgments. Moses is a type and shadow of Christ, an imperfect picture of the perfect mediator to come. Jesus stands between sinful people and a holy God, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood. Jesus secures eternal redemption, satisfies the righteous wrath of God, and becomes the advocate for sinners. The question is fearful and urgent: either Jesus propitiates God’s wrath for a person, or that person faces it alone.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. God’s Word carries holy weight. God’s voice at Sinai was not casual, soft, or optional. The fire, gloom, and thunder showed that when God speaks, man is not free to shrug, speculate, or edit. Scripture deserves careful study, careful obedience, and careful handling, especially when its truth cuts across comfort or preference. [38:28]
• 2. Holiness unsettles sinful people. God’s presence did not terrify Israel because God was acting cruelly. God’s holiness simply came near, and sinful flesh felt the awful distance between Creator and creature. A person who demands explanations from God before bowing before him has not yet felt that distance rightly. [48:23]
• 3. God’s tenderness knows human frailty. God heard Israel’s fear and answered it like a father who remembers his children’s frame. His compassion did not cancel his holiness, and his holiness did not cancel his compassion. The God who thunders from the mountain also desires that it may be well with his people and their children forever. [53:28]
• 4. God is kindness and severity. God’s attributes do not compete with each other like divided parts of his personality. His wrath, justice, mercy, patience, and love are all perfect facets of the same holy God. A shallow view of God tries to keep the gentle parts and discard the severe parts, but Scripture calls for the whole diamond to be seen. [57:47]
• 5. Christ is the needed mediator. Moses stood between Israel and the terrifying voice of God, and that picture pointed forward to Jesus Christ. The holy God cannot be approached by sinners carrying their own guilt and hoping for the best. Jesus alone satisfies God’s righteous wrath and secures eternal redemption for those who are called. [65:25]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [30:14] - Deuteronomy 5 After the Commandments
• [31:08] - God Reveals Himself to Be Known
• [34:38] - God Speaks From Fire and Gloom
• [37:59] - Reverence for the Word of God
• [43:32] - Israel Fears the Living God
• [48:23] - Holiness and Human Sinfulness
• [50:08] - God Owes Man Nothing
• [53:28] - God Answers Fear With Tenderness
• [57:47] - The Facets of God’s Character
• [60:06] - God Transcendent and Near
• [63:00] - Moses as Mediator
• [65:25] - Jesus, the Better Go Between
• [68:58] - Propitiation and Eternal Redemption
• [71:03] - Facing God With or Without Christ

Bible Reading

Deuteronomy 5:22-33
“These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and he added no more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. And when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes, and your elders. And you said, ‘Behold, the LORD our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man, and man still live. Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, we shall die. For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of fire as we have, and has still lived? 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.’ And the LORD heard your words, when you spoke to me. And 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. Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever! Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.” But you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandment and the statutes and the rules that you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess.’” [00:30:14]

Hebrews 12:18-21
“For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, ‘If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.’ Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ‘I tremble with fear.’” [00:36:19]

1 John 2:1-2
“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” [01:09:16]

Hebrews 9:11-15
“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” [01:08:06]

Observation questions

1. In Deuteronomy 5:22, what details are given about how God spoke the Ten Commandments, and what does the line “he added no more” emphasize about that moment? [00:34:38]
2. In Deuteronomy 5:23-27, what exactly frightened the people, and what did they ask Moses to do for them?
3. According to Deuteronomy 5:28-29, how did God respond to the people’s fear, and what desire did he express for them and their children? [00:53:28]
4. In Hebrews 9:11-15 and 1 John 2:1-2, what titles or roles are given to Jesus, and what did he accomplish for sinners? [01:08:06]

Interpretation questions

1. If God spoke from fire, cloud, and thick darkness with a loud voice, what does that suggest about how God’s Word should be treated today, especially when it says hard things? [00:37:59]
2. The people feared they would die if they kept hearing God’s voice. What does that reveal about the difference between God’s holiness and human sinfulness? [00:48:23]
3. God said the people had spoken well, and then said, “Oh that they had such a heart as this always.” What does that show about the kind of fear God wants from his people? Is this only terror, or something deeper that leads to obedience?
4. Moses stood between the people and God, and Jesus is called the mediator of a new covenant. In what ways does Moses help the group understand why a mediator is necessary, and why Jesus is better? [01:05:25]

Application questions

1. God’s Word carries holy weight. In day-to-day life, where is the temptation strongest to treat Scripture lightly, skip over it, or edit it down to something more comfortable? [00:38:28]
2. There is a difference between studying God’s Word and merely having opinions about it. What would more careful study and more careful obedience look like in this season of life for each person here? [00:38:46]
3. God’s holiness unsettles sinful people. When someone resists God by saying, “I need answers first,” what might really be going on in the heart? Has anything like that shown up personally in this group’s own struggles with obedience? [00:50:08]
4. God heard the people’s fear and answered with tenderness. Where is there a need right now to remember that God’s holiness does not cancel his compassion, and his compassion does not cancel his holiness? [00:53:28]
5. God is kindness and severity, not one without the other. Which side of God’s character is easier to receive personally, and which side is more often ignored or resisted? Why might that be? [00:57:47]
6. Moses was told to stand near God on behalf of the people. Jesus now stands as advocate and mediator for sinners. How does that change the way a Christian should respond after falling into sin—hiding, excusing, despairing, or running to Christ? [01:09:16]
7. Either Jesus has satisfied God’s righteous wrath for a person, or that person will face it alone. Is there settled confidence in Christ as mediator, or is there still a tendency to approach God on the basis of personal goodness, effort, or religious habit? [01:11:03]