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  • Jeremy Lyzenga

Fear & Awe


On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled.”

- Exodus 19:16


One of the few things I miss about the Midwest (besides my family) is a good old-fashioned downpour and the accompanying lightning and thunder that comes with a real storm. I have fond memories in my teenage years of staring out my parent’s 8-foot wide picture window as the lightning flashed across the sky and the window rattled from the rolling thunder.


Our passage for today leads us right up to the moment before God gives the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20. It describes God’s instructions for Moses, and the Israelites to prepare themselves for God’s descension to Mount Sinai. And as I read it I’m struck by the sight, the sounds, and the sheer terror of what the people of Israel experienced. Imagine being at the bottom of that mountain, and you’ve been told not to touch the foot of it or you will die on the spot. Then a thick, dark, fiery cloud descends, lightning flashes, and the earth shakes under foot. (vs. 18)


As an adolescent I have fond memories of the awe and wonder that thunder and lightning stoked within me. I came to respect the power and the majesty of God on display in those storms. However, I have equally vivid memories of those same tempests causing sheer terror and anxiety in me when I was a young child.


“Crack!”

“Boom!”


The first flash and bang would often send me sprinting down the hallway to my parent’s bedroom in the middle of the night to receive the assurance that “everything was going to be alright.” I can only imagine that my childhood fear of storms pales in comparison to the trembling that the Israelites did on that day.


Throughout scripture the call to “Fear God” comes over 300 times. But more often than not it is accompanied by a promise of immense blessing for putting that fear into action by obeying His commands. Here God comes to Sinai to give the law, and it’s not as an act of authoritarian power on display, but a gift of love that God would descend and give his people clear instructions on how best to live in right relationship with God and our fellow human beings.


Many centuries later God would descend again, and this time when the earth shook, and the darkness rolled in his own Son would die and then rise again so that God’s people could ultimately be restored to right relationship with Him and one another. We don’t need to be afraid of God, but we do need to fear him. Submit to him in reverence. Acknowledge his otherness. Obey his commands. Trust that his ways are higher than our ways. May your fear of God lead to wonder and awe at his power and majesty, and his love and mercy.


~ Jeremy Lyzenga

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