Thunder at Mount Sinai

Exodus 20:18 “Now all the people witnessed the thundering, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off”.

This was immediately after the utterance of the Ten Commandments at Mt.Sinai. The Israelites were able to see the mountain up in smoke and quaking greatly. Strangely, they were also able to see the thundering, lightening and the sound of trumpet. How could somebody see what is usually heard, the ‘sound’ of thunder & trumpet? Jewish scholars interpret it saying, “Like how they saw the sounds that they usually heard till then, they saw the glory of God of whom they had only heard from their forefathers or leaders till that time.” With our logical mind-set we may not be able to fully understand this. It may sound like a fairy tale to an agnostic but a believing heart knows & believes that: “it is written: eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1Cor 2:9).

But yet, the Israelites trembled and stood afar off. Fear of the LORD is when our heart trembles out of our unpreparedness (or unholiness) to stand before Him, but yet our spirit leaps-out in excitement towards Him.  Fear of the LORD is directly proportionate to our obedience and staying away from sin. After killing his own brother Abel, Cain feared not about going away from the presence of the LORD, but of being spotted out and murdered. God, setting a mark on Cain, was not going easy on his sin, but He withdrew His presence from him and that was a curse by itself (Gen 4:14-16). The Israelites, out of their ‘worldly fear’ were standing afar from the LORD but on the contrary, Moses was going up to His presence in obedience.  Does our fear for the LORD bring us to close to Him or take us away from Him? Are we able to sing like the psalmist: “But it is good for me, to draw near to God?” (Ps 73:28) ?

-Reena Thomas