Saturday Devotional
Day 3 : “The LORD said he would dwell in thick darkness”
READ: Deuteronomy 4:9-13, Exodus 19:9-21, Exodus 20:18-21, Hebrews 12:18-29
Waiting behind a cloud of darkness, as patient as it was mysterious, the people of Israel found enshrouded in the choking darkness of smoke, God’s presence, in radiating fire. The sight was so terrible that they feared for their lives as a voice answered Moses, in a roar of trumpet and thunder. This moment burned into the memories of God’s people:
“’Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’ And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.”
Is this what you visualize when you think of God? A burning bush (Exo. 3:2), a pillar of fire and dark cloud protecting (Ex. 14:20), a sight something like a volcano?
This image is truly terrifying. The earth reeled and rocked; the foundations of the mountains trembled and shook. God bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet. Darkness was his covering, his canopy around him, thick clouds dark with water. Out of the brightness before him, hailstones, coals, and strikes of lightning; and the people also trembled, shook, and bowed.
We think of darkness as something associated with evil. The opposite of light. The opposite of God. We think of things like the men who hide in darkness to break into homes; those that seek the cover of night to do wicked deeds away from prying eyes; those who hide behind masks and computer screens.
It may be hard then for us to see God’s merciful intentions in hiding himself with thick clouds of darkness. Does God hide in darkness to work evil? Of course not! God beams goodness, so much that when his people look to him, their very faces reflect and radiate his brightness. He is the “King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.” When Moses walked through thick dark clouds on his way down from speaking with God, he didn’t know that the skin of his face shone. He had just spoken to God. The people saw Moses and were shaken. They pleaded with him to hide his face under a veil so they could have some sense of comfort.
So why would God, or Moses for the matter, shroud himself in darkness? God wants to be seen and known; he wants the world he created to be filled with the radiant brightness of his presence. Why would he hide his glory? What do you think?
The bible tells us that God is so immensely holy that he will not tolerate sin in his presence. All people are sinful, and to be near God’s presence would result in our immediate death; the eternal and just surety of sin is death. Somewhere deep down we all know this. God has therefore covered himself in darkness as a profound act of mercy towards us – whose eyes would go blind at the very sight of his full glory. How could we dwell with him? Would he cover his glory in smoke forever?
In later days God allowed his presence to temporarily rest in a tent and then a temple. When the LORD God had established a house for himself by the hand of King Solomon, “Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. But I have built you an exalted house(temple), a place for you to dwell in forever.” (1 Kings 8:12). God was not ever restrained to dwell in the temple Solomon made. Though Solomon “built the house for Him. However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands.” (Acts 7:48)
Instead, God bent the heavens, and himself became the light in this dark world. Jesus became the meeting place for God and his people. The bright holiness of God put on flesh as his covering and met people in the dark world. Jesus, the perfect image of the invisible God in whom “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through (whom he reconciled) to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, (made) peace by the blood of the cross”. Jesus would have no fear of climbing up the mountain where God’s fire and smoke billowed. With Jesus dwells the fullness of God’s holiness, because He is God.
How then should we respond? In the words of Hebrews,
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.” …. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
We also should be grateful, and worship God with the reverence and awe he is due. We can barely endure to be told that all people sin, and that whomever sins will die and be cast into darkness. Yet, we have seen the bright glory of the Lord Jesus and are being transformed into his image. We worship God because we know that our sin and the eternal death we are owed, have been erased as the light erases the dark. Jesus died for sins and darkness eclipsed the land, but was raised from the dead and ascended to rule as a king in heaven forever.
We who trust him don’t need to go to a physical mountain, or into a temple, but instead are receiving an eternal, spiritual kingdom ruled by the King, Jesus, who dwells in unapproachable light. (John 4:21-24; 1 Peter 2:5; 1 Timothy 6:6). We do not need to veil our faces as Moses did, but should instead reflect his light to all the world!
The only right response to all this is to worship God with reverence and awe. Our God is a consuming fire, who once dwelt in thick darkness, but now dwells with us in Jesus. The light of the world!
Response:
How do you relate to the people of Israel who were afraid of God and of Moses?
Read Hebrews 12:18-29
What is the reason given that we should worship God?
How does this center around Jesus?
How does God’s holiness affect your prayer?