Exodus 20:20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”
When I was growing up, there seemed to be lots of rules to help keep me from getting in trouble. I know that many of those rules kept me safe from harm. I didn’t play in the street without watching for oncoming cars. I didn’t run with scissors pointing upward. I didn’t point the BB gun a people. I didn’t play with my food. I washed behind my ears. I didn’t eat with my elbows on the table.
Some of these are pretty good ideas. Some still lack a compelling argument in their favor. But there were other rules that were about moral issues, like telling the truth, not taking other’s stuff, doing what our parents told us.
This second set of rules were there as a kind of fence, there to keep us in the safe zone of life morally. If we obeyed these, we were in morally safe territory. At least that is what we were told, and what I believed.
I think there is a role for rules in helping to form moral character. They give us the ‘look’ of morality. They show us an example of how godly character might look in current culture. They provide a starting point as we walk closer to Jesus.
But the rules seemed to be an end in themselves, at least from my young mind’s perspective. I didn’t get the more profound connection that I now understand as an elder citizen of the heavenly kingdom. I can now see the value of the rules which I used to question.
As Moses is standing before the flaming and smoking mountain upon which the LORD had manifested his presence, he gives advice to the people. They are not to enter this flaming, smoking presence. (To be honest, I am not sure I would want to enter that great unknown.)
This people had seen the power of the LORD in the ten plagues brought against the Egyptians, and the LORD’s deliverance of them and the slaughter of Pharaoh’s select army in the Red Sea. They knew his power against his enemies. They knew not to get on his bad side.
But Moses assures them that the LORD does not need to be feared. He is not out to get them. He is there to protect and deliver them, bringing them into the Promised Land. But they must learn to obey.
The fear they feel, as they see, once again, the presence of the LORD, is there as a protection from sin. The fear is a tool given to help them not sin, to help them obey. When they feel this fear, it should draw them into obedience, not send them scurrying into independence and self-reliance. And this is what they needed. They needed the fear to draw them close, not send them running.
How do you respond to righteous fear, fear that is there to protect you? Does that fear keep you from sinning and drive you toward obedience? Or is it ignored?
The Arnold Journey 