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\u201cThe Lord our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks with them. But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer. For what mortal has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived? Go near and listen to all that the Lord our God says. Then tell us whatever the Lord our God tells you. We will listen and obey.\u201d (Deuteronomy 5:24-27).

Here we have one of the great tensions and mysteries of the Christian faith. Here we have an early demonstration of God\u2019s grace to his people.

Moses is recalling for Israel what happened when they first heard the 10 commandments. They had been gathered in the foothills of the Sinai Mountain range. God had appeared to them in blazing fire, \u201cthe mountain was ablaze with the fire.\u201d This was the glory of the Lord, the radiant light that surrounds him, the revelation of his deity. They saw firsthand the majesty of their God. And it terrified them.

Of course, they had not seen God himself, \u2018no one can see God and live.\u2019 But they had seen the majesty which surrounds his divine presence. And there was more, they had heard his voice. God himself had spoken to them, and his voice was thunder (cf. Exodus 19:19). They were rightly terrified. And yet\u2026

Yet, they still lived. The people experienced that they could live even if God speaks to them. This is the miracle of grace they received from God. They are deeply convinced that what they have experienced is something unique, something that mortal humans, these fragile creatures, have never experienced before.

But they feel that God\u2019s majesty has been sufficiently imprinted on their souls and ask to be spared further exposure to God\u2019s voice; they are filled up with the fear of the Lord. Moses can be their mediator, he can go up to hear what else the Lord has to say, and he can relay this to them. They promise to listen to what Moses will report to them and also to obey.

Does God terrify you? Are you afraid of God? There is something right about being terrified by God. He is holy. He is terrifying. But notice the movement of the story. God comes to Israel. He comes down to the mountain to reveal himself. And Israel survives. That is the good news, the grace, in this story. And Moses will be their mediator for a time.

Moses will give that work over to Jesus when Jesus comes down, not to the mountain but to Mary\u2019s womb. Jesus will not come surrounded by lightning and thunder but clothed in human flesh, Immanuel. To catch a glimpse of the grace in Jesus\u2019 incarnation, we do need to stand with Israel trembling at the foot of the mountain. We need a bit of terror. God is holy! Jesus, on the cross, is our mediator. He paves the road to God with his own sacrifice.

To truly know God, we need to live in that tension between God on Mount Sinai in all his majestic glory and Jesus who walked the dusty roads of Galilee, Samaria, and Judea with his disciples. This is the tension, the mystery, and the grace of our Christian faith.