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These are the commandments the Lord proclaimed in a loud voice to your whole assembly there on the mountain from out of the fire, the cloud and the deep darkness; and he added nothing more. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me. When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, all the leaders of your tribes and your elders came to me. And you said, \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 5:22-27)

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Two stone tablets: one copy for the King, one for the people.\xa0 A relationship had been made.\xa0 These Ten Words of the Covenant are attested twice in the Old Testament\u2014once in Exodus and once here in Deuteronomy.\xa0 In Old Testament law, everything must be attested by two witnesses.\xa0 This covenant has those two witnesses.\xa0 Their testimony is nearly, but not quite identical.\xa0 A mark of authenticity.\xa0 Many of the other laws and teachings of Moses vary quite substantially in their formulation across these wilderness books, but not the Ten Words.\xa0 They are a true witness, a reliable attestation of the covenantal relationship established between God and his people.

The significance of these Ten Words is further heightened by the fact that they are given in person.\xa0 It is the Lord who proclaimed these Ten Words directly in fire and voice to the assembly of the people.\xa0 No other laws or teachings were given this way.\xa0 Only the Words of the Covenant.\xa0

After this moment at Saini, the covenant relationship ceases to be face-to-face.\xa0 The covenant becomes mediated.\xa0 Moses becomes the go-between\u2014shuttling between God and the people, the people and God\u2014bringing the words of their dialogue back and forth to one another.\xa0 We read that the people requested this arrangement and we also hear a verse or so later that God approves of it.\xa0 But, in the pages of these scriptures we also hear echoes of the fact that this is not quite the way it\u2019s supposed to be.

Back in the Garden, God spoke with Adam & Eve face-to-face after all.\xa0 In Exodus 19:6, the Lord says of the Israelites, \u201cyou will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.\u201d\xa0 At one point Moses declares in Numbers 11:29: \u201cI wish that all the Lord\u2019s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!\u201d\xa0 Priests, prophets, kingly image bearers of God\u2014this is what the people were ideally called to be.\xa0 But somehow the fear of death had crept between the people and their God, and not even this experience of standing in God\u2019s presence and hearing his voice and living could deter it.\xa0 \u201cWhy should we di?\u201d they ask. And so they ask for a mediator: someone to stand between.

The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus has become the mediator of a new covenant\u2014one in which we do now have direct access to God.\xa0 Not only that, but the Spirit dwells within us and any fears of death have been swallowed up in the resurrection life of Easter. \xa0So there are no barriers to access on God\u2019s end.\xa0 The only question, is are we willing?\xa0 To stand in God\u2019s presence?\xa0 To hear his voice?\xa0 Today is a new day in which this question comes to you.\xa0 God is always speaking\u2014will you open your ears and heart to join the dialogue? \xa0\xa0

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