Devotionals

Sinai

by Jerry Ousley
10/07/22
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Sinai

Jerry D. Ousley

            I’m sure all who read this have heard the story of what took place on Mount Sinai, or at least forms of it (you can read the story in Exodus 19-33).  There Moses was given the Law that was to govern the Israeli people.  No matter what leader or king was over the nation, ultimately God was to be the Governor and the Highest Ruler in authority.  Israel was promised great wealth, victory over their enemies and peace throughout their land if they would comply to the Law of God and always put Him first and acknowledge and honor His leadership.

            That never happened.  They came close in Solomon’s reign.  But it never completely happened.  It was because they just couldn’t do it.  They could not completely obey the Law of God.

            Even at the foot of Mount Sinai, after personally hearing the Ten Commandments uttered by God Himself, after Moses had been up on Mount Sinai for forty days, they concluded that he was dead and so forced Aaron to make them a golden calf to worship.  They had heard the original giving of the Ten Commandments before Moses went up to the top of Sinai (Exodus 20).  Verses 18 tells us that the people witnessed the thundering and lightning flashes from God.  They heard the sound of the mighty trumpet from Heaven and saw the mountain covered with thick smoke, and they were afraid.  The Bible says that they trembled, terrified with fear.  They were so afraid that they begged Moses that God not speak to them again, but that He would speak to Moses and let him tell them what God had said.  Later in the word we are told that this arrangement was good.  But only after the people had shown that they could not help but sin against God.  I believe that it was God’s perfect will to speak directly to all the people from the start.  But they refused the power of God.

            As before mentioned, after hearing God personally speak the commandments, when Moses had been gone for forty days, the people broke the very first commandment spoken by God – “You shall have no other gods before Me.”  Because it was first it should have been the one remembered most.  But they broke their promise to do all that God had spoken to them in just forty days.  They had been taken out of Egypt but they couldn’t get the Egypt out of themselves.

            We look back on them shaking our heads, “Why couldn’t they do this one, simple thing?”  We judge them for their lack of obedience and faithfulness.  If only they had stood in their promise.  But are we any better?  Do we fulfill the Law of God?  In 2 Chronicles 6:36, during the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the great temple he had built for God, he said, “. . . for there is no one who does not sin . . .”  David wrote in Psalm 14:3, “they have all turned aside, they have altogether become corrupt; there is none who does good, no not one.”  David wrote again in Psalm 53:3, “Every one of them has turned aside; they have altogether become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one.”  And, finally, Paul quoted David in Romans 3:10-12, “As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.  They have all turned aside; they have altogether become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.”

            You see, had we been in the place of the Israeli people at Sinai, we would have done the same thing.  We would have been so afraid of the voice of God that we would have begged not to hear Him again.  We would have failed after the forty days and worshipped a false god as well.  Why?  How do I know?  Because we are all in the same predicament.  We are no better; we are the same.

            That was the entire point of the Law of God.  It served to prove that it was impossible for mankind to completely fulfill it.  All the wars, all the victories, all that happened in the Old Testament, is an example to us of how man cannot succeed.  All failed, and so we all fail too.

            The only way was to have a Savior.  One who could fulfill the Law of God without sin, without failure.  But no one was found.  So, God clothed Himself in the garments of humanity, becoming the Son of God – God in the flesh.  Jesus Christ – the God-man, did what no other could do.  He lived the Law without sin.  Then He became the final sacrifice for all the world.  He allowed Himself to be executed by the religious system that was under the influence of the devil himself.  But on the third day He arose, conquering sin, death, the grave and hell itself.

            Now we can fulfill what God purposed at Sinai.  The mountain of God that brought sin, disobedience and death, now through Christ brings life, peace and victory.  All we must do is accept His sacrifice.  We must believe in Him and we will be saved from ourselves, the fate of sin, the eternal death of hell and be given victory in Him, and eternal life with a place in the House of God.  Learn the lesson of Sinai today.  Apply the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ to your life.  You will be saved.