How We Ran From God. How God Brings Us Near.

Nothing is more important than a person’s relationship with God. Nothing defines human history more than how close to God they are.

Prior to sin, humanity could walk directly in God’s presence (Gen 3:8, 23-24); after sin, humanity was turned away from the presence of the Lord since he cannot tolerate sin (Gen 4:15; 12:7; 17:1; 26:2, 24; 35:9). The voice or presence of God to individuals was notable, marking major transitions in the biblical story: Noah before and after the flood (Gen 6:13-22; 7:1-5; 8:15-17; 9:1-17); choice of Abraham and the succeeding patriarchs (Gen 12:1-3; 22:1-18; 26:2-5; 28:10-22; 46:1-4; 37:5-11; 50:20); and choosing Moses at the burning bush (Ex 3:1-4:17).

The pattern dramatically shifts when God met Moses at Mt. Sinai to establish a covenant with the Israelites after redeeming them from exile in Egypt (Ex 19-31). The Israelites were terrified of the presence of the Lord, visible in the thunder and lightning, the smoking mountain and trumpet sounds; they asked Moses to be their mediator, “lest we die” (Ex 20:19). Moses challenged them to consider their terror instead as a holy fear of God, necessary for righteous living; but God heard and approved their request (Deut 5:22-31), and Moses stood in as their mediator (Ex 20:20-21), meeting directly with God. The Israelites transitioned quickly from the terror of the Lord to forgetting him, creating an animal that they worshipped and credited for the radical deliverance God had just worked (Ex 32:1-6). After purifying and punishing the people, God sends them on from Sinai with an angel to lead them; but he refuses to accompany them, “lest I consume you on the way” (Ex 33:1-3). From this point on, God’s communication to people was primarily through a mediator: a prophet, priest, or king chosen by God. God’s people could not withstand his holiness; God cannot in any way tolerate sin.

Access to God then is provided primarily through the tabernacle, by way of the priests and in the order God demanded (Lev 10:10-11; Dt 33:10). God still meets and speak to individuals, chosen at times to intervene for the Israelites at moments of crisis (Jud 6:11-24; 13:2-23; 1 Kings 3:5-15). God worked in dramatic ways, gifting the Holy Spirit to individuals as temporary and powerful intervention to provide in extraordinary ways for remarkable needs: Bezalel and Oholiab in building the temple (Ex 31:1-11; 35:30-35); leaders to assist Moses in bearing the needs of the nation (Num 11:16-17; 27:18-23; Dt 34:9); remarkable military might to deliver his people through Othniel (Jud 3:9-11), Gideon (Jud 6:33-35), and Samson (Jud 14:6, 19; 15:14-15); and prophets to speak God’s truth to his people (2 Chron 20:14-17; Mic 3:8; Neh 9:30). When the Israelites reject God as king in their desire to become like the other nations (1 Sam 8:4-9, 19-20), God provides a king for them, communicating the king’s responsibility to live under and lead his people to follow his law (Dt 17:14-20; 1 Sa, 12:13-15, 24-25; 2 Sam 5:2). While God provided for his people repeatedly in remarkable ways, they turned from his way (Neh 9:19-31), patterned themselves after nations around them (2 Kings 17:7-17), and exceeded the evil of the corrupt nations God turned out when he gave them the Promised Land (2 Kin 21:9-11). God turned them over to judgment as promised (Dt 28:36-37, 49-68; 2 Kin 17:18-23; 23:26-27; 24:2-4), and ruin and desolation (2 Kin 25:8-12; Lam 1:1-5) followed for centuries.

Through centuries of persistent, chosen dark was a ray of merciful hope. Moses had prophecied God’s provision of a prophet like him from among his brothers who would speak all that God commanded (Deut 18:15-19). God had promised a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek (Ps 110), a faithful prophet had promised that God would raise up in place of Eli “a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind” (1 Sam 2:35). God promised to David that one of his descendants would reign as king forever (2 Sam 7:12-16), a king who was promised to “execute justice and righteousness in the land” (Jer 23:5; 33:17-22).

Then Jesus came–the perfect and promised prophet, priest, and king (Acts 3:20-23; Heb 7:23-28; Lk 1:32-33). Unlike all the mediators God had graciously provided to this time, Jesus was not merely a faithful representative for God; Jesus is God himself, fully God and fully man, and he lived righteously in a sin-saturated world, doing all that God commanded (Jn 8:29; Rom 5:19). He promised that, though he was going to leave, he would send “another Helper” (Jn 14:16-17). He died, taking the place of sinful humanity once and for all (Jn 8:29; Heb 7:27)–the curtain guarding access to the Holy of Holies in the temple was torn, top to bottom, and Jesus shouted that all that had been prophecied was finished. The era of the temple was over; Jesus had entered into the holy place with his own blood, setting in place the new covenant (Mt 26:26-28; 1 Cor 11:25), “securing an eternal redemption” (Heb 9:12). Believers now have access to God through Christ. God tells us to come boldly (Heb 4:14-16; 10:19-22; Eph 3:12), to pray without ceasing (1 Th 5:17; Rom 12:12).

Jesus’ victorious death and glorification ushered in another brilliant change–not only did the believer now have the privilege of access to God himself, he also had the Spirit dwelling within him. The believer is now himself the temple of God (Eph 2:17-22)! Holy Spirit filling was no longer the privilege of the few equipped for a crisis; now every child of God has the Spirit given to and dwelling in them at the moment of trusting Christ. While radical signs of the Spirit were given to believers in the early church, confirming the veracity of the message and spreading the good news worldwide and quickly as Jesus commanded, the work of the Spirit in the believer today equips believers to fill the needs of the church (1 Cor 12:4-11; 1Pt 4:10-11); to comfort and bring hope (Acts 9:31; Rom 8:26-27; 15:13); to convict of the sin that would destroy (Gal 5:16-17; Rom 8:13); and to give understanding to spiritual truths (1 Cor 2:10-14; 1 Jn 2:20,27). We only long for the day when we will see God face to face, when we will be like him because we see him as he is. “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8).