Doing Our Own Digging

Exodus 20:19

Then they said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die."

The Jewish people were not accustomed to going directly to God.  They only approached God through their high priest mediators.  They were quite comfortable in allowing Moses to declare to them what God had spoken to him.  They committed to doing whatever Moses revealed to them.   They were steadfast in fearing that they would be consumed by fire if they were to be in direct communication with the living God.

What an awesome privilege that we have to be able to go directly to the throne room of Almighty God.  What an unspeakable blessing that we have been provided by Our Mediator, Jesus Christ, who opened the doors of heaven for us.

Yet we often delight in and rely on the spoken and written words of men rather than digging into God's Holy Word ourselves.  We tend to look for our own Moses.  We find that the words of men lean toward messages that are meant to comfort us and not to convict us.  They also tend to require less work to digest.

By shying away from God's Holy Word, we seek to avoid the discomfort that comes with having our weaknesses brought to light by the revelation of the Holy Spirit.  Even more so, we shy away from a personal relationship with Our Creator.  We may not fear being consumed by fire, but we fear having to let go of the things of this world.  In doing so, we miss or delay the sanctifying work that prepares us for a life of eternal comfort with Our Savior.

Let us be more earnest in our reading of the Scriptures.  Let us seek the Holy Spirit to open our minds to receive all that has been prepared for us in God's Holy Word.  

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for speaking to us through Your Holy Spirit and Your Holy Word.  We rejoice in knowing that we can hear Your voice if we dig deeply into Your Word.  We pray, Lord, that we will be consumed by Your Holy Fire.  We ask, Father, that You strengthen us to close our ears to the messages of leniency that the world espouses and to open our hearts to Your Holy Word so that we may bring our lives into alignment with Your laws.  We ask that the Holy Spirit teach us how to listen to You.  May we seek and find an intimate relationship with You through Your Son.  We pray all these things through the Great Mediator, Jesus Christ.