In Exodus 19:18-19, “Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder,” which understandably made the Israelites “tremble with fear” (20:18), and fear so intense that they begged Moses, “Don’t have God speak to us or we will die”(19).
Yahweh had made his presence felt all right, and he was one scary Being. But Moses tells the terrified crowd in Exodus 20:20, “Don’t be afraid.” Which seems like an odd thing to say, but in context he’s saying, “Yahweh’s not doing all this to frighten you to death.” Instead, “he’s come to test you.” This frightening display of his power, therefore, was a test, the test being: will it create in the Israelites “an ongoing fear” of what Yahweh is capable of that will “keep them from sinning” (20)?
Because up to this point the Israelites hadn’t been very good at not sinning, and the reason for it becomes abundantly clear in their reaction every time a crisis arose that scared them. When they saw the Egyptian chariots bearing down on them they “cried out to the Lord” and to Moses, “Did you deliberately bring us out here to die? What have you done to us?” (14:10-11). They were accusing Yahweh and Moses of deceit.
And when there weren’t the pots of meat they could fill up on like they’d had in Egypt, they accused Moses and Aaron of deceit again, this time in purposely starving them to death (16:3). And when there was no water, they accused Moses of deliberately killing them off by thirst too (17:3), described by Moses as “putting the Lord to the test” (2) – which it was, because Moses had told them back in Exodus 14:13, “Don’t be afraid. Stand firm and you’ll see the deliverance of the Lord,” which they’d experienced in vivid and memorable detail again and again, but it never stopped them from mouthing off at Moses and turning against Yahweh.
They had no fear of Yahweh at all, and that’s what created their rotten attitude. So at Sinai Yahweh upped the scariness to help them realize they also needed to “be afraid” – realizing just who they were dealing with and the immense power he could unleash on them for their rotten, negative, accusing attitude toward him.
So first of all, “don’t be afraid,” since there was no crisis Yahweh couldn’t solve, but secondly, “be afraid” to keep them from sinning – both for their benefit. They were learning in Yahweh, therefore, that “They needed no other God”….(next blog)
Buck To Basics 