And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.” (Hebrews 12:21, NKJV).
Whatever else the manifestation of God's Presence on Mount Sinai was, Moses, the sole audience on the mountain itself, summarized his experience in the six words quoted above.
Fear and trembling is the appropriate response.
Yes, God is love. Yes, He is merciful and gracious, and in Christ, forgiving, but the Law and Mount Sinai were all about God's righteousness and judgment. That blazing holiness and raw omnipotence can only engender awe and terror when witnessed by a mere mortal man.
And it is that holiness and omnipotence that will be foremost in that future Day of Judgment coming upon the entire Christ-rejecting world. Men will cry out for the rocks and mountains to fall on them rather than to be subjected to the fierce glory and wrath of the Lamb of God.
So-called modern thinkers, liberated from the "archaic superstitions" of the past via "higher" education, consider such ideas about future judgment to be quaint and just a little bit childish. They take comfort in their condescension and imagined superiority. But that insouciance is an illusion that will be shredded come the reality of that Day. Their vaunted philosophies will offer no refuge or escape.
It should be no surprise that this represents one of the most effective strategies against faith and godliness, and involves lemming-like dismissiveness; a scoffing disregard for what most of the world has believed for most of history.
And the most ironic component of this tactic is that even the most dismissive among its practitioners are haunted by the awareness of an oncoming existential storm.
They know that a cataclysm is imminent. They know the human race and this planet are headed for doom and disaster, and that knowledge displays itself in hysteria over all the imagined causes: anthropomorphic global warming; religious zealotry; bigotry; overpopulation; a nuclear holocaust; new strains of resistant diseases; and on and on.
Strangely, there appears to be no acknowledgment of the uncanny accord between their "modern" terror, and the ancient ones that have been an inherent part of human thinking since humans began thinking.
What these stubborn and stiff-necked individuals willfully refuse to come to grips with is that the Creator God of the Universe placed this conviction of coming judgement in our very DNA so that the prospect of future upheaval is undeniable.
Make no mistake. However terrifying the anticipated man-made causes of global destruction may be, these are nothing in comparison to the terror of a wrathful omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient Being determined to execute judgement on His rebellious creatures.
That fear and trembling that pervades human society about the future is a goad, an incentive, an unendurable impetus to bring us to Christ.
Resistance is futile, for no matter what is tried in a frenetic attempt to deny the fear - habitual busyness, activism, frantic pursuits of distraction and denial, drug or alcohol induced stupors, rabid hedonism or hatred, greed-soaked acquisitiveness - nothing works for long. And the dread returns with an intensive backlash.
These verses in Hebrews are setting up yet another comparison between Christ and all that came before. For even Moses, a hero of the faith and giver of Divine Law, could not approach his God without fear and trembling.
He was confronted with undeniable evidence of God from the moment he was sent as Deliverer for the Children of Israel. From the burning bush, to the manifold provisions in the wilderness, he knew of God's power and ubiquitous Presence. He knew of his holiness and purity, and he responded as only a sane man would: fear and trembling.
We will see in the next few verses that we who have accepted Christ operate under a much different paradigm, an infinitely better hope, a vastly different future prospect, but before we gloat or feel special, remember this: it is all God.
We have done nothing to deserve other than that same fearsome judgment except the one and only thing that makes a difference. We have believed in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as Lord and Savior.
And even that belief is a gift of faith from the Giver of All Good Gifts.
