Today I got a chance to interface with mountains, not the man-made ski-hill kind but real ones. Driving from Asheville, NC to Knoxville, TN to spend a night with a good friend (also a widow), my route took me through the Smokey Mountains.
As I started out, an unusual snowstorm was blanketiung the area. While trying to read highway signs through a white-out, I snuck a peak at the peaks along the way, wishing I had a third hand to take pictures. Snow stuck to the trees with such beauty I felt like I was driving through a Hollywood movie set. But the challenge of mountain driving in a blizzard soon yanked my attention from the scenery to the highway.
As my Highlander climbed and my ears popped, suddenly I drove right into a thick cloud. In an instant, visibility shrunk to two feet, and I couldn’t read signs or see the bends in the road. It was tempting to pull onto the shoulder to “wait it out” but I was afraid I’d be rear-ended. Besides, what would I be waiting for? Spring?
Difficult weather hasn’t bothered me, until today. As I crawled along behind a semi-truck trying to stay close enough to see its tail lights, I thought of the many mountains mentioned in Scripture. Mount Sinai, for one, factored into a story of God’s immense power when he created a supernatural fog, a “dense cloud” to shroud the mountain. The reason? God himself would be coming to earth in the cloud to speak in an audible voice.
Although no one was driving a Highlander on Mount Sinai that day, they were all just as nervous as I was when they saw the fog. As a matter of fact, Scripture says they were “trembling” with fear because of God’s incredible voice, which came out of the fog and was accompanied by thunder, lightning, smoke and fire. (Exodus 19)
God’s message to the people, through Moses, was that they not “force their way through to see the Lord” or they would die. He needn’t have said that. As they saw the entire mountain begin to tremble, none of them had any desire to go mountain climbing that day. They knew enough to be fearful. They’d seen God do awesome miracles, some positive, some negative. They also knew fear was “the beginning of wisdom.”
Sometimes lack of godly fear in our society is responsible for our casual attitude toward God and his power. We like crediting him with the good he does but can’t believe he would purposely show his power in a terrifying way. But that’s exactly what he did on Mount Sinai. When Moses connected with the people after God spoke from the cloud, they said, “Don’t let God speak to us like that again! It’s terrifying! We’ll die if he does!”
But Moses assured them God was simply testing their obedience “so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”
As Pastor James McDonald often says, “Choose to sin? Choose to suffer.”
Moses told the people, “God wants you to fear him to keep you from sinning,” which ultimately would keep them from suffering. Yet even while God scared them, he called them his “treasured possession.” God is who he is, and our proper fear of him is a good thing, not something to be avoided. It puts us in the proper place before God,which is beneath him.
I did some trembling today too, in that awful dense fog. But thinking about the Mount Sinai episode made me feel I could tackle my relatively small challenge, compared to the events of that day long ago. I didn’t hear God’s audible voice today, but he sure did hear mine as I called out for his help to make it through. Thankfully, he answered with safety.
“God said, ‘I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession’.” (Exodus 19:4-5)
