I like the two mountains that reba was talking about. Here comes sparrow's paraphrase and I'm not going to try to pretend that I picked this next part out of a pre-prepared sermon folder that I have magically sitting around, but it will be off the cuff. In other words, please correct me if I get it wrong, but also, please don't nit-pic me too much, I know that's fun, but I'm asking please...
Mt. Sinai was the place where everybody (not just Moses) was invited initially to come before God. Israel stayed in the Wilderness of Sinai for more than 57 chapters of Scripture in the year they camped near and about Mount Sinai. It took them three months of trusting God to get to this place, but they finally arrived. Then there was more waiting... but what's a single year when they wandered 40 years?
Anyway, Sinai was the place where Moses met the burning bush. The whole nation was going to get their part of the Moses experience. That's the trembling mountain. But when the Israelite got closer and saw that Gods holiness was a deadly terror to flesh? When they understood that "Fear of the Lord" could also mean "Terror of the Lord" ?!? Even the mountain shook at His Presence. You may have heard of the 'Terror of Yitzhak' (Isaac, the most mysterious forefather). Yeah. Imagine HIS terror when he saw his dad under the influence of the Holy Spirit getting ready to slay him on an 'holy' altar ... Yikes! Even the birds (even sparrows? yes, even sparrows) died just because they flew too close -- sheesh.... they refused. (The Children of God refused, that is, not the dead, the poor, dead sparrow or other birds).
But we are NOT called there. That's what Paul said to the Hebrews and that's what reba mentioned earlier. There is no need to fear. Yes, we are to be holy, but it's not by the old covenant that we are being called any more. That old marriage covenant, that old espousal agreement was set aside. But it wasn't repudiated. (That's a legal term, friend - look it up). And there is so much about that in the Bible about this that it's almost impossible to find stuff that doesn't include it (at least by implication). But that doesn't mean that God is no longer holy, nor does it mean that we are no longer called to be like Him. We shall be like Him, but we just don't yet know what that means. We are in that process even now. I am convinced that part, a very big part, is learning how to discern His body.
Learning what I like to call the Psalm 133 lesson. Some translators look at the Hebrew in the last verse and to them (and they are more expert than me) it sounds like God was saying that the dew of Mt. Hermon actually fell on Zion. But even if you can't grasp that thought, certainly you can understand that brothers joining together in unity, and building each other up in our most holy faith is what it's about. And if not? I certainly hope for you, and for your sake, that this misapprehension will fall as if it were scales from your eyes.
Where is there some mud when I need it? Oh, never-mind. We're online. That wouldn't work anyway. But there is still a way. Faith, and by His Spirit. Not strength, not by might... nope.
"But by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts..."
Mt. Sinai was the place where everybody (not just Moses) was invited initially to come before God. Israel stayed in the Wilderness of Sinai for more than 57 chapters of Scripture in the year they camped near and about Mount Sinai. It took them three months of trusting God to get to this place, but they finally arrived. Then there was more waiting... but what's a single year when they wandered 40 years?
Anyway, Sinai was the place where Moses met the burning bush. The whole nation was going to get their part of the Moses experience. That's the trembling mountain. But when the Israelite got closer and saw that Gods holiness was a deadly terror to flesh? When they understood that "Fear of the Lord" could also mean "Terror of the Lord" ?!? Even the mountain shook at His Presence. You may have heard of the 'Terror of Yitzhak' (Isaac, the most mysterious forefather). Yeah. Imagine HIS terror when he saw his dad under the influence of the Holy Spirit getting ready to slay him on an 'holy' altar ... Yikes! Even the birds (even sparrows? yes, even sparrows) died just because they flew too close -- sheesh.... they refused. (The Children of God refused, that is, not the dead, the poor, dead sparrow or other birds).
But we are NOT called there. That's what Paul said to the Hebrews and that's what reba mentioned earlier. There is no need to fear. Yes, we are to be holy, but it's not by the old covenant that we are being called any more. That old marriage covenant, that old espousal agreement was set aside. But it wasn't repudiated. (That's a legal term, friend - look it up). And there is so much about that in the Bible about this that it's almost impossible to find stuff that doesn't include it (at least by implication). But that doesn't mean that God is no longer holy, nor does it mean that we are no longer called to be like Him. We shall be like Him, but we just don't yet know what that means. We are in that process even now. I am convinced that part, a very big part, is learning how to discern His body.
Learning what I like to call the Psalm 133 lesson. Some translators look at the Hebrew in the last verse and to them (and they are more expert than me) it sounds like God was saying that the dew of Mt. Hermon actually fell on Zion. But even if you can't grasp that thought, certainly you can understand that brothers joining together in unity, and building each other up in our most holy faith is what it's about. And if not? I certainly hope for you, and for your sake, that this misapprehension will fall as if it were scales from your eyes.
Where is there some mud when I need it? Oh, never-mind. We're online. That wouldn't work anyway. But there is still a way. Faith, and by His Spirit. Not strength, not by might... nope.
"But by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts..."
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