Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Last week Carol and I, along with our grandson Parker, enjoyed lunch at a restaurant at the base of Lookout Mountain. We had parked our car up at the top and then taken a ride on the Incline Railway down to the city below. The vertical drop from the summit to the valley floor is about 1400 feet, and the Railway has the distinction of being the steepest passenger railway in the world. The ride is only about a mile each way, but the sights and senses one experiences in that ten-minute trip are amazing. As we ate our food with the mountain in view, I thought about the two contrasting emotions I experienced on the trip down. First there was some fear. If you sit near the front of the rail car on the way down you will be impressed by the steepness of the descent. The track seems to go vertical at one point, and there is the brief sensation of walking off the side of a high cliff. This was a bit scary, since one of my life-mottos is ‘never climb higher than one is willing to fall’! But the other emotion–one that, given the context, seemed a bit out of place–was attraction. It was beautiful! Lookout Mountain is huge (the mountain extends almost 40 miles into Alabama)! The views from 2300 feet above sea level are thrilling. Being on the edge produced excitement. And if time and money were unlimited, I’d ride that train over and over again, and so would Parker!
I mention this because I have a hunch that, in a much bigger way, this is how the Israelites felt at the base of Mount Sinai. We are explicitly told that they experienced great fear there, and such is understandable given that it was at this sacred place that they both saw and heard the Lord God. But I imagine they were also attracted to the magnificent beauty of the Lord’s transcendent holiness. We might say that they were simultaneously repelled and drawn closer. Of course, at this very site the Lord would both speak and write down the Ten Commandments, and I suspect that the revelation of God’s Law had a similar effect upon them–fear and attraction. Fear because they were in the presence of the Great and Holy “I AM,” and attraction because they were His people and He was their loving Father whose will for them would be codified in the Decalogue.
It is imperative that we also feel those same conflicting emotions as we approach our study of the Ten Commandments. If we view and interpret these ‘ten words’ without fear, we will twist, distort, and dilute them for our own selfish ends. And without attraction we will likely ignore them, relegating them to a bygone era of ‘law’ that is no more relevant to us now than the telegraph. To properly understand the Law and its abiding place in our lives as New Covenant believers we must be both fearful of and attracted to God’s Holy Law. We must behold both the terror and the beauty of God’s perfection. We must appreciate both the danger and the delight found in His Law.
On Sunday we will begin our consideration of the Ten Commandments. And we will start at the beginning, where our journey should commence. Our sermon text will be taken from Exodus 20:1-2, which is the preamble or introduction to the Decalogue. Over the weekend, take some time to reflect upon these verses, and then get familiar again with the Ten Commandments as set forth in verse 3-17.
Before I sign off, let me say a heartfelt word of thanks to Col. Bob Owen and Rev. Jeff Hamm for preaching in my absence. What a joy and honor it is to have these two gifted men of God in our flock. I have greatly benefited from their many years of ministry experience and the wisdom the Lord has bountifully bestowed upon them. And I am deeply thankful for each of you, especially for your prayers during our two weeks off. We had such a blessed and refreshing time away, and I feel restored and reenergized. Your prayers ensured that we would find rest and refreshment, and would be better prepared for the Lord’s work. Thank you for your love and amazing kindness!
I love you all so very much, and it is the highest honor to be your pastor and brother in the Lord.
See you Sunday,
Mike