|
|
Selah Moment: Awe
Dr. Jack Klem, CBTS
“I stand in awe of You Holy God to whom all praise is due, I stand in awe of you.” These are the words of song writer, Mark Altrogge in the song he penned, “I stand in awe.”
Awe is a wholesome biblical emotion of either joy or terror. Although we sing about it, I am not sure that we genuinely experience it. What is it that generates a sincere and wholesome response of joy or terror in our lives? When you consider some of the awe-inspiring moments in Scripture, you realize that often it is the weighty experience of God’s holiness that causes joy or terror.
When Moses saw the Lord in the burning bush of Exodus 3, the Lord warned him not to come to close because the weight of His otherness set the place apart as holy.
The nation felt the weight of God’s holiness at Mt. Sinai prior the revelation of the Law in Exodus 19. God underscored the importance of this meeting by prescribing a consecration process for the people. Joshua (Josh. 5), Isaiah (Isa. 6), and John (Rev. 4-5) were individuals who to one degree or other expressed their undoing when they encountered the weight of God’s holiness. Later in history the Lord God rebuked the nation of Israel through the pen of Jeremiah (2:19) for having no awe of the Lord.
Could it be that the Lord would say something similar to us?
How can we
legitimately experience the weight of God’s holiness and genuinely respond to the Lord with awe?
Should we expect that the Lord will appear to us like He did in the Older Testament?
No, we should not expect the Lord to repeat those events today.
However, He does impose the weight of His holiness on us through His Word.
The Psalmist wrote, “I stand in awe of your Words” (Ps. 119:120).
It is the Word of God that describes in full detail the worth of God’s person, that records His mighty deeds (Psalm 145:6), and that affirms His covenant of love for us (Dan. 9:4).
The Word was the means that God chose to make Himself know to Samuel at Shiloh (1 Sam 3:21).
The Word is what the writer of Hebrews 12 calls his readers to not refuse. It is the Word about God Himself, who is a consuming fire that generates acceptable worship with reverence and awe (12:28).
May God help us to truly stand in awe of Him as we experience the weight of His holiness in His Word.
|
