Exodus 20:18 - 22 comments: the people were afraid to hear from God directly

    20:18 ¶  And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. 19  And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die. 20  And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. 21  And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.

    20:22 ¶  And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. 23  Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold. 24  An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. 25  And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. 26  Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.

Apart what is obvious in this passage, God wanting to impress upon the people just what and who they were dealing with, there is an important point to be made about avoiding the paganized Christianity of historical church organizations of either Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, or Protestant faith traditions. God did not want the Israelites to mingle worship of gods and devils with His worship in any way.

Deuteronomy 32:17  They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.

How do you know if you are a pagan Christian? Well, if your faith tradition or church or yourself holds on to a certain wording in a prayer that you repeat constantly like the model prayer that Jesus taught His disciples as some kind of amulet to ward off trouble as those in former times thought it should ward off evil spirits you are paganized.

This is a model prayer for the disciples not a mantra you just repeat over and over again for good luck.

Matthew 6:9 ¶  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11  Give us this day our daily bread. 12  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

There are elements in this prayer that should be included in our prayers as well; honoring God, seeking His will, asking for what we need, pleading for mercy in the measure in which we grant it to others, deliverance from sin and calamity, and an acknowledgment of His power and sovereignty over all things. We need this more than He does. Prayer lines up our thinking with the reality of God if we follow Christ’s instruction and places us positionally in truth.

Long-winded prayers for show, not talking to God but talking to the people that hear you, and vain repetitions, almost as if you were chanting, are also symptoms of paganism.

Matthew 6:5 ¶  And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 6  But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. 7  But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8  Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

If you believe that your service to God, your faithfulness in church attendance, or your righteous convictions and moral standard; the way you live, the political candidates you vote for, and how respectable you appear in your community are things you can do to ward off evil and prevent misfortune because you know you will have God’s protection from all trouble and difficulty, family problems, disease, etc. then you are paganized. As I said previously, you do not do business with God. You do not command Him and this life, He tells us and our own experience shows, is so fragile and our situation here so precarious and temporary and all is under judgment from mankind’s sin nature that we have no guarantee of never having to face disaster, pain, or grief while we are in this body.

The Jew and the pagan brought their animal sacrifices to the temple. They formulated complex rituals and ceremonies to get their gods’ attention, rituals and ceremonies that God never commanded. They developed these formulas to obtain their gods’ approval over long periods of time, making it up as they went along.

We all carry pagan ideas into our worship from our past as we came out of various faith traditions; Catholic, Lutheran, Charismatic, Southern Baptist, etc. etc. that had allowed these pagan ideas to enter in and we must fight to remove those pagan ideas from our worship. God does not want our worship to be corrupted with the leaven of the Pharisees or of Baal.

John 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

God did not want altars of hewn stone like the pagans made. Verse 26 will be important later in clearing up something that some get wrong, perhaps, because of a lack of reading comprehension, but we’ll save that for when it comes up again.

Verse 22 shows a direct link through this thundering and smoke to heaven itself. In this regard, heaven came down to the Hebrews. Note the following as ways God communicated with someone He chose before the Bible was complete and the entire revelation of His ministry of reconciling mankind to Himself was available to us in book form as the Old Latin Bible around 150AD or even before.

 Genesis 22:11 ¶  And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.

Acts 9:3  And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: 4  And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 5  And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 6  And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. 7  And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.

God also speaks through man’s spirit imparting understanding and wisdom to Him.

Job 32:8  But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.

2Peter 3:15  And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;

2Peter 1:21  For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Now that we have the complete revelation of God we do not expect God to speak to us audibly nor do we accept that He has spoken voice-to-ear to some great religious leader. Whenever some religious celebrity declares that God appeared to him in his living room or some such nonsense we often laugh or shake our heads. But, we have a more sure word of prophecy in the Bible that is more certain even than a voice we think is from heaven.

2Peter 1:17  For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 18  And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.

    19 ¶  We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: 20  Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21  For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Finally, the people did not want God to speak to them in verse 19. They wanted Moses to speak to them. Human nature is to follow a man; whether it be the toughest, luckiest, altogether pagan Viking or a charismatic pastor in a Fundamentalist church. They don’t want to hear from God directly. They aren’t willing to let God speak to them through His words in His book. They want everything spoonfed to them. This allows for better control, certainly. The Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony of our Colonial Era would say that God only speaks to His people through the sermon on Sundays. They denied Martin Luther’s insistence that the Holy Spirit would speak to each sincere believer through God’s own words in His book. Bible studies in people’s homes were typically outlawed. Thus, Ann Hutchinson’s famous Bible study was condemned and lies were spread about what she was teaching.

People are not comfortable with God speaking to them through His word. Just tell me what to think they would say, what to believe, for it is too terrible and disturbing to simply believe what God has preserved for me. They wanted Moses to be their mediator and their instructor and did not want to hear directly from God. So, it is today with most Christians, whether Protestant Fundamentalists or Roman Catholic.

Each of us, though, have this privilege, immense and grand in its proper application. That not only should we hear a man of God expound and exhort on what God has laid on his heart for us to hear but to let God speak to us through His own words in His own book, not just on Sunday but every day and many times a day if we are drawn to it or have memorized passages to contemplate and meditate on.

Psalm 119:15  I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.

Joshua 1:8  This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.