When Moses prepares to ascend Mount Sinai, the Lord instructs him to consecrate the people. And the consecration included this warning: “the priests and the people must not force their way through to come up to the LORD, or he will break out against them” (Exodus 19.24 NIV; see also verse 20).
What does it mean for people to “force their way” to approach the Lord? It must be said that it is a good thing that a person would want to approach God. However, if God is to be God, how one approaches him is his alone to determine. It is God who sets the terms for anyone to have the privilege to stand in his presence. We have no right, nor do we have the authority, to impose our own demands or agenda on him.
The passage highlights the holiness of God, a holiness that can never be violated by human sinfulness. God even issues a severe warning of punitive action against those who try to approach him in their own way or on their own terms. “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10.31 NIV).
Perhaps the words of Jesus present a similar picture: “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been suffering violence, and the violent have been seizing it by force” (Matthew 11.12 HCSB). As The Message version would put it: “For a long time now people have tried to force themselves into God’s kingdom.” There were those who wanted the Kingdom to come but, again, they had their own agenda on how that should be accomplished. “The violent” may have been, for example, the Zealots who wanted to hasten the coming of the Kingdom by armed rebellion against Israel’s enemies. But Jesus the Christ, who ushers in the Kingdom, will not be dictated by human wishes. Only the will of the Father is what matters. And he will complete his task God’s way.
Consider this: We say worshiping and serving God is “all about him.” Yet we tend to conduct the worship of God, or engage in serving him, according to our own terms. We often allow what is convenient to control the when and the how of our worship. The so many “other concerns” of life somehow take priority over worshiping or serving God. And so what he expects of us become nothing more than options to consider. His commands are reduced to suggestions. We force our will on him.
Exodus 20 introduces what is called the Ten Commandments. Perhaps we should not miss the fact that they are founded on the truth that the one who speaks is “the Lord your God.”
—Keith Y. Jainga