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by Verena Johnson
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‘Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die’ (Deuteronomy 18:16b).
How sad that the Israelites did not want to hear from God directly or see the fire of his great presence because of their fear.
They asked for a mediator to stand between them and God. As a result of their request, they had a whole series of mediators throughout their history, starting with Moses and followed by a stream of prophets, priests, judges and kings. The Israelites did not listen to God themselves; they relied on ‘mediators’ to tell them what God said.
Many of these ‘mediators’ honoured God, listened to him and spoke the words he put in their mouths, even though the people didn’t always listen or like what they had to say.
However, many more did not. They spoke words in God’s name that he hadn’t said, or even worse, they spoke things in the name of other gods. They often said what people wanted to hear rather than what people needed to hear. This is where the whole arrangement went downhill.
Thank God that Jesus came as the ultimate mediator between God and us and gave his life so we could have direct access to God again.
We don’t have to rely on mediators anymore. We can speak to God directly and hear what he has to say to us any time we want. We can read his word and listen to the Holy Spirit as he speaks into our hearts and lives. We can talk with God in prayer and listen to what he has to say to us.
God wants us to be with him with no-one else between us. He invites us into a close and intimate one-on-one relationship with him.
The problem is people haven’t changed. We are no different to the Israelites. Sometimes our fears get in the way of our relationship with God, and we don’t always listen to or like what he has to say.
But he is always there, loving us, forgiving us, inviting us and calling us to be with him. He has so much he wants to say to us if only we are listening.
Loving God, thank you for inviting us into an intimate relationship with you. Open our spiritual ears to hear you when you speak to us. Open our hearts and minds to receive what you have to say to us. Amen.
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