Exodus 33:7–11
The Bible4Jesus.com Podcast
About this episode
We come now to a passage that is both glorious and terrible. It is defiled by the grotesque sin of the golden calf. The people have committed high treason against their divine King, and the stench of their idolatry has made the camp an unfit place for the holy presence of God to dwell. This is the collision of two incompatible realities: absolute holiness and high-handed sin. When unholy men get too close to a holy God without a mediator, the result is not warm fellowship; it is incineration. God's holiness is a consuming fire, and the people have just soaked themselves in spiritual gasoline. It teaches Israel, and it teaches us, that sin creates distance between man and God. Access to God is a mediated access, a holy access, and it requires leaving the defilement of the world behind.