No Limits

“Put limits around the mountain and set it apart as holy.”  Exodus 19:23

Before I started writing, I started praying, but never once did I pause to consider if I could or if I should.   As God’s children, we often take the gift of instant access for granted, but such was not always so.  

“Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it.’”(Ex 19:12).  God was coming down, but His people didn’t dare come near.  The consequence for disobedience? Death. “Whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death”(Ex 19:12).

That’s tough-sounding stuff for a God whose intense passion and power had not long ago delivered these very people from brutal slavery, but the words and the warning remind us that God’s holiness is so intense, His perfection so profound that only absolute purity is safe in His presence.  

The barricade was erected for the Israelites’ protection.  Though the awesomeness of a smoking, trembling, trumpeting mountain ablaze with God’s glory was captivating, the people could not come close on their own.   No matter their desire, their sin put them in danger, so they had to stay away.

Until the cross.  Until the day God ripped Himself apart and ripped the curtain in two.  Until the fathomless grace of Calvary eliminated the limits and obliterated the barriers, and God said, “Come.  Stay back no longer; draw close now.”  And draped in Christ’s rightness we run to His arms.“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence”—not in ourselves but in His salvation.

Never again wonder, “Could you?” or “Should you?” but always wonder that you can.