Context No. 2896 of 4322 · Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 5:21-27: in context

21“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” 22The LORD spoke these words to all your assembly on the mountain out of the middle of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice. He added no more. He wrote them on two stone tablets, and gave them to me. 23When you heard the voice out of the middle of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders; 24and you said, “Behold, the LORD our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the middle of the fire. We have seen today that God does speak with man, and he lives. 25Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the LORD our God’s voice any more, then we shall die. 26For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as we have, and lived? 27Go near, and hear all that the LORD our God shall say, and tell us all that the LORD our God tells you; and we will hear it, and do it.”

Moses recalls the giving of the commandments, closing with the tenth: you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, house, field, or anything that is his. God spoke these words out of the fire on the mountain, and the people, terrified, begged Moses to be their go-between: you draw near and hear, and tell us what he says, and we will obey, but do not let us hear that voice directly or we will die.

Two things stand out. The last commandment reaches past action into desire itself; God's law addresses the wanting underneath the doing, not just the deed. And the people's fear is revealing. Confronted with the living God speaking from fire, they draw back and ask for a mediator, someone to stand between them and him. Their instinct is right: sinful people cannot bear the direct presence of a holy God unmediated, and they need someone to go between. That need points forward to the one Mediator who was to come.

Do I sense both that God's law reaches my desires, not just my deeds, and my need for the Mediator who lets me draw near without being consumed?

Sources

Deuteronomy 5:27: "Go near, and hear all that the LORD our God shall say... and we will hear it, and do it."
Exodus 20:19: "Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don't let God speak with us, lest we die."
1 Timothy 2:5: "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."