Matthew 5:13
"You are the salt of the earth …”
The Heavenly Voice spoke the Ten Statements in a rumbling earth wind and fire show defying any pyrotechnic event (Exodus 20:18). The Almighty Creator of the universe continues expounding on the universal Constitution that until this day forms the basis of the world’s main calendars (the seven day week with one day of rest) as well as defines the basic laws of morality and civil conduct. At that point, the Children of Israel confess their incapacity to hear the Heavenly Voice. They beg Moses to intercede; they ask him to hear the Heavenly Voice and relate to them later what It said.
So many people today say, “God told me such and such …” I do not doubt that God still speaks to or through people, but looking at Scriptures, it seems that such events were fearfully awesome. What human indeed can hear the very Voice of God?!
The Almighty approved of Israel’s request to ask for an intercessor. Here is what He said through Moses, "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers--it is to him you shall listen-- just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.' And the LORD said to me, 'They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him (Deuteronomy 18:15-18). Maybe God recognized Israel’s leader’s healthy fear of Him which according to Solomon is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10).
Because of our sinful nature, we cannot directly hear the Voice of the Almighty God. We need an intercessor. This intercessor is the way by which we enter in the Holy Presence. This Intercessor earned His position by being faithful and obedient unto death. Though His atonement work was finished from the foundation of the world, He was manifested to us in these last days as Yeshua HaMashiach (2 Timothy 1:9-10), One who has delight in the will of His (and our) Father (John 6:38; Hebrews 4:15). Like Moses, this Intercessor helps us hear the Great Voice of God. We understand the message and nature of the Father through His Words, but mostly through the example of His life. Like the High-Priest does in the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonements, Yeshua, our High-Priest in the heavenlies brings our petitions to the Father (Hebrews 9).
As He was to the world of His generation, so He sent us to be in the world of our generation (John 17:18). May we then also, as Moses did in His generation and Yeshua does in ours, consider the helpless spiritual state of those around us and bring them the Word in a more palatable form. May we help them ‘see the lightening without feeling the bolt! ‘
Yeshua explained it as being the ‘salt’ of the earth. As salt makes food more palatable and nicer to the taste, so we ought to live in way that the witness of messiah in our life makes the understanding of God’s ways more palatable to people.
"You are the salt of the earth …”
The Heavenly Voice spoke the Ten Statements in a rumbling earth wind and fire show defying any pyrotechnic event (Exodus 20:18). The Almighty Creator of the universe continues expounding on the universal Constitution that until this day forms the basis of the world’s main calendars (the seven day week with one day of rest) as well as defines the basic laws of morality and civil conduct. At that point, the Children of Israel confess their incapacity to hear the Heavenly Voice. They beg Moses to intercede; they ask him to hear the Heavenly Voice and relate to them later what It said.
So many people today say, “God told me such and such …” I do not doubt that God still speaks to or through people, but looking at Scriptures, it seems that such events were fearfully awesome. What human indeed can hear the very Voice of God?!
The Almighty approved of Israel’s request to ask for an intercessor. Here is what He said through Moses, "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers--it is to him you shall listen-- just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.' And the LORD said to me, 'They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him (Deuteronomy 18:15-18). Maybe God recognized Israel’s leader’s healthy fear of Him which according to Solomon is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10).
Because of our sinful nature, we cannot directly hear the Voice of the Almighty God. We need an intercessor. This intercessor is the way by which we enter in the Holy Presence. This Intercessor earned His position by being faithful and obedient unto death. Though His atonement work was finished from the foundation of the world, He was manifested to us in these last days as Yeshua HaMashiach (2 Timothy 1:9-10), One who has delight in the will of His (and our) Father (John 6:38; Hebrews 4:15). Like Moses, this Intercessor helps us hear the Great Voice of God. We understand the message and nature of the Father through His Words, but mostly through the example of His life. Like the High-Priest does in the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonements, Yeshua, our High-Priest in the heavenlies brings our petitions to the Father (Hebrews 9).
As He was to the world of His generation, so He sent us to be in the world of our generation (John 17:18). May we then also, as Moses did in His generation and Yeshua does in ours, consider the helpless spiritual state of those around us and bring them the Word in a more palatable form. May we help them ‘see the lightening without feeling the bolt! ‘
Yeshua explained it as being the ‘salt’ of the earth. As salt makes food more palatable and nicer to the taste, so we ought to live in way that the witness of messiah in our life makes the understanding of God’s ways more palatable to people.
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