The Israelites boldly said they would keep God’s laws. But God saw them as they were. He said, “Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments” (Deuteronomy 5:29). He knew they couldn’t do it.

Mount Sinai was completely covered in smoke as the Lord descended upon it in fire. It’s a demonstration of God’s perfect, holy character. The rabbis taught that no mortal could gaze unveiled on the majesty of God.

God didn’t let the Israelites see Him. He let Moses hear Him. God audibly spoke to Moses, and he delivered God’s laws to the children of Israel.

But you shouldn’t look to this as the model of how God speaks. More often than not, God will speak to you like He did to Elijah––in a still, small voice. God speaks to you through His Word and through His Son. “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:1-2).

Hebrews chapter 12 is a good commentary on this. “For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire” (v. 18). “But you have come to Mount Zion… to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling” (vv. 22, 24).

God said He would meet the people at the Mercy Seat, the top of the ark where the blood was sprinkled. It’s a place where God could apply mercy and withhold his judgment based upon the blood that was between the broken law and the perfect God—all a picture of Atonement (see Exodus 25:21).

Moses had a personal encounter with God in Exodus 33. “The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (v. 11). When Moses said, “Please, show me Your glory” (v. 18), God said He would make His goodness pass before Moses. “But He said, ‘You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me and live’” (v. 20).

Moses had seen many miracles. He had heard the voice of God. He had seen the Red Sea open up, water flow out of a rock, manna out of the sky. But he wanted to see the Lord’s face.

I think that spiritually, we’re not going to be satisfied until we see the Lord face to face. All of our worship experiences on this earth, as good as they might be, were never meant to satisfy, but only to whet our appetite for that transformative moment when we’re in the presence of God.