Exodus 20:18-21 NASB All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. 19 Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin.” 21 So the people stood at a distance, while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was.
Despite every technological advance, human beings remain creatures of alarm. We crave control and predictability, yet we are drawn toward the very edges that unsettle us. We seek experiences that jolt our nerves, then lie awake fretting over threats we cannot name. Fear both attracts and exhausts us. It exposes the limits of our power and the objects of our devotion, hinting that our deepest problem is not the danger around us but the restlessness within us.
We live in a culture drowning in anxiety. From our fear of social awkwardness to our fear of civil unrest and social collapse, we have become the most fearful generation in history, despite being the safest. The irony is that as we have ejected God from the culture, thinking this would liberate us from fear, our anxieties have only multiplied. Ordinary life feels helplessly fragile as we continue to look for ultimate security in fragile things.
All of this exposes an unshakable truth: fear is not a glitch of modern life but a built-in feature of the human condition. And because fear is inescapable, the question is not whether we will fear, but whom we will fear, a question God Himself addresses at Mount Sinai. Exodus 20 shows that God confronts His people with His terrifying holiness not to crush them, but to replace destructive fear with a holy fear that draws them into obedient fellowship.
The setting could not be more dramatic. Israel has just heard the Ten Commandments spoken directly by the Lord, and now the mountain itself testifies to His presence. Sinai shakes beneath dark clouds, lightning splits the sky, thunder rolls like a royal procession, and a trumpet blast announces the King of heaven. This is no passing storm but the deliberate self-disclosure of the living God. Every sight and sound presses one truth on the gathered nation: the Holy One has drawn near, and no one can remain casual in His presence. Notice that…
Godly fear is a fear that avoids sin, not a fear that drives away.
Notice that when the people experience this manifestation of God’s presence, “they trembled and stood at a distance” (v. 18). Their trembling reveals something about encountering the living God. The earth itself shakes before His presence, as Isaiah saw when “the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called” (Isaiah 6:4). Mountains quake, hills melt, creation itself heaves before the Lord of hosts (Nahum 1:5). How much more should finite, fallen human beings tremble?
This is no mild religious experience. They felt this with their whole being. Not just hearing thunder but being overwhelmed by it, not just seeing lightning but being staggered by it. The smoking mountain was a terrifying sign of the presence they could not contain or control.
“They trembled and stood at a distance.” Like Adam hiding among the trees after his sin, and the demons who believe and shudder (James 2:19), this fear drives them away from God rather than toward Him. Distance is the natural impulse of sinful fear. We want to put space between ourselves and the One whose holiness exposes our shame. In verse 19, their fear crystallizes into a desperate request:
The people ask for a middleman
Exodus 20:19 NASB Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.”
They will accept God’s word, but only if it comes through human mediation. They want the message without the Messenger, the law without the Lawgiver, religion without the dangerous reality of the living God. This is sinful fear in its essence that flows from our misunderstanding of God. We see Him only as a threating, severe judge. Satan loves to present God as a cosmic tyrant whose primary delight is punishing our failures. The unfaithful servant in Jesus’s parable displays this problem: “I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man” (Luke 19:21). He sees nothing of his master’s kindness.
Israel recognizes their own inadequacy. They understood that their sin made direct fellowship with God impossible without intervention. They needed someone who could stand between them and the consuming holiness of the Almighty. Moses, who had already been on the mountain with God and had spoken with Him face to face, was uniquely qualified to serve in this role. He had already experienced God’s presence and lived to tell about it. He could approach the divine fire without being consumed and return with God’s message for the people.
Do not be afraid, but fear Him
Exodus 20:20 NASB Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin.”
Do you hear two seemingly contradictory commands here? Do not be afraid, but fear Him? Moses uses the same Hebrew word for both commands. Moses reveals two fundamentally different kinds of fear. There is a fear that drives us away from God, and there is a fear that draws us to Him. Those who properly fear Him will not be afraid of Him in a destructive sense.
This distinction is crucial because it reveals God’s purpose in appearing so fearfully at Sinai. He has not come to terrorize but to test. The word “test” here does not mean tempt to evil but rather to prove, to refine, to bring out what is genuine. Like a goldsmith’s fire that burns away dross to reveal pure metal, God’s fearful presence is designed to burn away sinful fears and kindle righteous fear.
Most of us understand the emotional weight of “fear” as only negative. We understand it as “dread.” When we hear “fear,” we think of cowering, fleeing, hiding. But the fear Moses speaks of is a good kind of fear, meant to draw us near to God. Is “fear” really the most helpful word to describe a positive response to the living God? Surprisingly, fear is the word we actually need.
What is the common denominator between sinful fear and godly fear? Both fears produce the same physical/emotional response of trembling when confronted with God’s awesome holiness and power. Sinful fear trembles and runs away, assumes God wants to destroy us, leads to despair and avoidance. Godly fear trembles and seeks the safest approach towards God.
Isaiah 33:14 NASB Sinners in Zion are terrified; Trembling has seized the godless.
The terror of those who know they cannot stand before God’s holiness tremble in sinful fear. But trembling also flows from the overwhelming goodness of God promise to cleanses His people from their sin:
Jeremiah 33:9 NASB and they will fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace that I make for [Jerusalem].’
The common denominator is clear: the body’s response to encountering something beyond its capacity to handle. Whether it’s the trembling that drives the Israelites to “stand at a distance” or the trembling that flows from God’s grace, the physical response is identical.
Trembling is what happens when the soul meets a moment too big for the body to contain. Whether it’s paralyzing terror or overwhelming joy, your body says, “This is beyond me.” In deep fear, the nervous system enters fight-or-flight mode. Adrenaline floods the body. Blood drains from extremities. Muscles tense or spasm. You shake, not by decision, but by visceral response. Think of the speaker who steps to a microphone and suddenly feels knees weaken and hands quiver: trembling is the body’s way of saying, “This moment is bigger than me.”
Intense joy can also overwhelm the nervous system. The body may shake with laughter, tears, or joyful weeping. The heart races, the voice cracks, knees buckle. Picture the embrace of loved ones reunited after years of separation, again, the body trembles because the experience transcends ordinary control.
That’s what it means for a believer to fear the Lord. You tremble, not because He might destroy you, but because He’s too glorious to touch without shaking. The word “fear” captures this physical reality that “respect” or “reverence” simply cannot. God is not merely respectable, He is earth-shakingly, soul-tremblingly magnificent.
Godly fear leads to holiness, not distance
God wants this right fear to remain “so that you may not sin.” The purpose of God’s fearful presence is not to create cowering subjects but holy children. This fear is meant to be a guardian of righteousness, a lookout against sin. When we rightly tremble before God’s holiness and goodness, we find ourselves empowered to reject what dishonors Him. This isn’t neurotic anxiety but holy self-awareness that operates proactively rather than merely reactively. The believer doesn’t wait for temptation but maintains constant spiritual alertness. As this wonderful fear grows, it eclipses and destroys all competing anxieties. Which is why Proverbs declares: “Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always” (Proverbs 28:14), not cursed, but blessed. These guardrails are not cold barriers but the warm embrace of a Father who keeps His children from wandering into danger.
The cross doesn’t eliminate fear but transforms its nature and motivation.
This transformation from sinful fear to godly fear must begin at the cross. Because the cross brings real forgiveness, it liberates us from sinful fear. The punishment we dreaded has fallen on Christ. The wrath we feared has been absorbed by our Substitute. The distance we felt has been bridged by the One who became sin for us. The cross doesn’t simply provide psychological relief but establishes a legal reality. The condemnation that made terror appropriate has been objectively removed through substitutionary atonement.
The cross shows the price of forgiveness, creating what John Bunyan calls “blessed confusion”. Feelings of joy from being pardoned are mixed with feelings of grief at the cost required. The cross reveals such overwhelming divine love that it creates reverent awe rather than servile terror. The believer fears not because God is his enemy, but because He has proven to be such a gracious Father.
“This fear…flows from a sense of the love and kindness of God to the soul… Nothing can lay a stronger obligation upon the heart to fear God, than sense of, or hope in mercy.” – John Bunyan
My guilt is removed but the sense of my filthiness increases. “The sense this that God has forgiven a filthy sinner, will make you both rejoice and tremble.”
After Moses approaches the thick cloud where God was (verse 21), the Lord establishes the basis for exclusive allegiance in verse 22:
Exodus 20:22 NASB Then the LORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven.
Having shaken the mountain and stilled the crowd, the Lord now speaks directly to Moses and reminds Israel what they themselves have witnessed: ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven.’ In other words, the God who terrified them with thunder has also stooped to speak with unmistakable clarity. And it is on the basis of that heavenly voice that Moses now calls them to the only fitting response. Notice that…
Godly fear gives exclusive allegiance to the God who speaks from heaven.
This God is not one among many. He is far above everything He created, yet He chooses to speak to His people. The emphasis is remarkable “you yourselves have seen.” This is not secondhand religion or philosophical speculation. This is direct divine revelation. The phrase “from heaven” is crucial. He is the transcendent Lord who rules from the highest realm yet chooses to communicate with His people. The same God whose voice makes mountains tremble has spoken words of covenant love to Israel.
This divine condescension should stagger us. The God who thundered from Sinai has chosen to communicate with finite, fallen human beings. He could have remained in eternal silence. Instead, He has spoken from heaven to earth.
The authority behind the voice
When God says “You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven,” He is establishing His unique authority. This is not merely one religious option among many. This is not human wisdom reaching upward toward the divine. This is heaven breaking into earth, the transcendent God making Himself known. The people at Sinai did not choose to encounter the divine. God chose to reveal Himself to them. The thunder and lightning, the trumpet blast and smoking mountain were not human theatrics but divine self-disclosure. We are hearing from the God who spoke from heaven at Sinai and who has spoken His final word in His Son (Hebrews 1:1-2). God’s word carries absolute authority because it comes from absolute authority. Verse 23 delivers the inevitable consequence:
The prohibition against rival gods
Exodus 20:23 NASB ‘You shall not make other gods besides Me; gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves.
The prohibition against silver and gold idols reveals something insightful about our human nature: our fears expose our true gods. We fear criticism and rejection because we crave human approval. We dread our careers collapsing because we love the status and stability they offer. We panic at the thought of our children being harmed because we treasure them deeply. Some of these anxieties spring from legitimate love, others reveal unhealthy obsessions lurking beneath the surface.
What do your fears reveal about what you truly treasure? What do they say about where you’re looking for ultimate security? Modern idolatry is subtler than ancient gold statues, but equally destructive.
Consider how we protect our comfort. What does it reveal when we feel disrespected if worship runs five minutes over? We have made our schedule more sacred than the God we claim to worship. What does it say about our hearts when we dread participating in ministry because we’ll lose our leisure time? Comfort has become our functional savior.
Consider how we approach our relationships. Does the thought of remaining in a marriage that has lost romantic feelings fill you with dread? Perhaps you’ve made emotional fulfillment into an ultimate thing, a functional savior you believe you cannot live without. Does the thought of losing control in your marriage cause you more fear than the thought of God’s judgment on patterns of harshness? You may have made control into a functional god that must be protected at all costs.
Consider how we handle our money. Are you uncomfortable with the idea of generously giving a portion of your income back to God? You may have made financial security your god. Many refuse to acknowledge that their inability to give generously comes from elevating wants to the level of needs. If you fear reducing your discretionary spending more than you fear your lack of trust in God’s provision, money has become your idol.
Good things have become tyrannical gods before which we tremble helplessly. Which do you fear more: being sinful or being uncomfortable? God’s displeasure or man’s disapproval? Being a sinner or being exposed before others as a sinner?
The expulsive power of godly fear
Why does exclusive allegiance to God naturally flow from the right fear of the Lord rather than feeling imposed by a tyrannical police officer in the sky? Because when we truly fear God, trembling in wonder at His majesty, goodness, and grace, all other objects of fear pale by comparison. This is what Isaiah meant when he said:
Isaiah 8:12-13 NASB [Do] not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. 13 It is the LORD of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, And He shall be your dread.
This godly fear does not make us cold or heartless toward earthly concerns. Rather, it properly orders our loves and fears. We can love our families without fearing their loss as the ultimate catastrophe. We can care about our health without being enslaved by hypochondria. We can work diligently without making our careers into gods. When God is rightly feared, all other things can be rightly loved.
The Fatherhood that transforms fear
But why does this exclusive allegiance flow from love rather than mere terror? Because the fear we are called to is the trembling wonder of beloved children before their heavenly Father. Through Christ’s work, we are not merely subjects of a distant monarch but adopted children of a loving Father. A child may tremble before her father, not because she doubts his love, but because she is overwhelmed by his strength, wisdom, and goodness. She knows he could crush her, but she also knows he would die for her. This is the beautiful tension of godly fear, trembling wonder in the presence of perfect love. But also notice that…
Godly fear expresses itself in simple, God-centered worship.
Worship flows from godly fear.
Having distinguished right fear from wrong fear and called for exclusive allegiance, God immediately turns to worship instructions in verses 24-26. This sequence is not accidental, proper fear of God naturally expresses itself in proper worship of God. The altar instructions reveal the heart of true worship:
Exodus 20:24 NASB ‘You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.
Notice that the altar is “for Me,” God-centered worship. It involves sacrifice, costly offerings acknowledging our sin and God’s holiness. Most significantly, notice the promise: “I will come to you and bless you.” This God who spoke from heaven promises to draw near to His people in worship. The fear that began with distance (“they stood at a distance” in verse 18) now creates the very conditions for divine fellowship. This is fear that leads to fellowship indeed.
The promise of God’s presence
The promise “I will come to you and bless you” reveals the ultimate purpose of godly fear. God does not want to be feared from a distance. He wants to be feared in intimate fellowship. The trembling that drives sinners away becomes, for believers, the trembling that welcomes Him near. We do not worship to manipulate God into blessing us. We worship because God has promised to meet us in our worship. The phrase “in every place where I cause My name to be remembered,” indicates that God, not man, determines where this fellowship will occur. Where His name is properly remembered and honored, there He promises to come and bless.
Simplicity, not human sophistication
God’s requirements for the altar are strikingly simple.
Exodus 20:25-26 NASB: ‘If you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it. 26 ‘And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, so that your nakedness will not be exposed on it.’
Why such emphasis on simplicity? Because the fear of the Lord strips away human artifice and self-promotion. When we rightly tremble before His magnificence, we cannot bear to draw attention to our own cleverness. Human improvement would “profane” the altar. This challenges contemporary worship. We often assume more professional worship is better worship, but God’s instruction suggests otherwise. Simplicity that focuses attention on Him is preferable to complexity that draws attention to human skill.
Worship is not primarily about our experience, our emotions, or our satisfaction. It is about God’s name, His revealed character, His reputation, and His glory. True worship is fundamentally an exercise in remembering who God is and what He has done. This God-centeredness flows naturally from godly fear. Those who truly fear the Lord develop what we might call a “jealousy for God”, not selfish envy, but a love that cannot bear to see the God’s glory diminished.
The heart behind simple worship
This is fundamentally a matter of the heart. Scripture presents this fear as a matter of the heart’s inclinations.
Psalms 112:1 NASB Praise the LORD! How blessed is the man who fears the LORD, Who greatly delights in His commandments.
The one who truly fears the Lord greatly delights in God’s ways! Only the gospel can produce such heart-transformation. When your heart is captured by the cross, by the overwhelming magnitude of Christ’s forgiveness and the terrible beauty of God’s grace, then you will want to worship Him with undivided devotion. The cross reveals both the simplicity and costliness of true worship. Christ’s sacrifice was the ultimate costly offering made on the ultimate simple altar, a rough wooden cross. When we grasp what Christ has done, our worship is transformed. We come with simple, grateful hearts, offering ourselves as living sacrifices in response to His overwhelming grace.
Conclusion
We began by observing our culture’s drowning anxiety. We have lost God as the proper object of healthy fear, and so we are necessarily becoming more neurotic. But here at Sinai, God offers His people a different path. He confronts them with His holiness not to destroy them but to draw them into fellowship. The fear that begins with “they stood at a distance” becomes the fear that enables “I will come to you and bless you.” This is fear that leads to fellowship indeed.
Our culture is presently fascinated with “getting back to basics”. We trim our closets, clear our schedules, and romanticize tradition because our souls crave the order and permanence only the Creator can give. But what do our cravings for simplicity really reveal? When you imagine a quieter life, what fear are you hoping to silence? Is it the fear of losing control, of being overlooked, of never feeling safe? Do you long for less clutter because you believe it will finally quiet the noise inside? These questions matter because simplicity in every other corner of life, without the trembling wonder of the Lord, still leaves the heart fragile. Only the fear of God can settle our restless need for security and give a peace that survives the next crisis.
The gospel offers you Moses’ paradox: Do not be afraid, but let the fear of Him remain with you. Come to the cross where God’s overwhelming kindness creates the most beautiful terror, not the dread that drives you away, but the wonder that draws you irresistibly to your loving Father. Admit before God that your sin deserves His judgment, trusting that Jesus bore that judgment in His death, and rest in His resurrection as your only hope of forgiveness and new life. Turn from every rival savior and placing your whole confidence in Christ, believing that His blood cleanses, His love receives, and His Spirit makes you new. This is how trembling fear becomes joyful fellowship: you draw near through faith in the crucified and risen Son.
This is fear that leads to fellowship, the sacred trembling that brings us home to the heart of our heavenly Father, where perfect love and perfect fear dance together in eternal joy.
