Awesome

READ: Exodus 3:1-6

I am the Lord, who makes you holy and who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord.

Pizza, spectacular sporting events, and God. What do all of these have in common? All have been referred to as AWESOME! I certainly know what is meant by the first two items on the list. Awesome is a word, however, that should be reserved exclusively for Almighty God.

The word awesome, in the biblical sense, means “to show the proper sense of respect and wonder that is inspired and demanded by an encounter with or meditation on the character and activity of God.”

Moses had that transforming encounter with the presence of God on Mount Sinai. God got his attention with the miraculous sight of a bush engulfed in flames. Not only that, but He amazed him as He called out Moses’ name from the burning bush (v.4).

Often God has to do something uncommon to get our attention so we can realize who He is and direct our full attention to Him. God would not let Moses treat Him as common, trite, or ordinary. He instructed him not to come any closer and to remove his sandals because he was standing on holy ground (v.5). After these instructions, the Lord introduced Himself to Moses, and Moses responded with the respect and wonder that was demanded by his encounter with God (v.6). God’s awesome presence calls for quiet reverence and quintessential respect.

Wouldn’t it be great to say the word awesome and have people immediately realize that you are referring exclusively to God!

I enjoy pizza (preferably Chicago-style deep dish), but a large cheese and sausage does not inspire reverence. Sporting events are wonderful recreational pastimes, but they hardly demand wonder and respect.

God created the entire world from nothing, created humanity from the dust of the ground, breathed into man the breath of life, and brought salvation to undeserving sinners like us through Jesus Christ. Now, that’s AWESOME. —Marvin Williams

REFLECTION

• Do I remember the last time I trembled at the awesomeness of God?
• How will I let the knowledge of God transform my life today?
• In what way have I made the “sacred” common and the “holy” familiar?

Visions of God lead to reverence before God.

campus journal