“Do you not fear Me?” says the LORD. “Will you not tremble at My presence, who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it?” (Jer. 5:22a).
Augustine wrote an interesting and insightful passage about coming into the presence of God. He said, “What is that which gleams through me and smites my heart without wounding it? I am both a-shudder and a-glow, a-shudder insofar as I am unlike it, a-glow insofar as I am like it.” As Augustine reflected on this question concerning the holiness of God, he seemed to have an ambivalence about it. He was both captivated by it, yet frightened by it. To come into the presence of the Most Holy God created a deep sense of fear and trembling in Augustine. This fear sprang from the realization that God is different from us, that He is above and beyond us, separate and holy, that He is pure while we are sinful. Yet, despite this difference, we find comfort in Him because He is our Creator and we are like Him.
The normal human response to the holiness of God is this kind of ambivalence. That which is sacred both attracts and repels us. This tension can send confusing signals to the person who wants to know God, but who is afraid to approach Him. We can only understand this ambivalence when we consider the vast difference between God and man. He is holy, we aren’t. He is transcendent, we are earthly.
When we think of the holiness of God, it is so beyond our comprehension that we find it difficult to handle emotionally and to grasp intellectually. God is so different from us that, while we are drawn to Him, we hesitate to come into His presence. When we read the Scriptures, we see this time and again with those who approached the Lord in worship. Awed and captivated by the purity and glory of God, they approached with a deep sense of need and devotion. Yet, at the same time, they approached with reverence, with fear, and with trembling. Moses understood what it meant to be standing on holy ground, to come into the presence of something so totally other that it was beyond his imagining. Isaiah understood what it meant to behold the holiness of God, and his response was one of self-deprecating humility.
We live in a culture that is longing to come into the presence of something that is alien, that is different from ourselves, that is above us. Sadly, our society is looking in all the wrong places when it should be looking in the most holy place of all, to God Himself.
Do you know what it means to experience the kind of tension that Augustine experienced in his relationship with God? Does the holiness of the Lord both attract and repel you? If so, this is not unusual. You should tremble before the Lord, yet this should not keep you from Him. Go to Him today, reverently but confidently.
