There are many common themes throughout Scripture, but one of the easiest ones to pick up on is the human response to the appearance of heavenly beings. When people see the angelic, they are not just surprised. They are terrified.
That might be partially explained in that not many are expecting to physically see or experience the angelic and/or divine. Besides – to the unholy, the holy is terrifying all on its own. Holy presence overwhelms sinful flesh. Just as light reveals what is in the dark, holy presence calls to mind one’s unholiness. Yet even those who are expecting the divine are often shaken when He appears. Not only are people scared when they encounter the divine, they often fall down, immobilized by the holiness of the one standing before them.
When Moses was on Mount Sinai, Hebrews tells us, “The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”” That is in spite of the fact that he already had a relationship with God and had just climbed a mountain to meet with Him. In fact, Moses himself testified that the whole time he was on the mountain with God, he was laying prostrate before Him, and when He went back up the mountain after breaking the tablets, he did it again, “Then once again I fell prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights.”
Moses’ reaction is not unusual. Scripture records that many people fell down at Jesus’ feet. One expects that of the evil. “Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”” Yet one sees the same with those who are honestly seeking. The woman with the bleeding fell down (Mark 5:33) as did Jarius (Luke 8:41), and even the disciples – though they knew Jesus well – were sometimes terrified of Him. Scripture records, “When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified.”
So the response that Peter, James and John have to the Father’s voice on the mount of transfiguration is not a surprise to the reader of Matthew’s Gospel: “While he [Peter] was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified.”
Holiness is to sin as fire is to gasoline; it’s uncontained presence is incompatible. The sight or even sound of it ignites fear of utter destruction. The more that presence is visible and heard, the more fear we will feel. Peter, James and John experience something of that on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Their unredeemed flesh cannot even stand up when God speaks, because even among the redeemed, the hint that some form of error remains in our fallen frame becomes literally too much to stand.
The remarkable thing about fearing God is that, when you fear God, you fear nothing else; whereas, if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.
Oswald Chambers
APPLICATION: Worship
Let us approach God Most High with fear and trembling; for He is holy, and we are not.