Exodus 19-20 At the Mountain of God.

So far, the people of Israel have seen God destroy the powerful kingdom of Egypt through Ten Plagues. They have seen him stand the waters of the Red Sea straight up as walls on either side of a path, and watched Him then collapse the walls upon the entire army of Pharaoh. God has shown them how truly powerful He is through this whole trip out of Egypt.

Now, they have come to the mountain of God. God is preparing to raise the curtain. He has planned a Big Reveal. Here they will find out what this powerful God expects of them. But first, there's some protocol. Wash up. Be clean. Prepare yourselves to meet God. Oh, and don't touch the mountain or you will be executed. No, really, if you touch the mountain you will be executed to death. If you touch the mountain you will be executed to death with ranged weapons because melee weapons bring us too close to physical contact with you and that would contaminate the executors. DON'T GO NEAR THE MOUNTAIN!

Then, God descends on the mountain... and nobody wants to go near it anyway. I can't really blame them. When I read that description: lightning, thunder, fire, smoke, supernatural trumpet blast. It doesn't really bring to mind the Big Rock Candy Mountain. More like Mt. Doom.

Not the Big Rock Candy Mountain

So the Children of Israel spoke to Moses and said. “Moses! Look man... we can handle talking with you, but we can't handle God. We don't want to have Him speak to us because we'd all end up dead. Instead, you go talk to Him. Find out what He wants and then you tell us. Be our mediator Moses. And Moses does just that. Moses is the one who “drew near the thick darkness where God was.” He was their link to God. God approached the Israelites through Moses and vice versa.

This presents another picture, through Moses, of a manner in which Christ works on our behalf. He is our Great Mediator. Israel approached God through Moses their representative and mediator. We approach God through Christ our Mediator. Moses went up beyond where the children of Israel could go, and brought back the Words of God. Jesus was with the Father from beyond the beginning of time. And from outside our world He came, from the Father, to the earth, as the Word of God Himself.