35 Bible Verses about drawing near to God

Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

The LORD told Moses, "Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel, and worship at a distance. Only Moses is to approach the LORD, but the others are not to approach; the people are not to come up with him."

When the LORD came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain, he summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. The LORD told Moses, "Go down and warn the people so they don't break through to look at the LORD, and many of them perish. Even the priests who approach the LORD must consecrate themselves. Otherwise, the LORD will attack them."read more.
Moses told the LORD, "The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai because you warned us: "Set boundaries around the mountain and consecrate it.'" The LORD told him, "Go down, and come back up with Aaron, but the priests and the people must not break through to go up to the LORD. Otherwise, he will attack them."

All the people experienced the thunder and lightning, the sound of the ram's horn, and the smoking mountain. And as the people experienced it, they trembled and stood at a distance. They told Moses, "You speak to us and we will listen, but don't let God speak with us, or we may die.

"Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters! Also, you that have no money, come, buy, and eat! Come! Buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why spend your money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in rich food. Pay attention to me, come to me; and listen, so that you may live; then I'll make an everlasting covenant with you, as promised by my faithful, sure love for David.

None of the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a defect is to approach to bring offerings of the LORD made by fire, since he has a defect. He is not to approach to offer the food of his God.

"Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous person his thoughts. Let him return to the LORD, So he'll have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he'll pardon abundantly.

"The LORD declared these commands in a loud voice to your entire assembly on the mountain from out of the fire and dark clouds, and nothing more was added. He inscribed them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. When you heard the voice from the darkness while the mountain was blazing, all the leaders and elders of your tribes came to me and said: "The LORD our God truly has displayed his glory and power, for we heard him from out of the fire today. We have witnessed how God spoke to human beings, yet they lived. read more.
Now therefore, why should we die? This great fire will consume us. If we continue to listen to the voice of the LORD our God any longer, we'll die. For what mortal man has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the fire like we did, and lived? As for you, go near and listen to everything that the LORD our God will say to you, then repeat it to us, and we'll listen and obey.'

How blessed is the one you choose, the one you cause to live in your courts. We will be satisfied with the goodness of your house, yes, even with the holiness of your Temple.

It won't obey anyone. It won't accept discipline. It does not trust in the LORD. It does not approach God.

"The descendants of Zadok, Levitical priests who took care of my sanctuary when the Israelis wandered away from me, are to come near me to minister to me. They are to stand before me to offer the fat and the blood to me," declares the Lord GOD.

"I've punished your children with no results, they have accepted no discipline. Your sword has devoured your prophets like a destroying lion." "You, generation, pay attention to this message from the LORD! Am I the desert to Israel, or a land of gloom? Why do my people say, "We're free to roam? We won't come to you anymore.'

Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu each took his own censer, placed fire in it, covered it with incense, and brought it into the LORD's presence as unauthorized fire that he had never prescribed for them. As a result, fire came out from the LORD's presence and incinerated them. They died while in the LORD's presence. Moses spoke with Aaron about what the LORD had said: "Among those who are near me, I'll show myself holy so that I'll be glorified before all people." So Aaron remained silent.

For there will be a day when the watchmen will call out on the hills of Ephraim, "Arise, let's go up to Zion to the LORD our God.'"

and the north-facing chamber is for the priests who maintain the altar. These are Zadok's descendants, who, as descendants of Levi approach the LORD to minister directly to him."

Their leader will be one of their own, and their ruler will come from among them. I'll bring him near, and he will approach me, for who would otherwise dare to approach me?' declares the LORD. "You will be my people, and I'll be your God.'"

Then he told me, "The north and south chamber, which are opposite the courtyard, are consecrated areas where the priests who approach the LORD will eat consecrated offerings and lay the consecrated grain offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings, because the area is holy.

Likewise, the people of Israel will dwell a long time without a king, without a prince, without sacrifice, without sacred pillars, and with neither ephod nor teraphim. Afterward, the people of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come in awe to the LORD and to his goodness in the last days.

You are to present to the Levitical priests, Zadok's descendants, who will approach me to serve me, a young bull for a sin offering,' declares the Lord GOD.

"For as the new heavens and the new earth that I am about to make will endure before me," says the LORD, "so will your descendants and your name endure. And from New Moon to New Moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all humanity will come to worship before me," says the LORD.

It is to be a holy portion of the land, set aside for the priests who serve the sanctuary, who approach the LORD to serve him. It is to be a place for their houses, as well as the Holy Place of the sanctuary.

"When the one with the discharge is cleansed from his discharge, then he is to set aside for himself seven days for his cleansing. He is to wash his clothes and bathe with flowing water. Then he will be clean. On the eighth day, he is to take for himself two turtledoves or two young doves, bring them to the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, and give them to the priest. Then the priest is to offer them one for a sin offering and the other for a whole burnt offering. That's how the priest will make atonement for him in the LORD's presence regarding his discharge."

The LORD remains near to all who call out to him, to everyone who calls out to him sincerely.

Eight days later, Moses called Aaron, his sons, and the elders of Israel. He told Aaron, "Take a young calf for a sin offering and a ram without defect for a whole burnt offering and bring them into the LORD's presence." He also told the Israelis, "Bring a male goat for a sin offering, a calf, a year old lamb without defect for a whole burnt offering, read more.
an ox, a ram for a peace offering to sacrifice in the LORD's presence, and a grain offering with olive oil, because on that day the LORD will appear to you." So they brought what Moses had commanded to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. The entire congregation drew near and stood in the LORD's presence.

"Turn back, unfaithful people, and I'll heal your unfaithfulness." "Look, we're coming to you because you are the LORD our God.

Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name, bring an offering and enter his courts!

So tell them, "This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "Return to me," declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, "and I will return to you.

Serve the LORD with joy. Come before him with a joyful shout! Acknowledge that the LORD is God. He made us and we belong to him; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Thank him and bless his name,

"Ever since the time of your ancestors, you have turned away from my decrees and haven't kept them. Return to me and I'll return to you," says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies. "But you ask, "How will we return?'

How am I to present myself in the LORD's presence and bow in the presence of the High God? Should I present myself with burnt offerings, with year-old calves? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with endless rivers of oil? Am I to give my firstborn to pay for my rebellion, the fruit of my body in exchange for my soul? He has made it clear to you, mortal man, what is good and what the LORD is requiring from you to act with justice, to treasure the LORD's gracious love, and to walk humbly in the company of your God.

Therefore, my brothers, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great high priest over the household of God, read more.
let us continue to come near with sincere hearts in the full assurance that faith provides, because our hearts have been sprinkled clean from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

since the Law made nothing perfect, and a better hope is presented, by which we approach God.

However, food will not bring us closer to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat food that has been offered to an idol, and no better off if we do.

Now if perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood for on this basis the people received the Law what further need would there be to speak of appointing another kind of priest according to the order of Melchizedek, not one according to the order of Aaron? When a change in the priesthood takes place, there must also be a change in the Law. For the person we are talking about belonged to a different tribe, and no one from that tribe has ever served at the altar. read more.
Furthermore, it is obvious that our Lord was a descendant of Judah, and Moses said nothing about priests coming from that tribe. This point is even more obvious in that another priest who is like Melchizedek has appeared who was appointed to be a priest, not on the basis of a genealogical registry, but rather on the power of an indestructible life. For it is declared about him, "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." Indeed, because it was weak and ineffective, the former commandment has been annulled, since the Law made nothing perfect, and a better hope is presented, by which we approach God.

For the Law, being only a reflection of the blessings to come and not their substance, can never make perfect those who come near by the same sacrifices repeatedly offered year after year. Otherwise, would they not have stopped offering them, because the worshipers, cleansed once for all, would no longer be aware of any sins? Instead, through those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year, read more.
for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. For this reason, the Scriptures say, when the Messiah was about to come into the world: "You did not want sacrifices and offerings, but you prepared a body for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings you never took delight. Then I said, "See, I have come to do your will, O God' In the volume of the scroll this is written about me." In this passage he says, "You never wanted or took delight in sacrifices, offerings, burnt offerings, and sin offerings," which are offered according to the Law. Then he says, "See, I have come to do your will." He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By God's will we have been sanctified once and for all through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus, the Messiah.