Exodus 19--Israel at Mount Sinai

Israel at Mount Sinai​
19 On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. 2 They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain, 3 while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

7 So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. 8 All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.”

When Moses told the words of the people to the Lord, 10 the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments 11 and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. 12 And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. 13 No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.” 14 So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people; and they washed their garments. 15 And he said to the people, “Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman.”

16 On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. 19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. 20 The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

21 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to look and many of them perish. 22 Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them.” 23 And Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it.’” 24 And the Lord said to him, “Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them.” 25 So Moses went down to the people and told them.

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 We're almost there!  If Exodus is known for one thing besides the Ten Plagues, it's the Ten Commandments.  In fact, most of you have probably seen the movie with that name and that's what many people think of when they think of Moses.  However, the focus shifts off of Moses for a moment to the people that he's leading.  As they approach Mount Sinai, God makes a conditional covenant again with His people--conditions that they could never intend to keep.  God told them that if they were to only obey all of His commandments, always, all the time that they would be his special people like no other on the earth and that they would be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation unto the LORD.  Did you catch that?  He didn't just say that the tribe or Levi or the sons of Aaron would be priests, but all the people!  This sounds exactly like what God says the Church is to be in 1st Peter 2:9.  We've already studied that epistle, but here's verses 1-12 for reference--see if the Holy Spirit isn't telling the people of the Church the same thing He told the people of Israel in the days of Moses.

A Living Stone and a Holy People
2 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation-- 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture:
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
    a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone,”
8 and
“A stone of stumbling,
    and a rock of offense.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

What was God's basis for requiring obedience from His people in both cases?  We belong to Him because He has redeemed us out of slavery.  For the people of Israel is was a physical slavery, but for the Christian, it was our slavery to sin that we have been freed from.  "You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." (I Corinthians 6:19b-20)  I know this is going to be highly offense to some of you, but did you know that if you are a Christian God owns you and you are His slave and He is your Master?  He's a Good Master, the best actually, but this teaching of the New Testament (and the Old Testament) gets lost on us as people who abhor the evils of the slave trade and have chosen when possible to soften the word "slave" to the word "servant."  (See Romans 6).  Yet, at the same time we are told that we are adopted sons and daughters and made joint heirs with Jesus (see Romans 8), and we are told that we are a royal priesthood (I Peter 2).  So what are we?  The answer is "yes" to all these things.  We'll see God is going to have a similar conversation with Israel here.  He's already called them His "firstborn son" earlier in Exodus, and we know that He's been talking a lot about them being set free, but this seems to be one of the first times since the Exodus that He reminds them that they belong to Him and while their salvation cost them nothing, in another sense it cost them everything, because now they are to surrender their wills and their lives to Him--sounds exactly like New Testament salvation.  Hmm.....maybe there's not really a different "God of the Old Testament" and "God of the New Testament" like so many think about--maybe God really is "the same yesterday, today and forever" like Hebrews 13:8 tells us about the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ--since we know all three persons are one in nature and have always been working from the same playbook since before the beginning of the world, it would make sense that the LORD is also working here in accordance with the same plan of salvation that we know today--the difference is that the cross hasn't happened yet for the people of Israel, though it's a done-deal for God.  (multiples passages but especially Ephesians 1:4, Matthew 25:34, Revelation 13:8, and Revelation 17:8, just to name a few).

So, back to the works that this redeemed people promised to do--we know that like us as Christians, they will fail miserably at living holy and blameless lives.  Even when we are made a new people with a new purpose and even given a new nature in Christ, we still battle with our old nature--just like these people in the wilderness were rebellious and longed for some of the things they had when they were back in Egypt.  We too quickly promise unconditional obedience without considering the cost and it is only through the power of God (the power of the Holy Spirit living in us as Christians) that we are able to have victory over sin and do what is pleasing to God.  It must have been even harder for the people at that time that longed to do what was pleasing to God, but at that time God had not chosen to indwell all of His people with the Holy Spirit--that wouldn't happen until Pentecost.  Instead, only certain people were anointed with the Spirit to serve in particular roles such as prophet, priest, king, and judge like we talked about recently, and then sometimes only for a season.

Now comes the interesting part--God calls the people to repentance and to consecrate themselves before He shows up.  He tells them they are not ready for His appearing because He is a holy God who cannot abide in the presence of sin or imperfection.  Therefore they needed to consecrate themselves and wash themselves and their clothes physically, but this was a sign of what needed to happen on the inside.  Then God gave them special rules about how no one and no thing was to touch the mountain because fallen man or beast would die if they came in contact with the full holiness and power of God (unless God called the person to come to Him like He does with Moses).  It's not that Moses was perfect and the people were not, it's that it was Moses was called to go up the mountain to speak with God and the people were not.  No one was to have Moses' job other than Moses.

God showed up with fire (a sign of His zeal) and smoke (as this was to be a reminder of the barrier that needed to be between God and our sin so that He would not see it) and with a great earthquake that shook the mountain (sounds a lot like the things Elijah experienced when he came back to this very mountain when running from Jezebel--but the LORD was in the still small voice, not the thunder or the fire, or earthquake).  It seems that only Moses was able to understand what the LORD said--to everyone else it sounded like thunder We see this a couple times in the New Testament where the Father speaks and people think they heard thunder where others heard His voice.  (See John 12:29 and Revelation 4:5...and we see many other places in Revelation where there is the voice of heaven which sounds like the rushing of many waters and/or peals of thunder).

What happens when Moses gets up on the mountain to speak with God?  God immediately sends him back to warn them again to try to approach Him so that they won't die.  God is very concerned about the people and doesn't want to judge them, but a holy God must always judge sin that comes into His presence and the wages of sin has been and always will be death.  From the very beginning we were told "For in the day you eat of it [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] you will surely die." (Genesis 2:17, Romans 6:23).  So, how is it now that we are allowed to "boldly approach the throne of grace" as Christians (Hebrews 4:16)?  For the answer to that, we need to read a lot more of the Bible, but I'll give you one passage that sums it up pretty well,

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.  (Colossians 1:21-23, ESV)

Moses thinks that the people have been obedient and set up boundaries as the Lord had required and that they were obeying the rules, but God knew better and knew they needed reminded again of the boundaries and to not transgress.  Here's an interesting concept biblically.  The people would die if they touched the mountain, and they said to be sure they didn't experience that judgment, a barrier was set up.  How close do you think the barrier was to the mountain?  Well that all depends on how scared the people were of the judgement.  These people were terrified of the holiness that they saw, and therefore they set their barriers up quite a ways back so that no one might accidentally transgress and cross the line.  Setting up such barriers to protect ourselves is okay as long as we don't confuse our barrier we've set up for the actual line like the Pharisees did.  To use this image here, they told people that if they crossed their fence that was to protect people from crossing God's line that they were just as guilty and just as in need of God's punishment, even if the people hadn't actually crossed God's line.  The rules that were meant to protect the people had become burdensome and people had forgotten what the real standard was, their purpose for needing the boundaries and barriers that were good (God is holy and we are not, and God's holiness coming in contact with sine yields certain death).

God also tells Moses to get his brother, Aaron and bring him up the mountain with him, and God reminds Moses once again not to let the priest or the people break through the barriers that have been set up, lest they die.  Do you think God is serious about the boundaries that are there for the people's protection?  This is the third time he's told Moses to tell the people.  You and I get the benefit of knowing more of the story, but I think these boundaries and fences that have been set up for the people that are lines they are not to transgress are interesting because God is about to give Moses a list of Ten Commandments that are a set of moral boundaries and fences that the people are not to transgress.  God is really serious about the people staying within the lines that He's drawn for them because He's doing it for their good and their protection.

​God does not desire anyone to perish (die), but that's exactly what would happen physically if they cross the physical barrier, and that's exactly what would happen spiritually (and physically) if they crossed the barrier set up by God's commandments.  We already alluded to this earlier, but God has operated by this principle from the beginning, dividing light and darkness, sky from sea, sea from land, so on--He's a God of order and boundaries, but He specifically set up man in the Garden with one boundary--Don't eat of the The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Adam set up an additional "fence" around this commandment (it seems) because in Eve's conversation with the serpent she said she was to not even touch it (well, you certainly can't eat of it if you can't touch it), but Eve confused the the fence for the commandment and thought that if she touched the tree or its fruit that she would die, so when she touched the tree and its fruit and didn't die, then she was less likely to believe that if she ate of the tree she would die as God said--but that's exactly what happened.  The moment she (and Adam who was with her) ate of the tree they died spiritually and the process of physical death also started.  God drew the boundary there for their protection--not because He's mean, but because He's a Good Father who makes rules to protect His children--even His adopted children like us, and, yes, even His slaves like us.

We'll see the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, but there is much more that God has to tell Moses--in fact, much of the rest of the book of Exodus is the conversation that God and Moses had on the mountain.  God gives Moses instructions for how the people are supposed to live as a people holy to the LORD and how everything about the way they dress, the way they eat, the way they worship--everything--is supposed to be unique and different and point people to Him.  Very specific instructions will be given to Moses on building the Tabernacle and all of its instruments and furniture.  While that part may seem a little boring to you, I promise that it's more interesting than you may imagine.  While it may seem like reading a document written by an engineer, we'll come to realize God has a reason that everything must be "just so."  We'll talk about that more when we get there though.

Until that time, think about how we approach God.  While we don't need to fear Him if we belong to Him, do we still respect His power and His boundaries?  What does our obedience of His commandments or lack thereof say about what we believe about Him?  Can someone really be a blood-bought, redeemed slave of God and hate to obey the commands of his Master?  Think of this in light of Jesus' words in John 14:15, "If you love Me, you will keep (obey) My commandments."  Are those just the New Testament commandments or did Jesus also give the Old Testament commandments?  (The answer, as you might expect, it something people have wrestled with for millennia and something that we'll definitely talk about)


Are you living your life as a member of a holy people and royal priesthood consecrated to the LORD?  What does that even mean?  If you have questions about that, please ask.  We talked about it a bit when we studied 1st Peter, but I'll be happy to have additional conversations about this as it's important for us to be the people God has called us to be--slaves, priests, sons and daughters, ambassadors, and saints (as well as a few other things).  How can we be these things if we don't understand what they are or what our role is, and how do we accurately reflect God to the world through these roles if we don't really understand who He is?


I hope our time in the Old Testament will help you more clearly define some of those roles as well as help you learn more about the God that you are serving and worshiping in those roles.  To answer one of my questions from before, the God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament--we just learn more about Him there through the ministry of Christ and the words and works of the apostles and other New Testament authors and members of the early Church.