The Lord at Sinai

In their eagerness to say “yes” the Israelites overestimated their own ability to keep the covenant, and underestimated God’s standards for them.

How did this happen? They failed to appreciate their own sinfulness and God’s holiness.

The procedures they were to follow were God-designed to help them realize the difference between their holy God and their sinful selves. We will see God separated Himself from the Israelites spatially (space) and temporally (time).

The LORD’s goal is to win their obedience. He seeks to cause them to believe and to trust in His servant Moses as well. The LORD graciously employs His own presence to create a response of trust and faith in His servant, just as He did earlier when the LORD gave the signs to Moses in Exodus 4.

I. The people’s preparation for the LORD’s presence, 19:9-15.

A. How and why the LORD will appear, verse 9.

Verses 8 and 9 speak of Moses’s faithful report to the people; it is given this way in order to clearly record that Israel had given an unequivocal “yes” to God’s offer of covenant.

Now He will put content and “glory” into the covenant.

The place where God reveals himself is a holy place:

Moses -- could not come near to the burning bush (3:5);

People -- must remain at a distance from the mountain (19:12).

The bush burned with flame (3:2);

God would descend on Sinai with fire (19:18).

Moses was afraid to look at God (3:6);

The people trembled before God (19:16).

B. The consecration of the people before they meet their God, verses 10-15.

Having bound themselves to do what they had promised (19:7), the people were commanded to consecrate themselves, symbolized by washing their clothes and abstaining from sexual relations.

“Consecrate them today and tomorrow” in Hebrew focuses on the Israelites responsibility to be holy in a conscious way and not treat this meeting with their God as a common event.

The temporary prohibition against normal sexual relations would impress on Israel the importance of this occasion and to help them concentrate on it. It was for ritual cleanness, not moral cleanness.

They were to place a boundary around the mountain. Staying away from the mountain was a matter of life and death, for the presence of God sanctified the mountain.

Those who crossed over the boundary, whether man or beast were to killed from a distance and nobody was to touch the body.

This command was so important that when Moses ascended the mountain to meet God, God sent him back to warn the people not to get too close to Mount Sinai.

There is a distance between a holy God and sinful man.

There is a danger of presumptuously rushing into the presence of God, as Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu forgot this principle and God would kill them (Lev. 10).

Already Israel is being taught to approach God only in certain ways.

C. Contrast of OT worship with NT worship.

Sinai here becomes an archetype of the tabernacle and the later temple of Israel with its degrees of holiness.

Mountain top - Most Holy

Middle areas - accessible by certain priests and elders.

foot of mountain - people.

Old Testament worship structure emphasized Man’s sinfulness and God’s holiness:

the fence around the tabernacle

the veil before the holy of holies

only priests could minister in the tabernacle

only high priest could enter the holy of holies, and that but once a year.

Ct. New Testament: it emphasizes the nearness of God.

The son of God became flesh, came to dwell on earth.

John 1:14 NASB95

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

His name is Immanuel = God with us

Matthew 1:23 NASB95

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”

By Jesus’s death and resurrection, Jesus opened a new and living way into the presence of God.

Hebrews 10:1–25 NASB95

For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, But a body You have prepared for Me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure. “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (In the scroll of the book it is written of Me) To do Your will, O God.’ ” After saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And on their mind I will write them,” He then says, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

We should not get “chummy” with God or act like we are His equals, but He is our Father and He welcomes our love.

Hebrews 12:18–29 NASB95

For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned.” And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I am full of fear and trembling.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.

II. The LORD’s presence on Sinai, 19:16-25.

The beginning of the actual theophany, which ends in Exodus 20:17.

A. The sight and the peoples’ response, verses 16-17.

This seems to picture a storm; in scripture, a storm is often a symbol of the presence and power of God.

“thick cloud” is probably the same as the pillar of cloud by which the LORD concealed Himself.

Fire - a symbol of God’s holiness that enlightens, purifies and refines. Smoke and quaking further impressed this awesome revelation on the people.

“a very loud trumpet sound” was not expected here in the wilderness.

The reaction of the people was intended by the LORD to their benefit. The fear of God in the OT causes persons to constrain their actions to do what is right or to refrain from evil. The key to wisdom in Israel was a proper fear of the LORD ...,

Proverbs 1:7 NASB95

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

...which led to a knowledge of God.

Proverbs 2:5 NASB95

Then you will discern the fear of the Lord And discover the knowledge of God.

The fear of the LORD caused persons to avoid evil ...

Proverbs 3:7–8 NASB95

Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body And refreshment to your bones.

Proverbs 8:13 NASB95

“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate.

… it led to life.

Proverbs 10:27 NASB95

The fear of the Lord prolongs life, But the years of the wicked will be shortened.

B. The LORD speaks to Moses in the hearing of the people, verses 18-20.

“… its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace” - this description is found only in the description of the remains of Sodom and Gomorrah, which indicated that the LORD had executed judgment on those cities. Here, the LORD comes down to build up a people who will reflect righteousness, not corruption, obedience and faith, not rebellion.

The quaking of the mountain demonstrates the LORD’s power over all of creation.

C. The LORD graciously warns the people through Moses a second time, verses 21-25.

Vs. 21-22 is a repetition of the LORD’s warning, a considered second warning because of the solemness of the situation. In a rush of excitement, the people must not ascend the mountain, or they will die. The priests must consecrate themselves before they come up on the mountain--something they should already have done, but this foreshadows the processes and procedures the priest, after Sinai, will have to observe before they can even approach the LORD.

“break out against” -- indicates the swiftness and fury with which the LORD can execute His wrath against any who disobey His instructions, against whatever is not holy.