1 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. (Exodus 19, ESV)
A New Section
In the opening chapters of Exodus, Pharaoh's voice is the only one that mattered to the Hebrew people—his leanings were their law; his desires were their dictates. Then Moses came along and told the pharaoh to let God's people go so they could serve him. The front half of Exodus records how pharaoh did finally let Israel go, but the second half shows how Israel could serve God.
For the rest of Exodus, Israel will gather around God's holy mountain to hear his voice. Israel will be at this mountain for almost a year, and fifty-nine chapters—the rest of Exodus and all of Leviticus—are devoted to the directions given there. The God who gave us two chapters dealing with the creation of the universe gave fifty-nine chapters on the creation of Israel. Page after page, chapter after chapter, sentence after sentence, command after command, was designed to make them a people built on the word of God. They no longer needed to hear the voice of a foreign king telling them to bake their daily quota of bricks but the voice of their God telling them how to live in a way that honored him. They needed to become a people obedient to God—this was the only path to true freedom. If they didn't learn to follow his lead, they would be thrown right back into the service of foreign kings.
Admittedly, the back half of Exodus can sometimes be confusing, partly because we often think Moses only went up the mountain twice. First, to receive the Ten Commandments, then again to receive a replacement copy. But Moses went up the mountain five times before those two trips, meaning Exodus records seven trips this eighty-year-old made up the mountain to hear from God. With each journey, we are reading of a reorientation of authority. Pharaoh's edicts and the slavemasters' whips are meant to fade into a distant memory. The voice of the good God and loving service in his honor are intended to replace them. So Moses goes up that mountain seven times to help Israel reorient themselves upon Yahweh and his word.
That God delivers his people from demands of slavery into loving service and submission to his word is an entirely Christian—or New Testament—concept. We, too, have been set free from captivity so that we can walk with God and obey his word. He has a new life designed for us, and we continually reorient ourselves upon his voice. Whenever we listen to our old slavemasters, we damage ourselves, our people, and our communities. But the more we use the deliverance he won for us on the cross—Mount Calvary—to hear his voice and obey his will, the more health we introduce to ourselves, our people, and our communities. So, as tedious or confusing as parts of the second half of Exodus might be for you, it is an essential section of Scripture. Without it, God's exodus is incomplete because we, like Israel, need to be centered on God and his word.
Our passage today mentions the first three times Moses climbed Mount Sinai. Each time he did, Moses heard something designed to prepare Israel for the better life God had in store for them. God was inviting Israel, just as he invites us, so let's think about the three trips Moses took up that mountain.
1. Invitation (19:1-8)
To Obey And Become
The first word Moses heard from God on the mountain was the invitation itself. If they would obey his voice and keep his covenant, they would be his treasured possession among all peoples, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (19:5-6). It would be difficult to overemphasize the importance of these words and this invitation—some think of it the theological center of the entire Old Testament.
God had already made a promise to Abraham that through his seed, all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:1-3). But this is a new invitation God added to the promise he'd already made Abraham's descendants: If you obey me, you will become a nation that serves as priests to all the nations. Through you, people will hear about and know the true God. If you obey, you will broadcast Yahweh to the world. Just as the nations heard what I did for you to deliver you from Egypt, so they will hear what I've done for you as you've walked with me. If you obey, you will live your best life, and you will have represented me well on earth.
At this point, God had not told them what obedience would look like. The tablets containing the Ten Commandments, laws, and rules that governed everyday life in Israel did not yet exist. All they have here is God's invitation, spoken to Moses on his first trip back up God's holy mountain, that if they obeyed his voice and lived as his people, he would make it abundantly obvious they were, among all peoples, his treasured possession (19:5). And they told God they wanted in—"all that the Lord has spoken we will do" (19:8).
Please do not mistake God's invitation as God's directions on how they could be his people in the first place. Even in his recounting of the events to Moses, God reminded him that he had already born Israel on eagles' wings and brought them to himself (19:4). He had saved them. He had delivered them. And now, with their salvation intact, it was time for them to step into newness of life. The law was not there to save Israel but to shape Israel. It was not there to justify them but to sanctify them.
Reverberates To The Church
I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that God's invitation here set the stage for the rest of the Bible. A reading of the black-and-white facts of Old Testament history and the poets and prophets that color it shows us that Israel hardly ever lived up to this beautiful ideal.
There were moments they got close, especially at one point right after the reign of King David. His son Solomon seemed set to lead the people into their destiny as God's holy nation of priests to all nations. In a dramatic scene, Solomon had asked God—not for wealth, victory, or fame—but for wisdom. And God supplied it. Soon, Solomon constructed a permanent temple to replace the moveable tent God had dwelt in for hundreds of years. The message was clear—God's people had arrived. They were established. And when the Queen of Sheba came from Arabia to hear Solomon's wisdom and see his kingdom, there was no breath left in her (1 Kings 10). It was an exciting time! God's people were becoming what they had been invited to become all the way back at Mount Sinai!
But it was a mirage. Solomon's heart was turned to a multitude of foreign women and their gods. Israel was split in two. Idols rushed in, and—after many patient years pleading with his people—so did God's judgment. Israel was anything but the shining light they were meant to be. For centuries thereafter, Israel struggled to be the light of the world. And Jesus' word became the definitive one. When he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he went straight to the city's heart and said, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'? But you have made it a den of robbers" (Mark 11:17). All nations were supposed to be there. They weren't.
This is where Christ and his church come in. Jesus said we are to be a light to the world (Matt. 5:13-16). Revelation says Jesus "loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father" (Rev. 1:5-6). And Peter clipped directly from Exodus 19, repurposing it for the church when he said:
"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." (1 Peter 2:9, ESV)
The invitation God gave Israel was the condensed form of the rest of the Old Testament law. They were invited to obey, and then sentence after sentence would help them see what obedience looked like. In a similar manner, the church is told to "walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called" (Eph. 4:1). Exhortations like these are pregnant with hundreds of New Testament exhortations we are to mine to help us shape our lives today. If we do, we will have a salt and light-like attractiveness to our lives. If we don't, they won't.
But God makes this invitation to his church today: obey and become. Some want to sand Christianity down to something that demands nothing. All that is required, they say, is faith. And though there is an element of truth there, their version of faith is far too small. It is mere belief in the tenets of the gospel of the cross of Christ without belief in the God behind (and on) the cross. If one believes in that God, they will see a God so loving, good, and beautiful that they will want to follow him. They will believe that, with the aid of his Spirit, they can live in obedience to him. They will believe that every other path outside of him leads to ruin and despair. And they believe the life he wills is the best life because God is good and God designed it. They will have faith in God, so they will crave the life he craves.
2. Preparation (19:9-15)
They Had To Prepare
The second word Moses heard from God on the mountain was about their preparation. They had to follow a whole litany of steps to prepare themselves for God's next appearance in three days' time.
- They were to wash their garments, symbolic of their intention to live clean lives before God and their understanding that they needed God's cleansing (19:12).
- They were not to go up the mountain with Moses but were to remain at its base, a way for them to recognize the fundamental incompatibility between God's holiness and their natural state (19:12).
- Anyone who refused to obey and tried to come up the mountain was to be punished with death; anyone willing to disobey such a clear line of demarcation was a cancer to be removed from the congregation (19:13).
- When the long trumpet blast sounded, they were to approach the base of the mountain without touching or going up the mountain, a way for them to say they were ready to hear God's commands (19:13).
- And the people were not to enjoy marital sex for a few days (19:15). Since God is the one who invented sexual pleasure, it seems odd to many that he would prohibit it here. Though God has always had things to say about the sex lives of his people, he is not condemning it here. He likely wanted their undivided attention and focus as they approached this holy day—and he certainly didn't want them to become like nations around them that used sex in the worship of false gods.
One can imagine the feeling that came over the camp during those three days. They had watched Moses go back up the mountain to tell God they wanted in on his covenant. They wanted to be his holy nation and kingdom of priests. They wanted to be widely known as his treasured possession. And as Moses disappeared up the trail, the people saw a thick cloud envelop the mountain peak and Moses inside it. They heard a thundering voice rumbling from within the cloud. And then they saw the cloud lift, and Moses began to climb down again. He approached them and delivered God's rules to them.
The next few days would have been an explosion of activity. As word spread throughout the camp and as they began consecrating themselves, a somber spirit would have overcome them. The God who broke out against the pharaoh was going to declare his commands to the Hebrews. The God who broke Egypt was going to build Israel. The God who spoke the chaos of the plagues was going to show them how to order their lives.
And, as every man and woman began to turn their attention to the mountain, a great searching of heart occurred. Are we clean? Are we ready? Will we follow?
Should We Prepare?
And this mood or spirit seems to have run with Israel into the future. Their psalmists invited God to search their hearts (Ps. 139:23). Their politicians asked them to reestablish their commitment to God and his covenant (Neh. 10-13). Their poets invited God to see if there be any wicked way within them (Ps. 139:24). Their prophets invited the people to look within for any root of rottenness (Is. 5:24). Time and time again, Israel was meant to prepare themselves afresh to enter into obedience. God was long-suffering, gracious, and patient when they didn't, but he always invited them to come back in.
But should this preparatory mood follow us into the New Testament and church era? Today, man believe that all versions of shame must be removed, not realizing that the ability to be embarrassed by behaviors is a cornerstone of a healthy society. When we lose the ability to blush, we lose the tenacity to choose self-denial for the greater good.
Jesus, however, told us that great blessing follows those who understand their poverty of spirit, mourn the grievous sin found within, and meekly submit themselves to his rule (Matt. 5:3-5). When we crave a life of goodness and justice, when we see the need to extend mercy rather than vengeance, when our hearts are clean before God, and when we embrace our role as God's peacemakers on earth, we are blessed (Matt. 5:6-8). And when we stay faithful to God even when harmed, threatened, or ridiculed for our allegiance to God, our reward is great in heaven, and we become the salt and light we were meant to be (Matt. 5:9-16).
All this takes a spirit of preparation. Israel had many opportunities throughout their annual religious calendar to recommit to—and reprepare themselves for—God and his ways. And so do we. They had the daily morning and evening sacrifices; we have the opportunity for personal worship every single day of our lives. They had the weekly Sabbath; we have the weekly gathering of God's people on the Lord's Day (Sunday). They had the annual festivals; we might not have any prescribed to us by the New Testament, but we do have the Christmas and Easter seasons when we can remember the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus. And we can use all other holidays in our national calendar as onramps to renewed worship. New Year's Day? A fresh year dedicated to God. Valentine's Day? Embrace God's design for sex and romance. Independence Day? Remember what Christ did to set you free. Thanksgiving? Praise him for all he's done. Your birthday? A chance to recount his faithfulness and look forward to his future work in your life.
So let's be a people who take God and his word seriously. He wants to use us in our community. And he invites us into a role as the priests who introduce God to our world. So we must—continually, Sunday after Sunday, Monday after Monday—bring ourselves before the mountain of his word to hear what he says and then obey him by the power of his Spirit.
3. Tension (19:16-25)
The third and final word Moses heard from God on the mountain was the acknowledgment of a tension that exists. The third day began with thunders and lightning and a thick cloud appearing on the mountain (19:16). Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended upon it (18). Smoke arose from it like the smoke of a burning oven (18). The whole mountain trembled greatly (18). A very loud trumpet blast grew louder and louder—it was Israel's signal to approach the base of the mountain 16, 19). Everyone trembled at the scene. Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain while Yahweh came down to the top of the mountain and called Moses to the top of the mountain (17, 20).
When Moses arrived at the top of the mountain, God told him to go down again and warn everyone not to break through their boundary in an attempt to look at God (21). And the priests who were to come partway up the mountain needed to be reminded to consecrate themselves (22). Moses heard God but told him that the people could not come up because God had told them not to come up (23). God responded by telling Moses that the people and priests needed still another reminder to do as God had said (24). So Moses went down to the people and told them (25). The next event that happened—with Moses down with the people at the base of the mountain—is that God spoke the Ten Commandments to the people.
But the ominous nature of this moment reveals a tension, both in the passage and in the larger biblical story. In the passage, God is seen both as the one who is so approachable that he himself drew Israel to himself on eagles' wings and as the one who feels unapproachable as he thunders from the top of Sinai. And, by the way, we don't have to do anything to excuse this tension. It just is. God loved them and drew them to himself. God is also holy and dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16).
As believers, we address this tension with the cross. As Christians, we know of God as Father. He is not atop a fiery mountain for us but invites us into fellowship with himself. This is made possible by the precious blood of Christ. And don't take my word for it. Hebrews points out this tension:
You have not come to a mountain that can be touched, and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom, and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:18–24, NIV)
To put it another way, as Christians, we do not approach an ominous physical dwelling place for God—where law is delivered by Moses as mediator and the blood of animal sacrifice. We instead come to the place angels sing about—the cross, where grace is delivered by Jesus as our mediator and his blood as the all-sufficient sacrifice.
And it is by the life and grace and love and forgiveness we find at Mt. Calvary that we can enter God's immaterial city and begin to enjoy him right now. When we do, our lives are changed, and we begin to crave, from the inside out, to live in obedience to his spoken word. No longer are we forced to be driven by the impulses of the body or the dictates of all our modern pharaohs. Instead, we can look to our Lord and his mountain for guidance. And when that happens, we become the kingdom of priests and holy nation we were meant to be.