The Book of Exodus

Explanation

At Sinai God speaks first of grace, not law. Before a single command He says, "Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself." The deliverance was not only out of Egypt but unto God. Then, on the ground of that grace, He offers a covenant: "if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant," they will be "a peculiar treasure unto me above all people," "a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation." God, who owns all the earth, would set this one people apart as His prized possession and make them a nation of priests, mediating His knowledge to the world. The Law that follows is not the ground of their relationship with God but the shape of it, given to a people already redeemed and already His.

Gospel Focus

Notice the order: grace before law. God recounts what He has done before He asks anything, and the covenant rests on redemption already given. This is always God's way; He saves, and then calls the saved to obey, never the reverse. And mark the goal, "brought you unto myself." Redemption's aim is not merely to get us out of bondage but to bring us to God. Salvation that stops short of fellowship with Him has missed its purpose. Above all, this calling to be "a kingdom of priests" comes to its fullness in the church. Peter takes these very words and applies them to us: "ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people" (1 Peter 2:9), and John says Christ "hath made us kings and priests unto God" (Revelation 1:6). Every believer is a priest with access to God, called to offer spiritual sacrifice and to bring others to Him. What Israel was called to be, the redeemed in Christ have become, God's own treasured people and a holy priesthood in the earth.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Moses lays God's words before the elders, and the whole nation responds "together" with one voice: "All that the LORD hath spoken we will do." It is a sincere and earnest vow. Moses carries their answer back to God, and the LORD promises to come "in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever." God would make His presence unmistakable so that Moses' authority as His messenger would be settled in the people's eyes forever. The scene is solemn and hopeful: a redeemed people pledging obedience to the God who saved them, and God preparing to draw near in a way none could deny.

Gospel Focus

"All that the LORD hath spoken we will do." The vow was sincere, but it was also self-confident, and the people did not yet know their own weakness. Within forty days they would be dancing around a golden calf. Their promise was not wrong to make, but it rested too much on their own resolve and too little on grace. This is the lesson the Law itself was given to teach: that man cannot keep the covenant in his own strength, that "by the law is the knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20), and that we need a better covenant and a new heart. The Law shows us the standard and our own inability, and drives us to the grace of God in Christ, who writes His law on our hearts and gives the Spirit to do what our willpower never could. Let us be slow to trust our own "we will do," and quick to lean on the God who works in us "both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). Good intentions are not enough; we need His enabling grace.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

To meet a holy God, the people must be prepared. God tells Moses to "sanctify them," set them apart, and to have them "wash their clothes" and be ready "against the third day," when the LORD would descend "in the sight of all the people." Bounds were to be set around the mountain, and the warning was severe: "whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death," whether man or beast. The holy God could not be approached carelessly or casually. Even in coming near to bless His people, God guarded His holiness, teaching them by these bounds and washings that He is not to be trifled with. The preparation itself preached a sermon: reverence, cleansing, and readiness are required to draw near to God.

Gospel Focus

The call to "sanctify them ... and let them wash their clothes" teaches that those who would meet with God must be prepared and cleansed. God is holy, and He is not approached lightly. Under the new covenant the washing is deeper than garments; we are cleansed by the blood of Christ and the washing of water by the word, called to "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1). The reverence Sinai demanded is not abolished in the gospel; it is deepened, for we have come to an even greater God. Yet there is glorious good news hidden here. At Sinai the people could only wash and wait at a distance; in Christ we are made clean and brought near. The preparation that Israel made outwardly, God works in us inwardly by His Spirit. Let us then draw near, but never carelessly, remembering that the God who invites us is holy, and that reverence and cleansing still befit those who would meet with Him.

Explanation

On the third morning the mountain becomes a scene of overwhelming majesty: "thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud," until "all the people that was in the camp trembled." Moses brings them out "to meet with God," and they stand at the foot of the mountain. Then "the LORD descended upon it in fire," and the smoke went up "as the smoke of a furnace," and "the whole mount quaked greatly." The trumpet grew "louder and louder," Moses spoke, and God answered by a voice. God calls Moses up, then sends him down again to warn the people not to "break through unto the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish." Even the priests must sanctify themselves. The holiness of God was so great that the mountain itself shook, and the people could come only so near, and no nearer.

Gospel Focus

Sinai reveals the holiness of God, and it is meant to make us tremble. "Our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29), and the quaking mountain, the fire, and the deadly bounds all say that sinful man cannot rush into the presence of a holy God. But the New Testament sets Sinai against a greater mountain to show the wonder of the gospel. "Ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire," it says of Sinai, "but ye are come unto mount Sion" (Hebrews 12:18, 22), to the city of the living God and to Jesus the mediator of a better covenant. At Sinai the people were fenced out; in Christ we are welcomed in. The same holiness that barred them still burns, but now the blood of Jesus has opened "a new and living way" into the very presence of God. Let us never lose the reverence Sinai teaches, our God is holy and a consuming fire, yet let us rejoice that through the one Mediator we may draw near where Israel could only tremble at a distance.