Tremble
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Not quite two months after the Israelites left Egypt—seven weeks to be more accurate—the people came to the Desert of Sinai and camped there in the desert in front of the mountain.
They’ve made it back to this mountain—the mountain where the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in flames and fire from within a bush. They’ve made it back to this mountain, just as God promised.
12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
Here they are. They’ve made it to the mountain—Mt. Sinai, or Horeb, the mountain of God.
The people of God are going to worship God while standing at the base of the mountain of God.
They are going to worship Him. They are going to hear directly from Him. They are going to realize who He is and what that means for them as His peculiar people.
On this mountain God speaks to His people.
On this mountain God calls His people into a covenant relationship.
On this mountain God’s holiness is displayed.
So far in the book of Exodus, unless I’m forgetting something (which is entirely possible), the Lord has spoken primarily through a mediator (that is, the Lord has spoken through Moses).
To the people, to Pharaoh—when the Lord has spoken in this book, He’s done so through His servant, Moses.
We see this even at the beginning of Exodus 19:
3 Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel:
God is speaking, but speaking through Moses.
But soon—very soon—God is going to speak to the people directly. Amid smoke and fire, thunder and lightning and trumpet blast, the people of God are going to hear the voice of God.
1 And God spoke all these words:
It’s here in the book of Exodus that God speaks the Ten Words, better known as the Ten Commandments.
God speaks.
God Himself speaks.
God Himself speaks the Ten Words directly to Israel rather than through Moses. The people were so awestruck by this experience that when God finished, they asked for Moses to speak instead of the Lord Yahweh speaking to them.
18 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance 19 and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”
When the people heard the voice of God for themselves, they could not doubt His presence among them. His presence is more clearly displayed at Mt. Sinai than anywhere else thus far.
All the people were hearing the voice of God, just like Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham and the patriarchs had heard it. All the people are hearing the voice of God just as Moses had heard it earlier at this same mountain when God called him to bring His people out of Egypt.
All the people are here hearing the voice of God with audio and visual display (thunder, lightning, smoke, fire, trumpet blast). There could be no doubt that God was present with them, that this God is not only present, but unique—unlike any other.
On this mountain,
God speaks.
God speaks.
Unlike any other god, the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel, speaks. He speaks and the people tremble.
Exodus 19 sets the stage for the giving of the Ten Commandments. God speaks, revealing His Word to His people.
The main reason God came down on Mt. Sinai was to give His law; and this, to make crystal clear that He is the One who has spoken to the human race.
Has God given us His Word?
Has He communicated with us, explaining His work in human history?
Has He proclaimed the way of salvation from sin and death?
Has He given us commands to guide us in our walk with Him?
If God did not speak to Moses, we would not have the book of Exodus (or Genesis, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy).
If God did not speak to Moses, He has not spoken to us.
But God has spoken!
He reminds the people of this on down the line:
4 The Lord spoke to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain.
22 These are the commandments the Lord proclaimed in a loud voice to your whole assembly there on the mountain from out of the fire, the cloud and the deep darkness; and he added nothing more. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.
24 And you said, “The Lord our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks with them.
God speaks.
God speaks.
It’s because the Israelites heard God’s voice that we hear God’s voice today through His Word.
"If you want to hear God speak, read the Bible. If you want to hear God speak audibly, read the Bible out loud.”
What’s written here in Exodus is the very word of God (and the same is true for the other 65 books of the Bible).
Every single word in this book comes from God.
20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
All the commands, warnings, and promises in the Bible are the commands, warnings, and promises of God.
Most importantly, God has spoken to us in His Son:
1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.
On this mountain, God speaks—this is a formative moment in the lives of the people and foundational to our understanding of who God is. Ours is the God who speaks.
On this mountain, God speaks and,
God calls His people into a covenant relationship.
God calls His people into a covenant relationship.
The words in verses 4-6 of Exodus 19 are sometimes described as the heart of the OT. In these verses, God describes what He has done to save His people.
He also told them what He expected from them as His people.
Look with me at these verses:
4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”
God reminds Israel what He had done to save them (for some reason they, like me, need constant reminding). Maybe you need a reminder of everything God did to save you.
Remember: this is not of yourself; you did not save yourself, nor did you even have a hand in saving yourself. Because of your deep, deep sin God had to provide the way for you to be saved. And so He gave us Jesus, His perfect, spotless, righteous Son. Jesus suffered and bled and died to save you. He gave up His life to save you. He was buried, and on the third day rose from the grave to save and justify you. What unspeakably glorious Good News.
God here, through Moses, summarizes the salvation He brought to His people:
4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.
God humiliated Egypt’s gods, one by one, with 10 terrible plagues. He drowned Pharaoh and his army in the sea, and brought the Israelites out of slavery.
God lifted His people up on His mighty wings, and provided them with food and water and victory in battle. The only reason they made it anywhere at all is that the Lord carried them.
God was not satisfied with bringing His people out of slavery, but would bring His people close to Himself; so He led them to His holy mountain where they would worship Him in all His majesty.
After reminding His people how they were saved—by God’s grace alone—God sets the terms for their relationship in the future:
5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine,
What God commands here is nothing less than full obedience, the keeping of His covenant—keep my covenant.
This is the first time the Bible uses this exact expression—keep my covenant.
The covenant is God’s unbreakable promise of love for His people.
He made His covenant with Abraham. He confirmed His covenant with Isaac and Jacob. And then, He brings His people out of Egypt, because God keeps His Word, remembers His covenant.
A covenant—any covenant—involves two parties. A covenant is a mutual relationship.
God’s covenant requires the obedience of the people, obedience to God’s revealed will.
God is about to unfold in full detail what the covenant demands, in terms of obedience. In Exodus 20, God gives His law to the people and then applies His commandments to various life situations (the following chapters).
But here, in Exodus 19, the essence of what God requires is clear: full obedience.
This is the main thing. Anyone who wants to enjoy fellowship with God must make a basic commitment to do everything God says. This is where God begins: If you obey me fully and keep my covenant...
Realize that God says this to people who are already saved. They’ve been delivered and redeemed.
The order is important: First, God delivers His people. And then, He gives them the law.
Imagine what would have happened if it was the other way around.
Suppose God said to Moses, “Tell my people: ‘If you obey me fully and keep my covenant perfectly, then I will carry you out of Egypt on eagle’s wings.’”
If that were the case, there never would have been an exodus at all. God’s people would still be slaves in Egypt.
But God is a God of grace. So He saves His people first; then He calls them to obey His law.
Likewise, God rescues us from our sin and then He teaches us how to live for His glory.
It’s not “clean yourself up and do everything I say and then I’ll save you.” It’s, “by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
God calls His people into covenant relationship.
God calls His people into covenant relationship.
God’s people are saved; their salvation is secure. In order for them to enjoy the fullness of God’s blessing, they need to keep the covenant.
God really does demand Israel’s full obedience. How is that possible?
It’s not; not until Jesus comes.
Until Jesus came into the world, full obedience was impossible. Strive as they might, no one would be perfectly obedient.
God demands nothing less than perfection. So, even here, in the early history of God’s people, we see the need for Jesus.
The people of Israel are unable to meet the conditions of the covenant. Because of their sin, the Israelites never fulfill their covenant obligations.
As they struggled and failed to keep God’s law, they realized their need for grace all the more; they’d look for a Savior who could keep God’s covenant.
They were waiting for Jesus.
15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
Only Jesus has kept God’s demands. Without Him, how lost I would be! But in Christ, as a believer, a Christ-follower, I have kept the covenant because Jesus did. And His perfect obedience is imputed, given to all who belong to Him.
The promise of life and blessing is fulfilled in Him, and it spills-over to us as His people.
In verses 7-8, Moses takes the Lord’s message to the people:
7 So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the Lord had commanded him to speak. 8 The people all responded together, “We will do everything the Lord has said.” So Moses brought their answer back to the Lord.
All the people responded that they would keep God’s covenant. We know they wouldn’t and couldn’t keep God’s covenant, but their intention and desire was to keep God’s covenant.
Their failure to keep God’s covenant is as sure and certain as the earth turning on its axis and orbiting the sun. They will not be able to keep God’s covenant—though they will endeavor to do so, in order that God might be pleased and praised by His people.
Though their failure to keep God’s covenant is certain, there is One from their people who would keep God’s covenant perfectly and who would usher in a new and better covenant. The One to come is their only hope, and ours.
>God speaks to His people and invites them into a relationship with Him. And on this mountain, the people will see:
God’s holiness on display
God’s holiness on display
God is so holy that before His people are ready to interact with Him, they must be made holy themselves.
9 The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you.” Then Moses told the Lord what the people had said.
10 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes 11 and be ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
God is so holy that they have to put limits and boundaries around the mountain:
12 Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death. 13 They are to be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on them. No person or animal shall be permitted to live.’ Only when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast may they approach the mountain.”
The Bible uses the word consecrate or sanctify to describe the peoples’ need to be made holy before they meet the Holy God.
They had to be made holy. And they had to wash their clothes. They had to set aside and alter some aspects of daily living in preparation to meet God.
Can you imagine how long the line to the laundromat must have been? One million some odd people waiting to wash their clothes, with the very sparse water there likely was in the desert? There’s a reason they were given a few days to prepare.
As they were waiting and preparing for their meeting with God, they would naturally begin to think:
“Boy, what a hassle this is,” or more than likely
“What an immense privilege! We get to meet and hear from the living God!”
14 After Moses had gone down the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes. 15 Then he said to the people, “Prepare yourselves for the third day. Abstain from sexual relations.”
Their preparation and the boundaries put in place (repeated again in verses 20-25) paint a very clear picture:
God is Holy, other, set-apart from us. He is above them, and dealing with Him is serious business.
The people are learning that the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel is not some manmade idol who could be handled or kissed or set on a shelf or manipulated physically. The Lord Yahweh was not to be approached casually.
Dealing with Him is serious business. Even touching the mountain where His presence was would result in death.
God’s holiness on display
God’s holiness on display
I’m afraid we have this picture of God as some ineffectual deity; that He’s a God who’s tame and domesticated, a buddy and friend, instead of the being the Holy God, the Almighty Maker of heaven and earth, the One who dwells in unapproachable light.
Put yourself in the sandals of the Israelites standing there near the mountain. You’ve spent days preparing for this moment; you’ve washed your clothes, you’ve abstained from sexual relations; you’ve been consecrated. You’re ready to meet God.
And then you see it. You hear it. You feel it. You smell it:
16 On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. 19 As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.
As you stand there, you realize that you are witnessing something altogether other. And you tremble. The mountain trembles with you.
In the mid 1700s, Jonathan Edwards preached his now-famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” He preached, monotone from a manuscript, but with such vivid detail and description of judgment and hell that some of his congregation grabbed hold of the pew in front of them for fear of the ground beneath them opening up and swallowing them whole. They feared they might fall straight down into hell.
Fear of judgment and hell have often been a cause of trembling, and rightly so.
But I wonder when the last time any of us trembled as we consider God? Have you ever trembled as one unholy before the Holy God? Ever tremble with fear and reverence at the awesome privilege of coming before the living, all-consuming God in worship? At approaching His throne in prayer?
C.S. Lewis captures the God who is in his children’s books:
“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion."
"Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he...quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"...
"Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he is good. He's the King, I tell you.”
God is not safe. He is not some house-cat. He’s a lion.
We dare not approach Him casually, flippantly.
We ought to tremble before Him.
A lot of people think the OT was when God was to be feared, but that now we can “skip into God’s presence.”
In a way, through Jesus, this is true. Jesus’ sacrifice broke open our way into the presence of God; at the moment of Jesus’ death, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Jesus is our Great High Priest, by whom we approach God’s throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4). Through Jesus, we are free to come before the Lord.
This does not mean, however, that we ought not tremble before Him.
He speaks to us through His Word. He calls us into a relationship with Him. But let us not forget that He is holy, holy, holy.
Let us remember. Let us tremble. Let us sing.