The Lord Visits Sinai
October 5, 2019
Commentary
Moses told the people to wash their clothes and make themselves acceptable to worship God in three days (vv. 14-15). While the people waited at the foot of the mountain a thick cloud covered it and there came a tremendous sound of the trumpet from heaven accompanied by thunder and lightening as all the people in the camp trembled (vv. 16-17). It looked as if the whole mountain was ablaze with fire and smoke as God descended upon it (v. 18). Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder (v. 19).
Then God spoke calling Moses and Aaron to climb up the mountain while the priests and people were to stay below (vv. 20-21). If they in curiosity saw the Lord they would perish. Moses made three trips to the mountaintop and back delivering messages from the Lord (vv. 22-25). After Moses had gone back down, he told the people what the Lord had said. The Lord told Moses to go down and bring Aaron back but the priests and people must not try to push there way through, or I will rush at them like a flood.
It seems that God’s message to the people was that they needed to learn to respect Him and to reverence, obey and worship Him.
Application
I must never forget that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament is one and the same. He is a God into whose hands it is a fearful thing to fall. Therefore I should be careful to approach Him with great reverence and respect.
Exodus 19:14– 25 (NET)
14 Then Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes. 15 He said to the people, “Be ready for the third day. Do not approach your wives for marital relations.”
16 On the third day in the morning there was thunder and lightning and a dense cloud on the mountain, and the sound of a very loud horn; all the people who were in the camp trembled. 17 Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their place at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was completely covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire, and its smoke went up like the smoke of a great furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently. 19 When the sound of the horn grew louder and louder, Moses was speaking and God was answering him with a voice.
20 The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. 21 The Lord said to Moses, “Go down and solemnly warn the people, lest they force their way through to the Lord to look, and many of them perish. 22 Let the priests also, who approach the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break through against them.”
23 Moses said to the Lord, “The people are not able to come up to Mount Sinai, because you solemnly warned us, ‘Set boundaries for the mountain and set it apart.’” 24 The Lord said to him, “Go, get down, and then come up, and Aaron with you, but do not let the priests and the people force their way through to come up to the Lord, lest he break through against them.” 25 So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.
Illustration: Billy Sunday Remembering His Conversion
One day, some years ago, a policeman walking his beat in Chicago, observed a man standing before a little building, with bared head, acting-as the cop thought-"pretty queer.” “Either sick-or drunk,” he concluded, eyeing the man suspiciously. Then he walked up to where the man stood with eyes closed, and grunted: “What’s the matter, Mac? Sick?” The man opened his eyes, and smiled. “No, officer. My name’s Bill Sunday, and I was converted right here in that little mission. I never come by here that I don’t take off my hat and say a prayer.” The cop grinned now, reached a giant hand to Billy, and said, heartily: “Put ‘er there, Bill! I’ve heard about it. You keep right on with your prayer, and I’ll keep the crowd away.” (Encyclopedia of Illustrations #10547).