Exodus 19

Exodus 19

As the Israelites arrive at Sinai, Moses heads up the mountain to meet with the Lord. This is where Moses (over the course of the next several chapters) will receive the Ten Commandments as well as many other laws given by the Lord. The first command that God gives the Israelites is a command that is associated with a promise. He first reminds the Israelites of how He has protected them so far and promises that He will continue to protect and watch over them as long as they obey His commands. If they fall away from His standards and choose to live in disobedience, He does not promise that He will protect them from their troubles.

Moses relays this message to the Israelites, and they all promise to follow God and keep His commands. If you know the story from here, you know that they do not uphold their end of the deal. However, we are just like these people. We hear from the Lord in mighty ways each Sunday at church when a particular message speaks to us. While sitting in the pew or kneeling at the altar it is easy to tell God how we will change, but when the next day comes and temptation hits us dead on, it is not as easy to keep that promise. That was the struggle the Israelites faced each day. It was easy when they were speaking with God, but when they had to actually live it out (after the spiritual high wore off), it became much harder.

This next part of Exodus 19 is something that I must have skipped over when reading through Exodus. When I think of Mount Sinai, I think of Moses meeting with God by Himself with no one else around. However, God wanted to make Himself known to all the people, not just Moses. So on the third day, after consecrating themselves, Moses led all the people to the base of Mount Sinai. He commanded that none of them touch the base of the mountain or they would die. Moses was the only one allowed to go up the mountain to visit with the Lord. I never realized how close the people were to the mountain at the time, and this makes the rest of the story of Exodus even more disturbing. Having had such a personal encounter with the Lord in Exodus 19, how could the people have turned away from Him later on with the golden calf? I know that we can compare our encounters with God with this passage, but I cannot imagine being that close to the Lord and then turning my back on everything He commanded.

In the end, God also allowed Aaron to come up on the mountain with Moses. Having two people there was probably better than just having Moses. When Moses went back down to relay the message to the Israelites, he had a witness in Aaron to back him up on all he said. Also, think of all that Aaron had already been through, sticking by Moses’ side from the time they first went to Pharaoh through the battle with Amalek. Like Moses, Aaron had been faithful to God, and as a result, God was allowing him to have this same encounter.

I cannot get away from the imagery in this scene. God descended on Mount Sinai, which makes me think that in some sense it was God in physical form. But it also says that He descended in fire so that the entire mountain was wrapped in smoke. The only time I have seen a large area of smoke is when there has been some type of forest fire. This was so much greater than a forest fire, for the entire mountain was covered in smoke. This had to be a frightening scene. The Israelites knew that this was the Lord, yet they approached the mountain in fear, knowing that they could be killed. Moses, however, went up the mountain in confidence when God called out to him. When God call us, it can be frightening. We many times do not know what He has specifically called us to. We do not know how much it will cost to follow Him. Many times we are not given clear instructions or guidelines as to what He will have us do. But we should still approach God in confident fear, respecting who He is, but not doubting what He has called us to. That is how Moses responded in this situation, and it is a great picture of how we should to respond to His call in our lives as well.

Matt