EXODUS 19-32
Key Verses
19:1-9 Three months after their departure from Egypt, the people of Israel arrived in the Sinai desert. …There they set up camp in front of Mt. Sinai while Moses approached the mountain to meet with the Lord. From high up the mountain slopes came the voice of God, “Here is my message to the House of Jacob, my word for the people of Israel: ‘Remember what I did for you in Egypt, carrying you through many troubles on eagles’ wings. Now I have brought you here to be with me. If you will be faithful and obedient to me and my covenant, then I will treat you as my special people—treasured beyond all the other peoples of the world. The earth and all who dwell upon it are mine, but I will form you into a nation of priests, distinctly holy unto me.’”…So Moses returned to the people in the camp and delivered to them all that God had told him. …And the people spoke with one voice, saying, “We will do all that the Lord our God has said.”
19:10-20 Moses then returned to the mountain to give the Lord their answer. And the Lord responded with further instructions: “Soon I will speak to you from out of a thick cloud that is in front of all the people. They will hear my voice and learn to put their confidence and trust in what you tell them is from me. …But you must spend the next two days preparing them to meet me. Have them wash and consecrate themselves. Then on the third day I will descend from Mount Sinai before all the people of Israel.” …As dawn broke on the third day, a thick cloud hovered over the mountain as lightening and thunder stormed from its midst. Then the sound of a deafening trumpet blast came forth, and everyone shook with fear. But Moses calmly led the people out of the camp toward Mount Sinai where the Lord awaited. At the foot of the mountain they stopped and waited while smoke billowed forth and the mountain itself quaked under the presence of the Lord. …Then God summoned Moses to climb up to the summit to meet him there.
19:25-20:17 After speaking with God, Moses returned to the people and said, “The Lord has given me this message for you: ‘I am the Lord your God who freed you from a life of bondage and brought you safely out of Egypt. No other idol-gods are permitted to take my place. Do not form any type of wood or stone idols to worship—no animal figures to which you bow down, for I am jealous of your devotion and will not tolerate faithless behavior. …Under no circumstances are you to misuse my name, using it frivolously or to curse another. Take the Sabbath seriously and keep it a holy day…Always honor and respect both your father and mother… You must never murder another human being. Sex with a married person is absolutely forbidden. No form of stealing is ever allowed. Telling lies about another person will not be tolerated. And desiring the spouse, wealth, or good fortune of another is not acceptable.’”
19:18-21 When the Israelites experienced the tumult on the mountain—thunder and fire, smoke, and blasting trumpets—they withdrew in fear, saying to Moses, “We want to hear the Lord’s words from you, but we will die of fear if he continues to speak to us directly.” Moses replied to them, “There is no need to be afraid. The Lord is testing your character and willpower and beginning to cultivate in you the awe and respect for him that will produce faithfulness.” But the people remained at a safe distance as Moses once again approached the thick, dark cloud that enshrouded the Lord.
[Then God gave Moses many laws for the people to obey, including the following:]
21:2-23:13 “If you buy a servant who is one of your own people, he can only serve you for six years. On the seventh year, he must be freed. …If a person maliciously strikes another person and kills him, the killer may flee to a town of refuge that I will provide. …But if someone maliciously attacks his father or mother, that person must be executed. …A thief must pay back in full whatever is stolen, or be sold into slavery if he has no means to repay. …If a man sleeps with a virgin not betrothed in marriage, he is responsible to pay the family an agreed upon brideprice and then he is obligated to marry the girl. …A person who offers a sacrifice to an idol or deity other than the Lord must be executed. …Taking advantage of widows and orphans is absolutely forbidden. …If anyone of you lends money to a fellow Israelite who is poor, you must not charge that person any interest whatsoever. …If you keep your neighbor’s blanket as collateral, you are required to return it by dark. It could be her only covering to keep warm at night. If you do not return it and that person calls to me for help, I will surely act on her behalf. I am, after all, a God of compassion. …Never curse the Lord your God nor damn the leaders he has set over you. …I call you to be my holy people. Pay close attention to all that I have instructed you to do.”
23:20-33 “Now I will lead you to a place I have prepared ahead of time, and I will send an angel to protect you during the journey. …When you arrive there, do not be enticed into worshipping the idol-gods of the inhabitants. If you faithfully worship only the Lord your God, I will bless the food you eat and the water you drink and I remove from among you every illness. …You will live out full lives in vibrant health. The dread of me will precede you, creating panic and confusion among the nations you encounter. …All who dwell in those lands will succumb to you and will be driven away with ease. Do not agree to a peace deal with them or be permissive toward their idol-gods. The native peoples must not be allowed to stay in your land, for in time their idol-god worship will entrap you and pollute your true faith.”
24:4-18 Moses wrote on parchment all that the Lord had told him. …It comprised a book of God’s Covenant, which Moses then read in the hearing of all the people. When he finished the reading, the people responded enthusiastically, saying, “We will obediently do everything the Lord has commanded.” …Then Moses, Aaron, and seventy elders climbed up the flanks of Mount Sinai where they all saw a likeness of God. …God then called to Moses, “Climb toward the summit to meet me, for there I will give you stone tablets engraved with my commandments for the people. …As Moses climbed toward the summit, a cloud descended on it and the Glory of the Lord engulfed the top of the mountain. For six full days the cloud remained over the summit of Mount Sinai while Moses waited for God’s instruction. Finally, on day seven, the Lord called to Moses from out of the cloud, and Moses climbed up into its swirling mass. From below, God’s glory appeared like a rampaging fire on the summit. For forty days and forty nights Moses remained with God in the fire-laced cloud.
25:8-22 While Moses was on the mountain the Lord instructed him …“Have the people build a sanctuary so I can dwell in their midst. …First of all, they should construct a sacred chest of acacia wood…and then place inside it the Stones of Holy Testimony I will give you. …Next they are to construct a lid from pure gold hammered into a cover symbolizing atonement and reconciliation. …Two angelic cherubim, also of hammered gold, are to face inward with wings stretched forth from the ends of the atonement cover. …The space between the cherubim above the sacred chest will be where I will speak with you, instructing you in all the commandments I have for the people.”
25:23-27:9 “The next step is to build a sacred table also made of acacia wood. …On it there is always to be a loaf of sanctified bread representing my presence. …Then fashion seven lampstands made of pure gold that are to rest on the table. …And for my dwelling place—my holy tabernacle—you are to weave ten panels of fine linen adorned with angels stitched from blue, purple, and violet thread. …Then make the outer tent walls from woven goat hair. …Inside the dwelling place will be a sacred altar skillfully carved from the wood of the acacia tree. …And the holy tabernacle shall be contained within a courtyard borders in fine linen and protected by an outer wall of woven goat hair.”
28:1-29:20 “When you are finished, you are to bring your brother Aaron and his two oldest sons to serve as priests before me. Aaron is to be clothed with sacred vestments that sanctify and dignify his position as my high priest. His vestments will be fashioned by those I have gifted with the special talent to make fine garments. …And this is how Aaron and his sons are to be consecrated for the priestly work of my tabernacle: A yearling bull and two rams, all without defect, are to be brought to the entrance of the Tabernacle of Holy Encounter. …After laying their hands on the head of the young bull, it is to be sacrificed in my holy presence. Some of its blood must then be spread on the horns of the sacred altar. …Next one of the rams is to be brought before the tabernacle and, with Aaron and his sons’ hands upon its head, the ram is to be sacrificed. Some of its blood should then be sprinkled upon the panels on each side of the altar. …Finally, the second ram is to be sacrificed in the same manner, with some of its blood dabbed on the right earlobes, the right thumbs, and the big toes of the right feet of Aaron and his sons.”
29:37-46 “Then you are to perform seven days of sacrifices to purify the altar. Each morning and each evening a one year-old lamb is to be offered, with both offerings accompanied by a grain offering of two quarts of finely-milled flour mixed with one quart of cold-pressed, virgin olive oil and a drink offering of a quart of fine wine. The offerings are to be burnt daily on the altar for all generations to come—sacrificed before the Lord at the entrance to his holy tabernacle. There I will meet with you and speak to you; and there, in my glorious and holy presence, I will meet with the people of Israel. I will sanctify the tabernacle, the altar, and the priests who serve me so I may dwell among my people as their ever-present God. Then they will know that it was I, their holy God, who freed them from bondage in Egypt so I could dwell in their midst.”
31:12-18 The Lord then said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel this: ‘Keeping the Sabbath is a mandatory practice. It will serve as a sign between me and Israel for all generations, a sign to remind you that it is I the Lord who makes you holy. …The Israelites are to celebrate the Sabbath from now on as part of the everlasting covenant I have established with you.’” …After the Lord finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two stone tablets of testimony written by the hand of God.
Basic Message
Three months after leaving Egypt, the Israelites arrived at Mt. Sinai and set up camp. Moses was summonsed up the mountain by God, who wanted to insure the people’s obedience and commitment to the covenant he was making with them. After descending and telling the people God’s message, they committed themselves to do all the Lord commanded. Then God summonsed everyone to the base of the mountain to “meet” him. The people feared the quaking, fire, and thunder claps coming from the cloud-enshrouded mountain and moved back. But Moses was called to climb up toward the peak to again meet with God. There he was given the Ten Commandments, along with numerous other laws to govern worship and interaction among the Israelites, all of which he wrote down and read to the people. They agreed en mass to obey everything Moses had read.
Then Moses, along with Aaron and his sons and seventy Israelite elders, were called back to the mountain where they all had a very personal encounter with God. Moses was called to go up still higher, and waited seven days for permission to enter the cloud where he met alone with God. Moses was there forty days and forty nights, during which time God gave him tablets of stone (The Testimony) with the laws God intended for the people. Moses was also given very specific instructions to employ skilled Israelite craftsmen to build a holy tabernacle and various accompanying furnishings for God to dwell among the people. In addition, Moses was given instructions for anointing Aaron and his sons to function as priests for God, along with details for the sacred rituals they were to perform and the designs for their priestly vestments. Then Moses came down from the mountain to rejoin the people of Israel.
Comments
* Mt. Sinai was the anvil where God began the serious work of shaping a people into a holy nation within which he could dwell and work out his plan of universal salvation. God asked for the Israelites’ obedience and commitment to his covenant and they gave their word to do just that. The people’s obedience was not demanded outright and it was not requested without a very important element present—a personal relationship with God. He “met” with the Israelites at the mountain in order to transform an otherwise abstract set of rules into a covenantal code based on a personal encounter and relationship with him. That personal dimension of the covenant and the accompanying Ten Commandments is key to accessing the necessary motivation and commitment of the human heart. It is the same principle expressed when a couple takes a marriage vow. They make a commitment to one another in love and respect, not to some abstract notion of what the institution of marriage should be. Again and again God tells the Israelites, “I am the Lord your God,” encouraging them to change their view of him from the abstract to the personal.
* Among the many laws and regulations Moses shared with the people of Israel, special emphasis was given to the Fourth Commandment—to keep the Sabbath holy. One verse says that God spoke to Moses to “Tell the people of Israel this: ‘Keeping the Sabbath is a mandatory practice. It will serve as a sign between me and Israel for all generations, a sign to remind you that it is I the Lord who makes you holy.” The Sabbath was a sign of the covenant relationship between God and his people. Its importance was not in the ritual of taking a day of rest, but in the fact that by not working one day per week the Israelites both inwardly and outwardly acknowledged that they were dependent on God and not human effort alone. That dependency on God and not oneself is the central pillar of biblical faith. Trust in God and reliance on self are mutually exclusive. We are given the opportunity to participate with God in his purposes, and to employ and take pleasure in our own gifts and talents, but we are ultimately to depend only on God. The Sabbath is both a commitment to and a reminder of that essential orientation of the heart.
* All of the rules and regulations God gave Moses were summed up in the Ten Commandments. Later, Jesus would say they were summed up in the first two of those commandments, to love God with all one’s heart and one’s neighbor as oneself. Still, numerous specific laws were issued on Mt. Sinai to clarify the level of righteousness that was required for a people to host a holy God among them. The Commandments were trainer-wheels, as it were, to true faith. But a child learning to ride a bike must rely heavily on those trainer-wheels to keep from falling; and sometimes even they aren’t enough.
* The willingness for an omnipotent, holy God to dwell among the Israelites in a consecrated tabernacle was God’s means to instill reverence and awe within the people so they would remain faithful to him, eschewing idol-worship and sin of every sort. No less was required by a perfectly holy God whose plan was for him to dwell among decidedly fallible human beings. But, of course, those humans were bound to fail and sin, again and again. And before long they would do so in a most grievous way.
* The gap between a most holy God and a most imperfect people was where Moses came in. He was appointed a mediator between God and man, a Christ-like figure whose own faith and righteousness permitted him to act as a go-between. Still, despite Moses’ own righteous life, it wasn’t enough to bridge the gap between sin and absolute holiness. And so God instituted a priestly office and various types of sacrifice in order to facilitate the remediation of sin necessary for him to live among sinful man. Animal sacrifice, with a symbolic focus upon the lifeblood of those hapless creatures, was used by God to make possible the requirements necessary to deal with the unrighteousness inherent in human beings. Innocent nature—part of God’s Creation he once looked upon and declared “wonderfully good”—was employed to reconcile God and man.
* Prominent among those animal sacrifices God instituted for the tabernacle were the lambs offered each morning and evening. They were sacrificed along with flour and wine offerings as part of a daily “burnt offering” that was to continue generation after generation. Those innocent lambs were the true precursor to Jesus, the Lamb of God, who John the Baptist announced “takes away the sin of the world”—a final, comprehensive blood-based sacrifice that permanently and completely reconciles man to God. Interestingly, Jesus also referred to himself as the Bread of Life and the Water of Life, recalling the flour and wine that accompanied the lambs sacrificed on the sacred alter. He perfectly fulfilled the sacrificial requirements set out in the laws given to the Israelites through Moses.
Biblical Themes
1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
