The nineteenth chapter marks a turning point in the ways of God with Israel. God had promised that He would bring His people out of Egypt and that they should worship Him in that mountain — Mount Sinai. Up to this point God’s dealings had been in grace, and now He proposes a trial. Would they obey His voice and keep His covenant? If so, He would bless them on that ground. Moses gathered all the elders of Israel together and put the question before them. They did not even stop to consider it, but answered at once, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (ch. 19:8). How self-confident they were! Had they forgotten all about their past murmurings and rebellion? Had they forgotten how weak they were without the intercession of Moses when fighting Amalek? Apparently they had. Little did they realize that to put themselves under law and to expect blessings on the ground of obedience was to forfeit blessing entirely, unless God should intervene in grace.
Under the Law
And yet how many are putting themselves under law today and expecting to earn the favor of God in this way. How many are trying to get to heaven by good works of their own. Even though thousands of years have rolled by, during which not one person has ever kept the law (except the Lord Jesus Himself), people are still trying to put themselves under the law with the curse that goes along with it (Galatians 3:1010For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. (Galatians 3:10)). How much better it would have been for the children of Israel to tell God how helpless and guilty they were, and admit that they could never keep His holy law. This is the true position of the sinner: not to promise something for the future, but to say like the poor publican, “God be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:1313And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. (Luke 18:13)).
God took the children of Israel at their word. He put them to the test. First of all, before He gave them the law, they must sanctify themselves and wash their clothes. Washing clothes, in the Bible, always represents changing one’s ways and associations. They were to be ready on the third day, for then God was going to come down and give them His law. Bounds were to be set around the mountain because they must not come up to or even touch the border of it. If they did they were to be stoned or shot through with a dart. They had undertaken to obey the voice of God, they must obey it to the very letter or judgment would fall. God is holy and He cannot have sin in His presence — no, not even the very smallest sin.
Fear and Trembling
At last the third day came. Let us imagine we were there to hear and see it. The day began with thunder and lightning and a thick cloud upon the mountain. Then the trumpet began to blow and it became louder and louder. The whole mountain was on fire and the smoke went up like a great furnace. It shook greatly and the people trembled. They were right to tremble as they stood in the presence of God, for it is a solemn thing to have to do with a holy God. Apart from the work of Christ on Calvary, there is no escape from God’s righteous judgment. He alone could meet all God’s holy claims against the sinner, and, blessed be His name, He has done it at Calvary, where He “made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:2020And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. (Colossians 1:20)). Have you thanked Him for His finished work?
Further Meditation
1. Why were the people right to tremble when lightning and thunder shook Mt. Sinai?
2. The Lord tested Israel when He offered them the covenant based on obedience and they failed. Can you show that this pattern of God testing man runs throughout the Bible?
3. The Law and the Gospel, a booklet by C. H. Mackintosh presents several of the themes of this chapter in more depth.