Exodus 19:7-25 with notes from the Reformation Study Bible and Faithlife Study Bible.
After being reminded of God’s call and plan for Israel. Moses is told that God is “coming… in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.” Then God tells Moses to get the people ready for something big. They have to go through their ceremonial washing of themselves and their clothes, abstain from sex, and build a fence at the base of the mountain. No one is allowed to cross that fence without specific direction from God, on the penalty of death. All that Israel knows is that God would be here in three days to do something significant, but they don’t know what exactly, all they know is “get ready.” Centuries later, John the Baptist would be telling Israel to “get ready,” and in fact he would tell them to repent and be baptized (which would have been understood as a variation on ceremonial washing) (Matthew 3). Here in Exodus 19, Moses is preparing Israel for the introduction of God’s Law, the first purpose of which is to point us to God by contrasting our depravity with His Holiness (See The Threefold Use of the Law from R.C. Sproul’s Essential Truths). In Matthew 3, John would be preparing Israel for the introduction of God’s Kingdom through the coming of the Messiah, whose purpose was to restore the possibility fellowship between depraved humanity and Holy God.
After the preparation, God comes, just as promised. God shows up at Mount Sinai in an undeniably miraculous way. Jesus shows up to be our Savior from the penalty of our sin. But presumably, some in Israel still doubted. After God showed up at Sinai in fire, smoke, an earth quake, and thunder all at once; and after Moses had gone up the mountain to hear from God, he still had to go back down the mountain to remind the people that this was no joke, they really did have to stay off the Mountain. Many in Jesus’ Israel denied and doubted that he was the Messiah, because even after God the Father showed up after Jesus’ baptism and confirmed Jesus as His Son, their anticipated picture of the Messiah wasn’t what they saw in front of them, so it just couldn’t be that the Kingdom of God was really at hand.
But it was. After all that Israel had been through during their slavery and exodus, and after all the times that God had thoroughly proven his superiority and sovereignty over the other “gods” that were worshiped in Egypt and the neighboring pagan societies, God still showed up at Sinai in a seriously attention getting way. After centuries of cyclic obedience and blessing, disobedience and punishment, and repentance, Jesus Christ showed up in Roman subjected Israel to bring in the Kingdom of God.
Related articles
- Called to God – Blessed for no Other Reason (thinkrhema.wordpress.com)
- A Family Reunion, and a Father-in-law’s Advice (thinkrhema.wordpress.com)
- Deliverance, Remembrance, Complacence (thinkrhema.wordpress.com)
Think Rhema 