The Mountain (Exodus 19:16-25)

16 On the morning of the third day [what does this remind you of?] there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast [from within the storm], so that all the people in the camp trembled [because of the dangers associated with being in God’s presence]. [God appears in a thunder or wind storm as he did in the Garden of Eden, erroneously translated “cool of the day” in Genesis 3:8.] 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. [This almost sounds like a volcano, but it is not the case. It is God’s fiery presence that burns away what it unclean.] 19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder.

[God’s words were not discernable by the people.] 20 The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. [The top of Mount Sinai was a temporary meeting place, a sanctuary, where God and humans connected through Moses.]

21 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to look and many of them perish. [God really cares about his people and does not mind making Moses go up and down to protect them.] 22 Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them.” 23 And Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it.’” 24 And the Lord said to him, “Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you [not right away but next time]. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them.” 25 So Moses went down to the people and told them. [God’s intention is for Moses to be with his people when they hear God speak the Ten Commandments. We have finished the first half of Exodus and Israel’s miraculous rescue from slavery in Egypt and its successful flight to Mount Sinai, fulfilling God’s promises. Now we turn to the second half, which is the Sinai Covenant, a formal, solemn expression of God’s relationship to his people and theirs to him and about their proper service for the one true God by keeping his covenant.]