Mosaic Covenant At Mount Sinai
(Exodus 19 – 31)
Setting The Stage
Marriage of the LORD to Israel
The covenant is not some light thing. This is the point where the LORD is making even clearer His purposes in leading the Israelites out of Egypt (which is symbolic of sin). God is setting forth another overlay of His plan that He has predestined since Eden, shown by His mercy to Noah, and for which He called Abraham out of Ur.
10 the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments 11 and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
The people have prepared and purified themselves at the foot of Mount Sinai for three days in what is a typified as a marriage between God and His bride, the people of Israel.
The Covenant Between God And His People
The Personal Transmission of the Decalogue
The LORD has appeared in power at the top of Mount Sinai, covenanting with the people of Israel. God speaks the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments to the entire people. The covenant further binds the people to God. The LORD establishes the terms of agreement in Torah תּוֹרָה, - "teaching" or "instruction” – commonly translated as “Law” in English Bibles. Israel now knows the LORD expects them to keep these precepts as their part of the covenant.
The LORD’s Awesome Sovereignty Displayed
Yahweh is hovering over Israel at the top of Mount Sinai as His most intense and powerful tangible form (Theophany) that has ever been or will be, until the Second Coming of Jesus the Moshiach. A glimpse of which was seen at Jesus’ Transfiguration.
18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid 4 and trembled, and they stood far off 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.”
The people are frightened and are told they are being tried so that they may understand the sovereignty and power of God, in order that they may not sin.
Just as the proverb says: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” We shall see in Exodus 32 that Israel was not very wise, as they soon forget that fear and reverence of the LORD.
Moses Called Back Up To Sinai To Receive The Book Of The Covenant
21 The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
Moses is back up on Sinai communing with the LORD in a scene displaying God’s divine majesty, that has been powerful and frightening to the people:
there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain …
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.
In this complex covenanting process, Moses, who is the mediator between the LORD and Israel (a type of Christ) is now given more explicit instructions. The first thing that YHWH does is repeat the primary commandment of exclusive worship of Him and a prohibition against any form of idolatry:
22 And the Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven. 23 You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.
The LORD continues over the next 40 days to give Moses the rest of the Book of the Covenant, which Moses will write down later. During this time, God communicates in more detail the explicit instructions of the Covenant to guide Israel in the moral, legal and ceremonial aspects of daily life.
Prophetic Implications of the Covenant At Sinai
The Law That Shows Us Our Sinfulness Points Us To Jesus
The establishment of what will be called Judaism has begun. The Christian understands that this is a further progressive revelation of the LORD’s plan, which points us to the Messiah. All of the purposes of God for the salvation of His Elect are being ultimately fulfilled in Jesus!
Hebrews 7:28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.
