Exodus 19

Ex 19:1-25.

ARRIVAL AT

SINAI.

1. In the third month--according to Jewish usage, the

first day of that month--"same day."--It is added, to mark the

time more explicitly, that is, forty-five days after Egypt--one day

spent on the mount

(Ex 19:3),

one returning the people's answer

(Ex 19:7, 8),

three days of preparation, making the whole time fifty days from the

first passover to the promulgation of the law. Hence the feast of

pentecost, that is, the fiftieth day, was the inauguration of the Old

Testament church, and the divine wisdom is apparent in the selection of

the same reason for the institution of the New Testament church

(Joh 1:17;

Ac 2:1).

2. were come to the desert of Sinai--The desert has its

provinces, or divisions, distinguished by a variety of names; and the

"desert of Sinai" is that wild and desolate region which occupies the

very center of the peninsula, comprising the lofty range to which the

mount of God belongs. It is a wilderness of shaggy rocks of porphyry

and red granite, and of valleys for the most part bare of verdure.

and there Israel camped before the mount--Sinai, so called from

Seneh, or acacia bush. It is now called Jebel Musa. Their way into the

interior of the gigantic cluster was by Wady Feiran, which would lead

the bulk of the hosts with their flocks and herds into the high valleys

of Jebel Musa, with their abundant springs, especially into the great

thoroughfare of the desert--the longest, widest, and most continuous of

all the valleys, the Wady-es-Sheikh, while many would be scattered

among the adjacent valleys; so that thus secluded from the world in a

wild and sublime amphitheatre of rocks, they "camped before the mount."

"In this valley--a long flat valley--about a quarter of a mile in

breadth, winding northwards, Israel would find ample room for their

encampment. Of all the wadys in that region, it seems the most suitable

for a prolonged sojourn. The 'goodly tents' of Israel could spread

themselves without limit" [BONAR].

3-6. Moses went up unto God--the Shekinah--within the cloud

(Ex 33:20;

Joh 1:18).

Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, &c.--The object for

which Moses went up was to receive and convey to the people the message

contained in these verses, and the purport of which was a general

announcement of the terms on which God was to take the Israelites into

a close and peculiar relation to Himself. In thus negotiating between

God and His people, the highest post of duty which any mortal man was

ever called to occupy, Moses was still but a servant. The only Mediator

is Jesus Christ

[1Ti 2:5;

Heb 12:24].

6. ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests--As the priestly

order was set apart from the common mass, so the Israelites, compared

with other people, were to sustain the same near relation to God; a

community of spiritual sovreigns.

an holy nation--set apart to preserve the knowledge and worship

of God.

7, 8. Moses came and called for the elders of the people--The

message was conveyed to the mighty multitude through their elders, who,

doubtless, instructed them in the conditions required. Their unanimous

acceptance was conveyed through the same channel to Moses, and by him

reported to the Lord. Ah! how much self-confidence did their language

betray! How little did they know what spirit they were of!

9-15. The Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come . . . in a

thick cloud, &c.--The deepest impressions are made on the mind

through the medium of the senses; and so He who knew what was in man

signalized His descent at the inauguration of the ancient church, by

all the sensible tokens of august majesty that were fitted to produce

the conviction that He is the great and terrible God. The whole

multitude must have anticipated the event with feelings of intense

solemnity and awe. The extraordinary preparations enjoined, the

ablutions and rigid abstinence they were required to observe, the

barriers erected all round the base of the mount, and the stern

penalties annexed to the breach of any of the conditions, all tended to

create an earnest and solemn expectation which increased as the

appointed day drew near.

16. on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and

lightnings, &c.--The descent of God was signalized by every object

imagination can conceive connected with the ideas of grandeur and of

awe. But all was in keeping with the character of the law about to be

proclaimed. As the mountain burned with fire, God was exhibited as a

consuming fire to the transgressors of His law. The thunder and

lightning, more awful amid the deep stillness of the region and

reverberating with terrific peals among the mountains, would rouse the

universal attention; a thick cloud was an apt emblem of the dark and

shadowy dispensation (compare

Mt 17:5).

the voice of a trumpet--This gave the scene the character of a

miraculous transaction, in which other elements than those of nature

were at work, and some other than material trumpet was blown by other

means than human breath.

17. Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with

God--Wady-er-Raheh, where they stood, has a spacious sandy plain;

immediately in front of Es Suksafeh, considered by ROBINSON to be the mount from which the law was given.

"We measured it, and estimate the whole plain at two geographical miles

long, and ranging in breadth from one-third to two-thirds of a mile, or

as equivalent to a surface of one square mile. This space is nearly

doubled by the recess on the west, and by the broad and level area of

Wady-es-Sheikh on the east, which issues at right angles to the plain,

and is equally in view of the front and summit of the mount. The

examination convinced us that here was space enough to satisfy all the

requisitions of the Scripture narrative, so far as it relates to the

assembling of the congregation to receive the law. Here, too, one can

see the fitness of the injunction to set bounds around the mount, that

neither man nor beast might approach too near, for it rises like a

perpendicular wall." But Jebel Musa, the old traditional Sinai, and the

highest peak, has also a spacious valley, Wady Sebaiyeh, capable of

holding the people. It is not certain on which of these two they

stood.

21. the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people--No

sooner had Moses proceeded a little up the mount, than he was suddenly

ordered to return, in order to keep the people from breaking through to

gaze--a course adopted to heighten the impressive solemnity of the

scene. The strict injunctions renewed to all, whatever their condition,

at a time and in circumstances when the whole multitude of Israel were

standing at the base of the mount, was calculated in the highest degree

to solemnize and awe every heart.