1.4. Chapter 04 - AT SINAI - THE MEDIATOR
Chapter 04 AT SINAI — THE MEDIATOR (The first year) In the first month after their departure out of the land of Egypt, the children of Israel come into the wilderness of Sinai (Exodus 19:1). Through Moses, the Lord gives them these remarkable words: “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (v. 4). The unruly multitude that had gone out of Goshen was about to be formed into a nation (v. 6), complete with laws, worship, a center and a well-ordered army. The first year of the exodus begins with the Passover and the Red Sea, and continues with God’s care in the wilderness: the manna, the water from the rock, and the victory over Amalek. Then at Sinai the people receive the law and the statutes. In its moral application to us, this first year refers essentially to our individual life: remission of sin, redemption, personal feeding of our souls, and our personal walk with the Lord. The second year (Exodus 40:1-17) starts with the erection of the tabernacle. It continues with the consecration of the priests, the offerings of the princes, the institution of the rituals, the arrangement of the camp, and the march in the wilderness. In contrast to the first year, it emphasizes the collective life of the people. So it is with us. As believers we have not been redeemed to live and walk alone, but rather to be found in the company of his brethren. Christ died to “gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.”
Already during the second year the people could have undertaken the conquest of Canaan, had they not lacked faith at Kadesh-barnea after receiving the report of the spies. In this sense, the additional thirty-eight years spent in the wilderness were not necessary at all; but Israel had to learn to know itself and to know God (Deuteronomy 8:1-20).
1. RECEIVING THE LAW — THE LAWGIVER
Confronted with the majestic display of God’s holiness, the people tremble (Exodus 19:16). Moses himself (as Hebrews 12:21 reminds us) was so fearful of the sight that he said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.” Then God pronounces the ten basic commandments on which the moral law is founded. The people are frightened and stand afar off. They say to Moses: “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” They remain at a distance, but “Moses drew near.” On another occasion, seventy of the elders of Israel go up with Moses to the mountain, along with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu; but Moses alone comes near to the Lord while the others stand back. As for the people, they must not even touch the mountain, much less go up with them. The sole information given about the vision of God as seen by the elders is that “there was under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity” (Exodus 24:10).
Finally, Moses goes up on the mountain and hears the divine communications. He spends six days on mount Sinai in the company of Joshua. On the seventh day Moses alone enters into the cloud and remains in the presence of God forty days and forty nights. At that time He receives the two tables, the statutes, and the instructions relative to the tabernacle. On three occasions when Moses relates to the people the words of God, they answer: “All that the Lord has spoken will we do!” (Exodus 19:8; Exodus 24:3; Exodus 24:7). In no way, however, would they be able to keep the law. As Galatians 3:21 says, “if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.” By committing themselves with this rash promise to keep God’s commandments, the people revealed that they really knew neither God nor themselves. Someone will ask, “Why then was the law given?” This question is answered by the apostle Paul in Galatians and Romans: “I would not have known sin except through the law.” A child might easily promise to behave well and always obey his parents. God, however, will allow definite situations in which the child will find himself at fault so that his conscience might be reached. Would there be any real conversion without at least some measure of the conviction of sin? Some realization of one’s own ruin? Some impression of the holiness of God? When young Isaiah entered the temple, he exclaimed: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). Peter, sensible of the honor done to him, received Jesus into his boat; but after launching out into the deep and witnessing the miraculous “haul of fishes which they had taken” he understood that his passenger in the ship was God Himself. Then he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5:8).
Likewise, we must place ourselves before the ten commandments and seriously examine whether we have observed each one of them. It is not enough to have refrained from stealing. The mere wish to steal is a transgression of the tenth commandment! Which young man can say that the lust mentioned in Matthew 5:28 never arose in his heart? Are there many people who have never said “fool” to a brother or friend? (Matthew 5:22). When suddenly convicted by the Word, one of our young friends stated that he deserved hell since he had treated his brother in this way more than once. What should be said in answer to his confession? Something like: “That was not so serious. Your brother got on your nerves, and you got angry with him?” Certainly not! Every sin is serious according to the Word of God. The Lord Jesus condemns even slight anger at one’s brother. Therefore each one of us deserves hell! Of course. our young friend was trembling at this thought. At such a point, how marvelous it is to present the work of the Lord Jesus. He atoned for our sins, bearing them in His body on the cross. The chastisement that we deserve fell on Him. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).
2. THE CRISIS OF THE GOLDEN CALF (Exodus 32:1-35) In making the golden calf, Aaron and the people did not really want to abandon the Lord. They rather transgressed the second commandment: “You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; You shall not bow down to them nor serve them” (Exodus 20:4-5). The human spirit always tends to materialize what is spiritual. It must have a visible form, an object that can be at least revered, if not worshiped. This was Aaron’s problem. As he saw the golden calf, “he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD” (Exodus 32:5). In their thoughts, Aaron and the people lowered the Lord to the level of the gods of Egypt, saying, “Here is your God.”
Idolatry always brings man down and leads him to disorder (v. 25), orgies and licentiousness (v. 6). Romans one shows this convincingly. Nothing is more serious than to associate the name of the Lord with idolatry.
What will be Moses’ attitude in this situation?
(A) On the top of the mountain, the Lord informs Moses of what has taken place (v. 7-10). Putting him to the test, He proposes to consume the people and then make a great nation out of Moses. What an opportunity for him to be carried away by anger, and to accept this divine proposal! After all, the people have murmured so many times against him.
However, he has the interests of his God too much at heart to act in this way. Instead, he immediately beseeches the Lord, setting forth two decisive arguments for sparing Israel: (1) What would the Egyptians say if the people of Israel were annihilated from the face of the earth? They would boast, saying that God is powerless. (2) The Lord had promised positively to the patriarchs that He would multiply their seed and give to them the land of Canaan. What would become of the fulfillment of this solemn promise? Is it not the same in our intercession for our brethren? On the one hand, we must remember the faithfulness of God, his promises, his righteousness toward Christ (“He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins”). On the other hand, we must think of the testimony which Christians bear before the world: “If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life” (1 John 5:16).
(B) When Moses sees the calf and the dancing (v. 19), his anger burns and he shatters the tables of the law. This was righteous anger and not an outburst of carnal feelings. Scarcely had the law been given, and it was already transgressed. He takes the calf, grinds it to powder, scatters it on the water, and makes the children of Israel drink it. They must realize the gravity of their sin.
Likewise, if we have gravely failed, we must acknowledge it and confess it before God; but we must also feel deeply in our souls how serious sin is and how abominable it is to God.
Moses entrusts to the Levites the terrible mission of exterminating those who apparently had plunged more deeply into idolatry. Even their brethren, their neighbors, or their intimate friends must not be spared. Three thousand men thus perish. This stands in contrast to the introduction of grace on the day of Pentecost some 1500 years later. As the gospel is preached on that first day of a new dispensation, three thousand souls are brought to the Lord (Acts 2:1-47).
(C) By the next day, the tumult and anger have subsided. Will Moses now say: “Yesterday I became angry, but the evil was not so serious?” On the contrary, he speaks again with deep feeling: “You have sinned a great sin.” Having pondered the matter in his innermost heart, he goes up again to the Lord, declaring, “Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin’’ (v. 30). He does not reveal what means he will use to do this, nor is he even sure that this means will succeed.
Bowed down with grief before the Lord, Moses acknowledges that the people have committed a grave sin. He adds: “Yet now, if You will forgive their sin ...” He is not able to finish his sentence for he knows well that God cannot forgive without atonement being made. Hence he expresses what he has secretly conceived in his heart: “If not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.” He thus offers himself as a propitiation for the people. He has not yet learned what the psalmist will declare later: “None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him” (Psalms 49:7). And yet, the Lord forgives. However, He cannot accept that Moses should suffer for the people: “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book.” If the Lord seems to bear with sin, it is because He has before Him the future coming of Another One who will offer Himself in sacrifice for sin. Through Christ, He will set forth a mercy-seat, so that He might be just, and the Justifier of the one that has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:24-26). It was possible for God to endure in absolute righteousness “the sins that were previously committed” (that is, those committed during the entire period of the Old Testament) because He had before Him the perfect Victim who would be manifested in His own time.
Thus God will be just and He will also forgive. He will be faithful to His promises (Exodus 33:1) while also maintaining His glory as to the Egyptians. In His “government” however, He will have to chastise His own; He withdraws His presence from their midst (Exodus 33:3).
3. THE TENT OF MEETING — THE INTERCESSOR (Exodus 33:7-11)
After the sin of the people God departs, saying “I will send My Angel before you” (Exodus 33:2-3). Upon hearing this disturbing word, the people mourn and strip themselves of their ornaments.
What is to be done under these circumstances? The camp had been abandoned to confusion. The presence of God was withdrawn. Moses, however, had already received on the mountain the instructions to build the tabernacle; the habitation of God was to occupy the central place and the tribes were to camp all around it.
Since the people are in utter confusion, Moses realizes that it is no longer possible for God to dwell among them. Will it then be necessary to renounce every manifestation of the divine presence for those who fear the Lord? Moses takes a tent and pitches it for himself outside the Camp, far from the camp, and calls it the tabernacle of meeting. “And it came to pass that every one who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting.” So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle” (vv. 7, 8).
Thus there were two categories of persons: those who were seeking the Lord and went out of their tents; and the others who only looked afar off from the entrance of their own tents. Do we not have a similar instruction in Hebrews 13:1-25 : “Let us go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach”? Christendom, because of its confusion and errors, resembles in many ways the camp of Israel. Like the godly Israelites who went out to Moses, it is possible for us today to go forth out of the camp; and in recognition of 2 Timothy 2:19-22, to meet simply to the name of the Lord Jesus. We can do this with full confidence in His promise of Matthew 18:20 : “Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there I am in the midst of them.’’ Since everyone does not obey the Lord’s commandment, only a “remnant” gathers around Him; but this remnant can fully rely on the promise of His presence.
“And it came to pass, when Moses went out to the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the entrance of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.” The entire people could recognize that the presence of the Lord was manifested there, and no longer in the midst of the camp. In that outside place Moses, the faithful servant, could find a communion which he had never known before. The Lord speaks with him “face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.”
Moses then intercedes for the people on the principle of grace, a new principle at this point. Being aware of himself as the object of God’s favor, he beseeches the Lord to extend His grace to the entire people. He receives the marvelous answer: ’’My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” This, however, was not enough to satisfy Moses. Since he had found grace in the eyes of the Lord, he intercedes that God might go with the people as well as with himself. Finally the Lord yields to his prayer: “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight” (Exodus 33:17). The Vision Of Grace
Moses, deeply encouraged by this intimate relationship with his God, fervently prays to see the glory of His face. However, the moment has not yet arrived for the knowledge of the glory of God to shine in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). Therefore, the Lord must say to His servant: “You cannot see my face; for man shall not see Me, and live.” Although the Lord cannot yet reveal His glory, He declares: “l will make all My goodness pass before you.”
Thus placed in the cleft of the rock and alone in the sanctuary of God’s presence, Moses receives a new revelation of God whom he has so faithfully followed until now. At the bush, he had learned to know Him as the one who does not change: “I am that I am.” In Egypt, God revealed Himself to him as “The Lord, the God of the covenant.” At Sinai, he received the law from “the righteous and holy God.” In the cleft of the rock, however, he learns to know the very nature of the One who is love: “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy unto thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exodus 34:6-7).
Later, in the secret of the temple, young Isaiah will learn to know the grace which takes away his iniquity and makes propitiation for his sin. In the vision at Horeb, Elijah will hear the soft and gentle voice which will touch his heart. In the temple at Jerusalem, Paul will see the One who sends him to the nations far off. And alone in the garden of Joseph of Arimathea and flooded with the light of the resurrection morning, Mary of Magdala will fall at the feet of her risen Savior.
One may well understand that after coming down from the mountain, Moses is no longer the same. He now has in his hands the tables of the law. They are not shattered this time, but placed intact into the ark, a type of Christ. He no longer comes chastising the culprits and spreading terror in the camp. The skin of his face shines, reflecting the goodness and grace of which he had caught a glimpse. He had “spoken with Him.” Aaron and the people, afraid at first, come near to him and Moses puts a veil on his face. The time had not yet come for the glory of grace to be fully revealed. Even today the veil remains on the hearts of the people of Israel (2 Corinthians 3:15).
However, God has shone forth the knowledge of His glory in the face of Christ. All of us who know the Lord Jesus can contemplate with unveiled face this glory of the Lord. We can be transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18). Have we not noticed the details of this remarkable verse? “We all . . . are transformed?” It is not now as it was with Moses the privilege of one particular man or the prerogative of some eminent servant. This marvelous vision is there for all. There is no longer any veil . . .but one must have the time and a heart to contemplate it.
THINKING THINGS THROUGH
1. Explain how Israel’s first year in the wilderness illustrates the individual Christian life; and how their second year illustrates the collective Christian life.
2. Pick out one feature from the giving of the law to Moses on Mt. Sinai which especially impresses you. Tell why it impresses you.
3. What was God’s purpose in giving the ten commandments?
4. How does the Golden Calf incident illustrate the meaning and results of idolatry? Is it possible for a true believer to be guilty of idolatry? Explain your answer.
5. Describe Moses’ reaction to the Golden Calf incident. Note his intercession, his righteous indignation, his decisive judgment on the people, his self-sacrificing concern for them. What is your response when other Christians sin and publicly dishonor the Name of the Lord?
6. What practical lessons do you learn from Moses’ pitching the tent of meeting outside the camp? What were the two opposite responses of the people to his action?
7. Review the various ways in which God revealed Himself to Moses: at the burning bush, in Egypt, at Sinai, and in the cleft of the rock. How did these revelations change Moses? What revelations have we had from God’s Word that have changed our lives?