Reading Exodus：Learning at the Sinai Wilderness

 “…the people of Israel…came into the wilderness of Sinai.”（Ex 19:1b）
“In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month……the people of Israel set out by stages from the wilderness of Sinai.……”（Num 10:11-12）

In the third month after leaving Egypt and entering the wilderness, the Israelites came at last to the wilderness of Sinai, to the mountain of God. In this was fulfilled what the LORD God had told Moses back in 3:12: “you shall serve God on this mountain.” There they made camp (Exod. 19:1–2), and there they would remain for nearly a year (see Num. 10:11). During this extended stay in the wilderness of Sinai, God himself would teach them how to worship and how to live, preparing them to enter the promised land as the LORD’s people and to faithfully live out the life that befits the people of His covenant.

With this, the account of Exodus enters a new structure. From here to the close of the book, narrative is interwoven with law and instruction, giving concrete expression to the life God’s covenant people are called to live:

Narrative (19:1–25) → Law: the Ten Commandments (20:1–17) → Narrative (20:18–21) → Law: the Book of the Covenant (20:22–23:33) → Narrative (24:1–18) →Instruction: the tabernacle and the Priesthood (25:1–31:18) → Narrative: the golden calf, the tabernacle, the priests (32:1–40:33) → Conclusion (40:34–38)

Ex 19 may be said to be the foundation of all that this structure goes on to convey.

First, the LORD establishes at the outset who he is within this covenant relationship: the God who takes the initiative to make the covenant and faithfully keeps and fulfils it.

He tells Moses to say to the Israelites: "You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself." (Ex 19:4)

In Ex 2:24–25 we have already seen that “God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.” Then, when He sent Moses, He told him that He had indeed heard them and remembered, had seen His people and known their suffering, and that therefore “[He had] come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.” (Ex 3:7–8)

Now, exactly as He had said, the LORD had rescued His people from the hand of the Egyptians, brought them out of the land of their slavery, and set them on their way towards the good land He had promised.

If Israel were to have a relationship with the LORD, and to learn to worship and serve Him, they had first to know who He is and to remember what He had done in their life.

Edward Lear, Mount Sinai

Second, what Israel had to learn, and it was their first responsibility, was to "obey [His] voice and keep [His] covenant." (Ex 19:5a)

This is the fitting response to the LORD's saving work. In fact, when the LORD spoke in the wilderness of "testing" them, this was the very response He was waiting for: that they would obey His voice and keep His covenant. (See Ex 15:25–26; see also 16:4–5, 22–30. See also What shall we drink?.)

And when they respond in this way, God promises: “you shall be My treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation…” This promise deepens the covenant God made with the patriarchs and gives it concrete shape. He promised them that they would increase and flourish; He promised to be God to them and to their descendants, and to give them the whole land of Canaan as an everlasting possession; He promised to be with them and to watch over them wherever they went. And so they were to become a blessing to all the nations. (cf. Gen 12:2–3; 17:6–8; 26:23–24; 28:13–15)

Now the LORD tells them something more: they are God's own treasured possession, called out to belong to Him from the whole earth that is His and from all the peoples He has made. The God who created the heavens and the earth, the great King of the universe, has bound Himself to them for ever, and what He asks of them is this: to obey His voice and to keep His covenant. As they do, they will bear witness before the nations to the wisdom and the beauty of the LORD, standing among all peoples as representatives of His grace and blessing, and so making good their identity as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Third, the LORD was also willing to be present in the midst of Israel, and on this occasion to assure the people at the same time that Moses did indeed speak with Him "face to face". This did not mean, however, that Israel could draw near to Him as they pleased. As God reminded Moses when he first met Him: "Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." (Ex 3:5)

The LORD is a holy God. So even though He was willing to be present among them, they had first to prepare themselves to meet Him (Ex 19:10–11). Boundaries had to be set as well, and Israel had to keep those boundaries carefully, on pain of death (Ex 19:12–13). The holiness of God is not to be treated lightly.

And indeed, when the LORD came down on the day He Himself had appointed, Israel felt and knew for themselves the glory and the terror of His holiness, so that they all "stood far off", not daring to make a move. (See Ex 19:16–20; 20:18–21)

These several aspects recorded in Exodus 19 will appear again and again in the interwoven narrative, law and instruction that follow. They show us what Israel learnt in that near-year of wilderness life, and they show us too how the LORD, faced with a people who rebelled again and again and stiffened their necks, kept faith with them to the very end and displayed His mercy and kindness.

As we read of Israel's year in the wilderness, perhaps we might pause a little ourselves, look back over our own steps and take stock. As children who belong to God, bearing the identity of a royal priesthood and a holy nation (1 Pet 2:9), how much have we actually learnt? Are we living out faithfully the life that the people of God ought to live?