Exod 19–20; 24 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
In the last lesson, Israel crossed the sea. The passage says, “Israel saw the great work which the LORD did to the Egyptians, and the people feared the LORD; and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses” (Exod 14:31).
“In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that same day they came into the wilderness of Sinai” (Exod 19:1). Here God makes a covenant with these people he has just brought out.
In this lesson, God speaks from the mountain.
Israel camped at the foot of Mount Sinai. God told them he had carried them on eagles’ wings and brought them to himself; on the third day there was thunder, lightning and a thick cloud, and the whole mountain smoked. (Exod 19)
1God spoke all these words, saying,
2“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3“You shall have no other gods before me.
4“You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,
6and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who misuses his name.
8“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9You shall labor six days, and do all your work,
10but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates;
11for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.
12“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
13“You shall not murder.
14“You shall not commit adultery.
15“You shall not steal.
16“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
18All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance.
19They said to Moses, “Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don’t let God speak with us, lest we die.”
20Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid, for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you, that you won’t sin.”
21The people stayed at a distance, and Moses came near to the thick darkness where God was.
God then gave instructions about building an altar and offering sacrifices. (vv. 22–26)
To read it all: Exodus 19, 20 and 24.
Rescue comes first. The ten commandments do not begin with a command: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (v. 2). God first says who he is and what he has done, and only then says ‘You shall not.’ Israel was not rescued because they had kept the law well. They had already been brought out, and then God gave them the law.
Carried on wings. Before the covenant, God told them, “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to myself” (Exod 19:4). Where God brought them, the passage says, was ‘to myself.’ Then he says, “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples” (Exod 19:5). This covenant is about belonging.
Ten words. The first commandments are about people and God: “You shall have no other gods before me” (v. 3); no idols, no misusing God’s name, keeping the Sabbath (vv. 4–11). The rest are about people and each other: honor your parents, and do not murder, commit adultery, steal, give false testimony or covet (vv. 12–17). How we treat God and how we treat other people are placed in the same covenant.
A day to stop. The reason given for the fourth commandment is: “for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day” (v. 11). On that day no one works — “you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates” (v. 10). People who had just come out of forced labor are told to stop and rest, and so are their servants and the strangers among them.
Standing at a distance. When the people saw what was happening on the mountain, “they trembled, and stayed at a distance” (v. 18). They said to Moses, “Don’t let God speak with us, lest we die” (v. 19). But Moses said, “Don’t be afraid, for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you, that you won’t sin” (v. 20). ‘Don’t be afraid’ and ‘his fear’ stand in the same verse.
The blood of the covenant. Moses told the people all the LORD’s words, and they answered with one voice, “All the words which the LORD has spoken will we do” (Exod 24:3). Moses sprinkled blood on the people and said, “Look, this is the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you concerning all these words” (Exod 24:8). This covenant was sealed with blood.
Eating and drinking before God. After the covenant, the elders went up the mountain. The passage says, “He didn’t lay his hand on the nobles of the children of Israel. They saw God, and ate and drank” (Exod 24:11). The people standing at a distance and the elders eating before God are both in these three chapters. This covenant is not only a set of words; it also has a meal in God’s presence.
God told them, “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod 19:6). A few months earlier, they had been Pharaoh’s slaves.
The law was not a doorway they had to pass through to become God’s people. They had already been brought out. The law showed people who had been rescued what it looks like to be God’s people.
You may have turned your faith into a checklist, going over each day which item you got wrong, worried that God might not want you because of it.
The order in this lesson is: first, the God “who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (v. 2); then, ‘You shall not.’ God’s commands are written to people he has already brought out.
This week: Following the fourth commandment, set aside half a day this week. Don’t work, don’t deal with your to-do list. Just remember what God has done for you.
The letter to the Hebrews mentions this day: “For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you’” (Heb 9:19-20).
In the same passage, Hebrews says, “how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb 9:14).
John’s Gospel says, “For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).
Readers can put these passages side by side and see for themselves.
Scripture: World English Bible.