the day that thou stoodest before Jehovah thy God in Horeb, when Jehovah said to me, Gather me the people together, that I may cause them to hear my words, that they may learn them, and fear me all the days that they live upon the earth, and teach them to their children.
The verse looks back to one day. Israel stood at Horeb, the mountain where they took the law upon themselves, and God gathered the whole nation to hear His own voice. He did not do it so they could admire the scene. He did it so they would learn to fear Him for a lifetime, and pass that fear on to their children.
Moses is not just recalling history. Commentators note his point in going back to Horeb: the privilege Israel had there of nearness to God.
In reminding them of Horeb, he presses the privilege they had enjoyed: nearness to God. God Himself had spoken to them out of the fire, and they saw no form. He presses too the authority of the word, and its majesty, which shuts out every thought of idolatry.
They heard a voice but saw no form, so no image could ever stand for God. What mattered that day was contact with His word, and that need has not changed.
The great and all-important point for Israel of old, and for the church now — for each, for all, at all times and in all places — is to come into direct, living contact with the eternal word of the living God. The end in view is this: "so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so."
The verse ties two things together: hearing His words, and learning to fear Him.
It is very beautiful to note the close connection between hearing God's word and fearing His name. It is one of those great root principles that never change, never lose their power or their real value. The word and the name go together. The heart that loves the one will reverence the other, and bow to its holy authority in all things.
Horeb was a mountain of fire. Yet the fear God aimed at was for Israel's good, and something of it survives today.
True, here it was a mountain of fire, because the people had accepted the law and put themselves under it. Yet the fear with which God sought to impress them was preserving, and in that sense gracious. And after grace has fully come, a "fear of the Lord" still remains for us. It is not terror, but it allows no lightness. Alongside it "the comfort of the Holy Spirit" is always found.
Nearness and reverence are not rivals.
But this love must have reverence in it too. Nothing is more offensive than the over-familiar tone some people take toward God, people shaped by the loose gospel often preached today. Yet God would have us near Him — truly near. The nearer we are, the more His majesty will impress us, and the more the infinite distance between ourselves and Him will sink into us.
The clause about teaching the children is not an afterthought. Truth that is not passed on disappears fast.
We forget too easily, even things that once made a deep impression on us, so we need constant reminders. They were told to teach these things to their children and grandchildren, and we need the same warning. Too often, after only one or two generations, people have let the truth slip so far that hardly a shadow of it seems left. This happened in Israel too.
For Israel, hearing was only half of it.
And note especially the solemn responsibility Israel had for their children. They were not only to "hear" and "learn" for themselves; they were also to teach their children. No one can neglect this duty without consequence; it holds everywhere and always. God attaches very great importance to this matter.
Mackintosh sums up the whole of Christian education in two short sentences, and names the error of taking only one of them:
We believe the whole business of Christian education is summed up in two short sentences: count on God for your children, and train your children for God. Take the first without the second, and it is antinomianism. Take the second without the first, and it is legality. Take both together, and it is sound practical Christianity — true religion in the sight of God and man.
- Gathered — God called the whole nation together for one purpose: to put every person in direct contact with His own word.
- Heard — hearing God's word and fearing His name belong together. Love the word, and you will revere the One who spoke it.
- Feared — this fear guards us; it is gracious, not terror. It remains now that grace has come, and it grows as God draws us near.
- Taught — truth no one passes on is lost within a generation or two, as Israel's own history proved.
- Balanced — count on God for your children, and train your children for God. Trust without training, or training without trust, both miss the mark.
And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and obscurity.
Moses takes the people back to the day they stood at the foot of Sinai. The mountain was on fire, and God spoke out of cloud and gloom. Two questions follow: why did God come in fire, and why did He stay hidden in the darkness?
One writer sees every detail of that scene as fitted to the day. He also hears in it a voice quite unlike the one that speaks in the gospel.
The mountain burning with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud and gloom — solemn and suitable for the occasion! — "And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire" — Oh, how differently He speaks in the gospel of His grace! — "You heard the voice of the words, but saw no likeness" — an important fact for them to think about! — "only a voice."
One writer reads the blaze climbing into the sky as a picture of God's justice. He notes what was missing from the scene as much as what was there.
Every detail in this introduction to the giving of the law showed the infinite majesty of God. Each one pressed on sinful man that his natural place is distance from the Holy One. The thunderings and lightnings symbolised heaven's judgment on the sinful earth (see Rev. 4:5). The burning fire rising to the heart of heaven symbolised the consuming nature of divine justice. No mediator stepped in, no sacrifice stood in man's place. Darkness and fire surrounded the Most High, and from His awful throne came "the fiery law," whose words Israel could not bear (Heb. 12:20). The words given, the measures taken, the physical surroundings — all pressed one reality on the people: God was unapproachable!
The cloud was not an accident of weather. One writer explains the concealment by the subject under discussion that day: the law measured man, not God.
The law given by Moses is called "the word spoken by angels" (Heb. 2:2); but it was not a setting out of what God was, but rather of what man was as God had made him at the beginning. That is why God is said to have been in the thick darkness. He kept Himself concealed while He occupied them with what they should be if they were to remain in His favour. He could not bring Himself into the light, because the question at issue was not what He was, but what they ought to be.
One writer traces the cloud and the boundary line at Sinai back to what Israel had promised.
The moment Israel made their "singular vow," the moment they undertook to "do," everything changed. "And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud… Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death." This was a marked change. The One who had just said, "I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself," now wraps Himself "in a thick cloud," and says, "set limits for the people all around." The sweet tones of grace and mercy are exchanged for the "thunderings and lightnings" of the fiery mount.
One writer links the whole display to what God was doing that day: giving Israel commands to perform.
At Sinai, God was declaring to the people of Israel the covenant and setting out what He commanded them to perform, the ten commandments (Deut. 4:10-13). That is why God's presence on earth came with symbols. They showed His majesty, and His holy destructive judgment against disobedience and sin. These symbols — the fire, the gloom, the darkness and the tempest — struck terror into people's hearts. Everything at Sinai was against us… Man in his natural state cannot endure the presence of God. Any glimpse of the glory of God is overwhelming when it comes with a demand on man.
One writer sets Sinai beside what Christians have now.
God had said to Israel, "I will dwell in the thick darkness." At Sinai He told them to keep away: "if even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned." There was a great deal of good there, but He stayed hidden behind His covering of darkness. God acted towards Israel, but did not show Himself. Now the veil is torn from top to bottom, and all is light.
- Fire. The flame rising into the sky pictured God's consuming justice. No mediator stepped in, and no sacrifice stood in man's place.
- Darkness. God stayed concealed because the subject that day was what man ought to be, not what God is.
- Distance. The cloud and the boundary came after Israel promised to "do." Once man promised to perform, grace gave way to thunder.
- Terror. Human nature cannot bear God's majesty when it arrives with a demand. Everything at Sinai stood against us.
- Light. The torn veil ends the hiding. God no longer acts from behind darkness; He shows Himself.
And Jehovah spoke to you from the midst of the fire ye heard the voice of the words, but ye saw no form; only [ye heard] a voice.
At Horeb the people stood before a burning mountain, and God spoke. They saw nothing of Him. They took in words, not a shape. Two questions follow: why did God show no form, and what does it mean that faith rests on a voice?
God came close enough to be heard and feared, yet He stayed hidden.
God came out from the unapproachable light to make His law known. He set out His demands on man — what He requires of him as one standing on his own responsibility. But He did not show Himself. He surrounded Himself with "a thick cloud" (Ex. 19:9). He spoke out of "fire and smoke" (v. 18) and "thick darkness" (Deut. 4:11). There was a display of majesty, power and authority. The storm and the shaking of the mountain were so great that the people trembled, and Moses himself was terrified (Heb. 12:21).
The word translated "form" here is the Hebrew temunah.
temunah, 'form, appearance,' which may not imply likeness. Num. 12:8; Deut. 4:12, 15, 16.
God showed nothing, so there was nothing to copy. Their whole duty ran through what they heard.
They saw nothing. God did not show Himself to them. He did not assume any bodily shape of which they might form an image. He gave them His word, His holy commandments, so plain that a child could understand them... So they had no need to imagine what God was like. No — that was the very sin they had been so faithfully warned against. They were called to hear God's voice, not to see His shape — to obey His commandments, not to make an image of Him.
One writer draws out what that missing shape protected them from.
The point pressed here is simple. When they came and stood before God — as far as anyone then could stand — they had seen no likeness of Jehovah. What a guard this was against the misuse of outward forms! God Himself did not disclose Himself by an external creature-shape... So this strikes a heavy blow at the pull towards idolatry.
The warning was not theoretical. Their own recent history had already proved the danger.
Again Moses insists that Israel saw no form when the Lord spoke to them at Horeb. The danger was real that they might corrupt themselves by making a carved image — in the form of a male or female, or of any animal, bird, reptile or fish (vv. 16-18). Israel's history had shown the need for such a warning. Right after God gave the law they made the golden calf, breaking the first law they had promised to keep (Ex. 32:1-4).
God's first words to Israel named Him as their rescuer. What He asks in return is love — but not a casual love.
They needed no proof that He exists or that He is powerful. He had used that power for them, and His first words declared Him their Deliverer out of slavery in Egypt. He did not claim their love without having done that which would secure it for Him. But this love must have reverence in it too. Nothing is more offensive than the over-familiar tone some people take towards God... Yet God would have us near Him — truly near — and the nearer we are, the more His majesty will impress us.
The same writer sets the tone of that day beside the way God speaks in the gospel.
"Then the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire" — Oh, how differently He speaks in the gospel of His grace! — "only a voice" — And "faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ."
What Sinai withheld, the Son supplies. That settles where we look for knowledge of God.
Jesus is declared to be the brightness of God's glory and the exact impression of His substance. He could say, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." So the Son reveals the Father. And we know anything of the Son by the word, through the power of the Holy Spirit. So if anyone tries to form an image of God, or of Christ, by efforts of his mind or workings of his imagination, that is simply idolatry.
- Fire. God came out of the unapproachable light to state His demands. He came wrapped in cloud, fire and darkness: majesty on show, but He did not show Himself.
- Voice. They heard words and no more. The Hebrew word for "form" means appearance, and God gave them none.
- Word. They saw nothing, so everything hung on what they heard: hear God's voice, not see His shape; obey His commandments, not model Him.
- Guard. Showing no shape struck a blow at idolatry. Israel proved the warning was needed: they made the golden calf right after God gave the law.
- Son. What the fire hid, Christ reveals. He makes the Father known through the word, so picturing God in your imagination is still idolatry.
And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to do, the ten words; and he wrote them on two tables of stone.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.