And it came to pass on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunders and lightnings and a heavy cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the trumpet exceeding loud; and the whole people that was in the camp trembled.
On the third day God comes down on the mountain. The God who had carried Israel out of Egypt arrives in storm, cloud and a trumpet blast, and the whole camp shakes. Why does a rescued people tremble at the coming of their own Deliverer? And what is God saying through thunder instead of words?
One writer takes the storm, the cloud and the trumpet each in turn, then presses the question the trembling raises:
There were thunders and lightnings. They expressed judicial power — the way God in His holiness must act when He comes into contact with sinners. There was also a thick cloud on the mountain, showing that He stayed at a distance and hidden from view. The sound of the trumpet was very loud. It announced that God was coming, and it called the people together. All the people in the camp trembled, in spite of the preparations they had gone through. If they had confidence in themselves before, it was now badly shaken, if not swept away. For if they were ready to meet God, why should they fear?
The trumpet did not fade; it swelled. That rising volume, one writer says, was God taking the floor and leaving Israel nothing to say:
Along with other awe-inspiring displays, the blast of the trumpet not only continued long, but became louder and louder. This simply means that God was speaking to Israel so loudly as to totally silence any speaking on Israel's part, whether promises or anything else. The trumpet was an announcement for everyone to hear. Here God was announcing the giving of the law, which He was about to lay on the nation Israel as a stern demand. From the very start God was showing that He knew the law was a yoke of slavery Israel would not be able to carry.
God had just spoken of carrying them to Himself. The change of tone goes back to Israel's own promise to obey:
The moment Israel undertook to "do," everything changed... 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 give way to the thunder and lightning of the fiery mountain. Man had presumed to talk of his miserable doings in the presence of God's magnificent grace. Israel had said, "we will do," and so God put them at a distance, where everyone could see clearly what they are able to do.
The camp shook, but trembling by itself taught them little. Their alarm stands against a very different response — that of a man who truly saw God:
God showed Israel His terrifying majesty there and then, in a way this world has never known before or since. So the Jews boasted that no other religion began like theirs. Only their ancestors stood around that mountain of God. But were they not standing there in utter fear and trembling? Where was there shown the least real knowledge of God? Where was there any true sense of their own state in His sight? What a contrast with Job, who said, "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:5-6). How little they admitted that they were guilty sinners, and that there could be no approach to God until their sins were judged and taken away.
The terror reached the one man who went up the mountain:
Hebrews 12:21 gives a detail that Exodus does not mention: "So terrifying was the sight that Moses said, 'I tremble with fear.'" Exodus tells us that the people trembled, but that Moses, along with Aaron, went up into the mountain. Hebrews tells us how he shook as he did so.
The New Testament sets this mountain against another one:
Israel had come to Sinai, and that was the mountain that marked their whole course from beginning to end. And what was the result of it? As it began with darkness and distance, so it ended with misery and death. Being what they were, and Sinai being what it was, they could not help shrinking back from God. There God stood in His majesty of judgment. He was not there in the love that comes down, takes the burden on itself and carries it away... "But you have come," says the Spirit, "to Mount Zion" — the mountain of God's intervention in grace, as Sinai was of man's responsibility.
- Promise — Israel offered to "do," and the tone changed at once. Eagles' wings gave way to a thick cloud, and God took a place of distance.
- Distance — thunder and lightning showed judicial power, and the cloud showed a God who stayed hidden. The limits round the mountain told sinners to keep back.
- Silence — the trumpet grew louder and louder. God announced the law so loudly that no human promise could compete.
- Trembling — the whole camp shook, and so did Moses; yet fear alone gave them no true sense of God or of themselves.
- Zion — Sinai began in darkness and distance and ended in misery. Believers, the New Testament says, have come instead to the mountain of grace.
And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the foot of the mountain.
Israel had promised to do everything the Lord commanded, and now the meeting day comes — thunder, a trumpet, and a burning mountain. Moses leads the nation out of the camp toward God, then halts them at the foot of the mountain — why call a people to meet Him and then fence them off?
The verse holds two things together that pull in opposite directions. Moses brings the people out to meet God, and at the same moment God shuts them out from the mountain.
All these details are solemn. They show that man cannot stand before God on his own merits. They teach at the same time that if a sinner dares to come into contact with Him on that footing, it can only end in his own destruction. Apart from atonement, God cannot meet the sinner on the ground of righteousness without destroying him... Seen in this light it is a moving scene. God was on Sinai in all the awful majesty of His holiness. The people stood in all their distance and guilt, trembling at what they saw and heard. They were shut off from the mountain, yet brought out of the camp to meet with God, and to receive the requirements of His righteous law which they had promised to obey.
The distance was not where God started with this people. It followed their own promise to obey.
The moment Israel made their vow, the moment they undertook to "do," everything changed... This was a very 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. He says, "Set bounds around the people." The sweet tones of grace and mercy give way to the thunder and lightning of the burning mountain. Man had dared to talk about his wretched doings in the presence of God's magnificent grace. Israel had said, "we will do," so God set them at a distance, to show in full what they were able to do.
Standing at the base, and no closer, was not a punishment but a protection.
Their safety lay in distance. God set bounds around them. They were not to go up the mountain or touch its border — "not a hand shall touch it."
The trembling of verse 16 might have sent the camp backwards. Moses moved them forward instead.
On the third day there was thunder and lightning and a thick cloud on the mountain. Then a trumpet sounded very loud, and the people trembled (v. 16). Yet Moses did not let them draw back. He brought them near to the foot of the mountain, to meet a God who was hidden behind the forbidding cloud... So God met their promise to obey Him!
Everyone else stopped at the border. Commentators read this single exception as a picture pointing forward.
This is shown from the outset. The people cannot draw near, not even through their representatives. The One who has come down to dwell among them must still hold them at a distance. God calls Moses alone to approach, as a picture of a greater Mediator.
Later Scripture looks back at this mountain and sets the Christian's place against Israel's.
In Hebrews 12 the Holy Spirit contrasts the position of Israel with that of the Christian. Israel had come to Sinai, and that was the mountain that marked their whole course from beginning to end. And what came of it? As it began with darkness and distance, so it ended with misery and death. Being what they were, and Sinai being what it was, they could not help shrinking back from God. There God was in His majesty of judgment — not in the love that comes down, takes the burden on Himself, and so takes it away. "But you have come to Mount Zion," says the Spirit — the mountain of God's intervention in grace, as Sinai was of man's responsibility.
What Sinai refused, the blood of Christ gives:
The people were far off, the leaders were not to come near, and had to worship at a distance. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, however, brings us near, and we can draw near. The legal covenant always puts man at a solemn and guilty distance from God; the covenant of grace brings man near to God.
- Promise. Israel's "we will do" changed the terms. Grace that carried them on eagles' wings gave way to a mountain wrapped in cloud.
- Distance. The bounds were mercy, not cruelty — their safety lay in not touching what they could not survive.
- Meeting. Moses led them out to meet God and stopped them at the foot of the mountain: summoned and shut out in the same breath.
- Mediator. The people could not go up. God called Moses alone to approach — a picture of a greater Mediator to come.
- Nearness. Sinai began in distance and ended in death; the blood of Christ does what the mountain could not, and brings us near.
And the whole of mount Sinai smoked, because Jehovah descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended as the smoke of a furnace; and the whole mountain shook greatly.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And the sound of the trumpet increased and became exceeding loud; Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice.
Sinai burns, gloom covers the mountain, and a trumpet blast keeps growing louder instead of fading. Into that noise Moses speaks and God answers him — so what did God say, and why did He come with such terror?
(Note: the ESV says "God answered him in thunder." Older translations say "God answered him by a voice," and the writers quoted below use that wording.)
No one in the camp blew this trumpet. One writer points to its first appearance in Scripture:
The first place in Scripture where we meet "the trumpet" is Exodus 19. It is introduced to us here as "the herald of the presence of the divine Majesty." This was when the LORD formally displayed His glory on the top of Mount Sinai, to the people He had chosen for Himself to be their king… Here the trumpet was clearly God's.
The blast does not settle; it swells. One commentator hears in that rising volume God drowning out anything Israel might say back:
Along with other awe-inspiring displays, the blast of the trumpet not only continued long, but became louder and louder. This simply means that God was speaking so loudly that Israel could not speak at all — no promises, nothing else. The trumpet was an announcement for everyone to hear. Here God was announcing the giving of the law, a stern demand laid on the nation Israel. From the very outset God was showing that He knew the law was a yoke of bondage that Israel would not be able to bear. Yet despite these awesome signs, Israel still did not understand this lesson of their inability to keep the law.
God's answer came as a voice. What He said first to Moses did not bring anyone nearer:
He was then called up to the mount. What was the nature of the first message he received? Barriers already stood around the mount. The place where God stood was holy ground, and anyone — man or beast — who so much as touched the mount would die. But even this was not enough. The LORD told Moses to go down and warn the people not to break through to look at Him, or many of them would perish (v. 21). Priests and people alike had to stay at a distance, except Moses and Aaron — in case the LORD should break out against them (v. 24).
The same writer draws a lesson from the whole arrangement: what happens when a sinner comes to God on his own merits?
All these details are deeply solemn. They show that man cannot stand before God on his own merits. They also teach that if a sinner comes to God on that footing, it can only end in his own destruction. Apart from atonement, God cannot meet the sinner on the ground of righteousness without destroying him. When will men learn that holiness and sin are, and must be forever, utterly opposed? God must be against the sinner unless the claims of His holiness are met. And nothing can ever meet those claims except the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The fire and the trumpet were not the worst of it:
There was also a burning with supernatural fire, more terrible than anything ordinary, along with darkness and gloom and storm… There was a trumpet's sound, never heard before or since, which grew louder and louder in its awful summons. And there was a voice of words, heard by every soul as God's, more terrifying than all the rest in its majesty and its deadly meaning for the conscience! So they begged above all that they might hear this voice no more, asking that Moses speak for them instead… The scene was so fearful that the very mediator they set their hope on said, as the inspired writer could confirm, I am terrified and trembling.
God did not refuse their plea. He answered it with a promise:
So terrified were the people that they begged the LORD not to address them in that way any more. To this He graciously responded, promising to speak to them later in a man — a prophet raised up from among their brothers, like Moses. This is none other than the Lord Jesus, in whom — in His words and ways — all the heart of God has been expressed. Meanwhile, Moses was appointed to act as mediator between God and the people.
- Voice one — the trumpet. It was God's own herald, announcing the presence of the divine Majesty on the mountain.
- Voice two — louder. The rising blast silenced Israel's promises. It announced a law God knew they could not bear.
- Voice three — the answer. God answered Moses, called him up, and sent him straight back down to keep priests and people away.
- Voice four — the words. The spoken words terrified them more than the fire or the trumpet, and even the mediator trembled.
- Voice five — the Man. God promised a prophet like Moses — the Lord Jesus, who shows the whole heart of God.
And Jehovah came down on mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain; and Jehovah called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
The Lord comes down onto the top of Sinai in fire and cloud. From there He calls one man up, while the rest of the nation stands fenced off below. God has come near, yet no one may approach Him. Why are the people He rescued now held at arm's length?
The descent follows Israel's promise to obey. One writer traces the whole change of tone to that promise:
Notice the result. The moment Israel made their vow, the moment they undertook to "do," the whole look of things changed... This was a very 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." He says, "Set limits for the people all around." The sweet tones of grace and mercy give way to the thunder and lightning of the burning mountain. Man had dared to talk about his miserable doings in the presence of God's magnificent grace. Israel had said, "we will do," so God put them at a distance, to show fully what they were able to do.
The barriers taught a lesson about what happens when a sinner meets God on the basis of his own record:
All these details are deeply solemn. They show that man is quite unable to stand before God on his own merits. They also teach that if the sinner dares to come into contact with Him on such a footing, it can only end in his own destruction. Apart from atonement, God cannot meet the sinner on the ground of righteousness without destroying him.
Even touching the edge of the mountain carried the death penalty:
The plain truth set out at Sinai was that no sinner could stand there before God. There He told Israel not to go up the mountain or touch its edge: "Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death." No wonder the whole people in the camp trembled.
Out of a whole nation, only Moses climbs. Writers see something larger in that single figure:
And this is shown from the start: the people, even through their representatives, cannot draw near. He has come down to dwell among them, yet He must still hold them at a distance. God calls Moses alone to approach, as a picture of a greater Mediator.
At the top Moses receives a warning to carry straight back down:
Moses spoke and God answered by a voice, calling him to come to the top of the mountain to which God had come down. We do not know how His presence was shown there. But God at once sent Moses back down. He was to warn the people solemnly not to break through the boundaries around the mountain to see what they could, and so die. The priests were clearly allowed to come closer. Even they had to make themselves clean from all defilement, or suffer judgment from the Lord.
This arrangement shows what the law could and could not do:
Only Moses and Aaron were allowed on the mountain. The priests and the people had to stay at a distance. This shows that the law did not bring men near to God. There was a mediator and a priest between them and God, but the people were kept away from God. How different it is in Christianity! Our Mediator has brought God near to us in grace, and we come into His presence with God's great High Priest.
Commentators set Sinai against a second mountain:
Israel had come to Sinai, and that was the mountain that marked their whole course from beginning to end. And what was the result? As it began with darkness and distance, so it ended with misery and death. Being what they were, and Sinai being what it was, they could not help shrinking back from God. There God stood in His majesty of judgment. He was not there in the love that comes down, takes the burden on itself, and carries it away... "But you have come," says the Spirit, "to Mount Zion." Zion is the mountain where God steps in with grace. Sinai was the mountain of man's responsibility.
- Descent — God came down to the top of Sinai. But coming down is not the same as coming near: He wrapped Himself in a thick cloud and fenced the people off.
- Distance — the change came when Israel promised to obey. Once they said "we will do," God put them at a distance to show what they could really do.
- Danger — apart from atonement, God can only destroy the sinner who meets Him on the ground of righteousness. That is why touching the mountain meant death.
- Mediator — God called up one man alone, a picture of a greater Mediator. The law gave Israel a go-between, but never gave them access.
- Destination — Sinai began in darkness and distance, and ended in death. Zion is the other mountain, where God steps in with grace and takes the burden away.