What is the location of the real Mount Sinai?

For the purpose of redemption God reveals Himself from Horeb. Consider the position from which He speaks: a judge's attitude and words would be wholly different, when sitting on some committee to relieve the poor, from that which it would be when sitting on the bench to declare the law or punish criminals. Sinai is the throne of judgment: Horeb is the throne of grace. They are distinct mountain summits in the same range: Horeb (Ras Safsefah), being much lower and more accessible than Sinai (Mousa) the rugged and imposing mountain of the law. This is now pretty well established; but it is strange how general has been the tendency to regard them as the same plane; just as men usually confuse law and grace. It is at Horeb alone the bush can be burnt without being consumed; there is to be held the great assembly of the redeemed, the Bride, Gentile, and Israel, being grouped round the Redeemer. Hither also came Elijah when he wanted to surrender his charge; and here he found that God was not to be found in fire, tempest, or earthquake, but in the still small voice. The voice on Sinai was very different. (Heb. 12:18, etc.) [ Ex. 3:12, and Ex. 18:5; therefore is it called, "The Mount of God."]

This name is applied to both a mountain and to a wilderness. They lie between the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Akaba. The mountain is really a range of high hills and is sometimes called HOREB, which may be a more general name for the whole of the range. Mount Sinai is especially connected with the giving of the law. Moses and the elders went up into the mountain, and Moses there received the Ten Commandments written on two stones. The Israelites were located in the wilderness of Sinai, which must have been a large place capable of holding two million people. By comparing Ex. 19:1 with Num. 10:11, it will be seen that they continued there nearly a year.

The mountains in the locality have been surveyed in modern days, and a plain has been found, about two miles long and half a mile wide, affording ample room for the people to assemble, and where they could hear the thunder, and see the fire and smoke issuing from the mount. The plain is now called er Rahah. Adjoining this is a precipitous granite rock called Jebel Musa (Ras Sufsafeh) which is so formed that the elders who accompanied Moses part of the way up, could remain there while Moses proceeded to the summit, which cannot be seen from the plain. Ex. 19:1-23, etc.; Ps. 68:8, 17; Neh. 9:13; Acts 7:30, 38.

The opening verses of our chapter witness to the faithfulness of God to the promise given to Moses in Exodus 3:12, "And he said, Certainly I will be with thee: and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee. When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain." Mount Sinai is really a range of high hills, sometimes called Horeb as in chapter 3, which may be a more general name for the whole of the range, Sinai being one of the mountain peaks.

Sinai is a mountain in a way isolated from others. The Scripture narrative informs us that bounds were set about it, (Ex. 19:23) that it was in view from a plain in which "all" (v. 11) the people could stand, and move either "near" it or "afar off" from it, (Deut. 4:11; Ex. 20:21) and that it was sufficiently broad on the summit to enable one person to be in seclusion when seventy others were also there. (Ex. 24:1-2, 9-11.) These Scripture conditions seem all to be realized in the mountain of which Ra's Sufsafeh is the shoulder, the peaked cliffs of which "rise abruptly from the plain" and overlook the large wady of Er Rehah. The whole extent of the top of this mountain forms a great platform, and the summit, Jebel Musa, which is hidden from the long valley by the Ra's Sufsafeh precipices, stands back some considerable distance from them.*

The Bible student of to-day is greatly favoured by having to his hand careful and exact maps of the whole district of Horeb, with its peaks, precipices, and wadies. He can study them and make himself familiar with them at his leisure. The map, with the little section, supplied on page 165, are copied from the Ordnance Survey. By noticing the section, it will be observed that the plain of Er Rahah slopes gradually upward from the base of Ra's Sufsafeh, and that, therefore, the two or three millions of Israel could stand and face the fiery mount and see all, without one rank obstructing the view of the rank behind it. By drawing a straight line touching the summits of Ra's Sufsafeh and Jebel Musa, as shown in the section, and extending it to the left over Er Rahah, it will be proved that from no spot on the plain would the summit of Jebel Musa be visible, which fact lends considerable interest to certain details of the Bible narrative. Can anyone question the design of God in the selection of this plain? Can anyone doubt, in the face of the witness of both mountains and surroundings, that Moses did but record that which actually took place?

A mount closely connected with Sinai, and supposed to embrace the range of mountains lying about 28 30' N, 33 57' E between the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Akaba, whereas Sinai is one of the mountain peaks. Horeb was called 'the mountain of God.' Ex. 3:1. It was where God had intercourse with Moses, and where He made a covenant with Israel. Near here also the golden calf was set up. Ex. 17:6; Ex. 33:6; Deut. 1:2, 6, 19; Deut. 4:10, 15; Deut. 29:1; Ps. 106:19. See SINAI.

I separate these chapters because they present us, I judge, a distinct subject for meditation, and afford us some of the grounds on which it is that Horeb, or Sinai, in Arabia, is called in scripture "the Mount of God."

To return. With the wilderness of Sinai and its adjacent valleys the people must have become familiar. Nearly a year had passed since they first encamped at the foot of what is now called Ras Sufsâfeh in the large plain called Wady Er Râhâh. They had reached the base of Ras Sufsâfeh, now supposed to be the mount of God, in the third month of the year of the Exodus - the twentieth day of the second month of the second year was to witness their final departure from it. For never in all their wanderings do we read of their return to Sinai, or to Horeb.

Names cling to localities in a most remarkable manner in the East — there is a valley above which Sinai towers, which is still called Wady Sho'eib, or Jethro's Valley, and it lies close to the mass called Jebel Musa, or Moses' Mountain! But a nobler name belongs to that mountain — Horeb, the Mount of God.

The interest in the incidents which are before us in this chapter is so great that we have supplied a map of that part of the Feiran in which they occurred. On the left, supposing we are on the way to Horeb, facing Jebel Serbal, is the hill Tahuneh, before reaching which is located the traditional rock, Hesy el Khattatin. Near Tahuneh is the position of Rephidim. Some twenty miles up the valley, and the plain of Er Rahah is gained.

The exact direction taken by Israel when they broke up their camp at Elim was much questioned, but the Ordnance Survey Expedition has now set at rest most of the difficulties, and has enabled a very clear idea to be formed of the way they went. Their destination was Horeb, the Mount of God. They were a great host, having baggage wagons, cattle, and much encumbrance, hence they could not have taken a mere mountain track, steep and rugged. Two main routes were open to them, known now as the upper and the lower roads. Our maps on pages 144 and 145 will make their route perfectly clear to the eye. The two roads divide at Wady Ethal. The upper road lies by Wady Hamr, Wady Nasb, Wady Suwig, Wady Khamileh, Wady Bark, Wady Lebweh, Wady Berrah, and Wady es Sheikh, and so enters the plain of Er Rahah.

As the next encampment of Israel after Elim was near the seashore — "they removed from Elim, and encamped by the Red Sea," (Num. 33:10) it is evident they did not pursue the upper road. The reason why they did not do so is very simple. By consulting the map (page 144) Sarabit El Khadim, issuing from Wady Siiwig; and Maghar ah, near Wady Shellal, will be observed. The former of these two places is in continuity of the upper road. They were both fortified, and occupied by Egyptian troops, who were told off for this service in order to protect the mining district. The mines were worked by slave labour There is quite an interesting history of these mines in the Egyptian archives, and there are monuments in situ carved in the rock. One of these we give.