What is the significance of Mount Sinai?

This occasion was one of the utmost importance, not only for the children of Israel, but in the history of the whole world. It was marked by great happenings. Moses, the leader of the children of Israel, was told to ascend to the top of Mount Sinai, where he would meet God. We read, “There were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled … and Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly” (Ex. 19:16, 18). God’s own fingers wrote the Ten Commandments upon tables of stone, as a standard of life in relation to God, and to each other, whilst finally the lesson stretched out to the whole world, as we read, “Now we know that what things soever the law says, it says to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and ALL THE WORLD may become guilty before God” (Rom. 3:19).

After the provision of water from the smitten rock at Rephidim, Amalek came out in power to oppose the people's progress, and was defeated. To Sinai then Israel came, no further opposition being offered to their advance. There they heard what was new to them, God speaking to them directly out of the fire. God then declared, directly from Himself, the covenant which He commanded them to perform, even the ten commandments (Deut. 4:12-13). Fitting it was that they should have direct from His mouth those ten words (Deut. 10:4). He thus talked with them face to face (Deut. 5:4). After that He communicated to Moses in the mount His will to dwell among them: "Let them make Me a sanctuary: that I may dwell among them" (Ex. 25:8).

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.

Sinai is mentioned 31 times in the Pentateuch and only three times more in the rest of the Old Testament. In the New Testament the word occurs only in Acts 7:30, 38 and Gal. 4:24, 25. The place where the law was given is a barren wilderness of high towering rocks. Moses went up to God and Jehovah reminded the people first of all of His gracious dealing with them. Then He revealed His purposes concerning them as a nation. They were to be His peculiar treasure above all people and to be unto Him a kingdom of priests and an holy nation. This purpose is founded upon a theocracy, that is, He Himself would reign over them as King. For this He must ask obedience from them. How else could they be a kingdom of priests and a separated people, unless they harkened to His voice, and kept His covenant? But it is still the purpose of grace. Jehovah in His grace would make all this possible if they had received it. The law which followed, with its principle, obedience, as the place of blessing, never led to the realization of Israel 's calling, nor ever will. When at least Israel becomes the kingdom of priests, it will be through grace and not of works.

The Ten Commandments were announced by God from Mount Sinai in the desert of Arabia. They were given to the children of Israel in view of their going into the land, promised by God to Abraham and his heirs long before. One of the great glories of the children of Israel was “the giving of the law” (Rom. 9:4), which has been entwined in their history from that day to this. Amid the dense darkness of superstition and idolatry, that cast its horrible gloom on the surrounding nations, the light of God and His claims shone brightly in the favoured land of Israel.

It was truly a day of days in the history of the world, now over 3,500 years ago, when Moses was commanded by God to ascend Mount Sinai, that forbidding peak in the desert of Arabia. The whole Mount smoked like a furnace. The LORD descended in fire upon it. The earth trembled under His mighty footstep. The trumpet sounded long, growing louder and louder. In their terror the Israelites besought that “the word should not be spoken to them any more” (Heb. 12:19). Even Moses confessed, “I exceedingly fear and quake” (Heb. 12:21). Such were the sublime and awe-inspiring circumstances attending the giving of the Law.

Moreover, this mountain is described as “the Mount of the LORD”. We find the same expression in the book of Exodus where it always has to do with God's revelation on Mount Sinai. Just as Moses led the flock of his father-in-law all the way through the desert to Horeb, the mountain of God, he also led the people of Israel through the wilderness to this mountain (Ex. 3:1; Ex. 18:5; Ex. 24:13). It was the mountain where God sat enthroned. He` desired to reveal Himself to the people He delivered from slavery to be His special treasure. So we are on holy ground here and, like Moses, have to put off our shoes. Thus the people of Israel, too, and most of all the priests, had to sanctify themselves in order to be able to meet with God at the foot of the mountain (Ex. 19).

Yet this expression, the mountain of God, does not only refer to Mount Sinai. It is also used for Mount Zion, and for the Temple Mount, after the ark of the covenant (the visible sign of God's presence) found a resting place there (cf. Ps. 15:1, Ps. 24:3; Ps. 48:1-2). This is very striking indeed with regard to the Temple Mount, for there is a clear connection between Genesis 22, 1 Chronicles 21-22 and 2 Chronicles 3. Abraham went to the land of Moriah to offer his son on one of the mountains of which God would tell him, while king David built his altar of burnt offering on Mount Moriah.

On Mount Sinai God manifested Himself in majesty to His people. He had delivered them from the land of Egypt by His mighty arm and had borne them on eagles' wings to Himself (Ex. 19:4). The appearance of the glory of the Lord was accompanied by thunderings and lightnings, the sound of a trumpet, and by smoke and devouring fire (Ex. 19:16-20; Ex. 20:18; Ex. 24:17). The Israelites could not come near to God. They did not dare to at all, and they had been forbidden to climb the mountain. Trembling with fear, they stood far away at the foot of the mountain (Ex. 19:12ff; Ex. 20:18; Ex. 24:2).

"The mountains quaked before the Lord" (v.5--NASB). Mountains symbolize authorities, and this includes Mount Sinai, which expresses the authority of law over Israel. The awesome majesty of God was evident when the law was given. "Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly" (Ex. 19:18). Who will not fear before a God of such magnificent power and splendor?

Exodus 19. Here was an immense change taking place in the state of Israel: until then the promise made to them had been unconditional. If you cast your eyes over the chapters from 15 to 19 you will find that God had given them all things gratuitously, and even in spite of their murmurings; as the manna, water to drink, the sabbath, etc.; and that He had sustained them in their combat with Amalek at Rephidim. He recalls all this to their memory: "Ye have seen," says He to them, "how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself; now therefore, if …" This is the first time, in the relationship between God and Israel, that the little word if is introduced. "Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me: for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation."

Now, as to the covenant made with Israel on Mount Sinai, its terms were these: the people undertook to obey all that the Lord should command. "Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine; and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation … And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord." Nothing could be more distinct and express than was this condition, "If ye will obey my voice, and keep my covenant, ye shall be," etc.; and the people undertook the terms explicitly. Now it is remarkable that the previous condition of the people had been unfolded as resting entirely upon grace. As such it was manifested in their deliverance from the power and prince of this world; in the healing of the water which they had to drink; in the giving of the sabbath in which the manna would be an abiding portion — bread given daily otherwise, the needful and surely apportioned supply of grace; in the waters given in the time of their need, though they murmured and tempted the Lord, yet freely given to them from the stony rock; in the power of mediatorial intercession against their enemies, with their discomfiture, the Lord being their banner, and Joshua their leader; in the ordering of needful government in the household of God, though this was not of principle but from a stranger.