Photo: Yan Krukov

What mountain did God come down on?

Exodus 19:16–20 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.

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Promotion

Part I in The Theology of the Pentateuch

We are so thankful to our friend, Alex Kirk, who created this series, The Theology of the Pentateuch. It is just a small preview of one of our classes, OT 500: The Torah, which is a deeper exploration of the foundational Old Testament doctrines of creation, sin, faith, redemption, the character of God, law, holiness, and blessing. We hope this whets your appetite to dig into the first five books of the Bible with fresh curiosity and appreciation. Almost fifty days after the first Passover and their miraculous deliverance from slavery, the children of Israel arrive at Mount Sinai in the wilderness somewhere East of Egypt. We can read this story in Exodus 19 (and the chapters that follow). Terrified, exhausted, and completely unsure of what lies ahead, they will camp at the base of this mountain for nearly a year. The presence of God himself descends to seal a covenant relationship with his people. The Lord appears and speaks and it changes them forever—it is the first Pentecost.

Do we experience the reality that Exodus 19 pictures today? If so, how? Where can we go to meet with God?

Exodus 19 shows us that we can experience the theological reality that it pictures. God is revealing himself to you through the history of his relationship with Israel preserved for us in a collection of ancient Hebrew texts. This collection of texts is the Pentateuch (and really the whole Old Testament). To understand what the Pentateuch is and how it is working, we can think about the three “horizons” or “worlds” of the text. There is the world within the text, the world behind the text, and the world before the text.

The World Within the Text: God, Moses, and Israel

Exodus 19 is a theological lightning rod for understanding Scripture because in this text we see the convergence of God’s actions and his revelation on our behalf. The first act in view is God’s mighty act of redemption:

Exodus 19:3–4

…while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. The only reason they are at this mountain is because God saved them from slavery in Egypt. God’s next act will change them into a unique people with a unique purpose by entering into a covenant with them.

Exodus 19:5–6

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. But notice also that there is a third act at work here—a speech act—“These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” God is not only redeeming his people and appearing to them (action), but he is appearing in order to speak (interpretation). The words that God speaks from the mountain interpret his actions for the people. Because I saved you, you will now be my special people. Because I saved you, you will now live this way. After a period of strict preparation and purification, the LORD descends. For his fourth act, a theophany, God appears on the mountain.

Exodus 19:16–20

On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. The overwhelming power of this scene is captured in the contradictions. A trumpet blast—a man-made sound—thunders over thunder from a place where there are no men. The LORD is present in fire and yet an impenetrable darkness wreaths the mountain. Out of this staggering show of glory the LORD speaks, and he speaks the Ten Commandments, the summary of the requirements of the covenant.

Exodus 20:1

And God spoke all these words …

On a plain reading of the text the LORD speaks these words directly to the people, but the sights and sounds ruin them. Their frail natures are overwhelmed and like Adam in the Garden they recoil from the presence of the LORD.

Exodus 20:18–21 (cf. 19:9)

1Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. But see how Moses interprets the purpose of what they are experiencing? Everything before you, the sights and sounds that are washing over you, are designed to draw you into a particular kind of relationship with God, a relationship where you draw near to him by trusting him in faith.

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Promotion

God’s actions and words converge at Sinai to form the Israelites into a people who will bear his name. This is the historical reality of the Old Testament, the world within the text.

But the people stand far off.

The World Behind the Text: The Book of the Covenant

So, both God’s actions and His speech take place within history, at a real time and place, but they are recorded for us as a diverse collection of ancient literature. This is the literary reality of the Pentateuch, the world behind the text. In other words, the process through which we come to be reading this text, the process through which we can experience Sinai with the Israelites, is a literary process. The moment of God’s speaking on the mountain to the people of Israel and the moment of that event being recorded and interpreted for “generations of those who love him” are not the same moment. In the world behind the text, Moses records all God’s words (Exod. 24:3–4). This “Book of the Covenant” (as Exod. 24:7 calls it) represents the seed, the literary-historical core, of the Pentateuch. It preserves not only God’s actions of redemption (event) but also their significance for us (interpretation). God’s salvific acts and revelatory speech in their written form as Scripture have concerns that reach far beyond the concerns of the world within the text. They include audiences and purposes that transcend the original moment.

The World Before the Text: The Pentateuch in the Present Tense

Did you notice that Exodus 19 includes you? The purpose of God’s appearance was that “the people may hear” and “may also believe you forever” (Exod. 19:9). As Bruce Waltke observes, “The New Testament represents the Old Testament as that which God says (not said) to us (not them).” The Apostles have a clear and strong belief that we hear the LORD speaking to us directly in the words of the Old Testament (1 Cor. 9:9–10; Heb. 12:5–6). As the author of Hebrews says to his readers, in the present tense, “Today, if you hear his voice do not harden your heart!” (Ps. 95:7–11; Heb. 3:7, 15; 4:7). This is the theological reality of the Pentateuch, the world before the text. When God appeared to his people on that mountain he appeared for you.

Hebrews 12:18–25, 28

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.… Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. When you open your Old Testament to read a passage like Exodus 19 you are entering into the spiritual reality that it describes taking place on the mountain because God is present to you in Christ by the Holy Spirit. In the way that I have framed this definition, in the way that I see it revealed in this text, the world within the text (the historical reality) and the world behind the text (the literary reality) serves us—the world before the text (the theological reality). There’s a story from church history that bottles this lightning. Blaise Pascal was born in 1623 in France. The world was changing rapidly. The Reformation had overturned the way that Europe related to God, and the rebirth of learning in the Renaissance was steadily giving way to new methods of experiencing and thinking about the world—what we call the Enlightenment. By the time he was 31 years old, Blaise Pascal had cemented his place in the annals of scientific history and Enlightenment erudition: At “10, Pascal was doing original experiments in mathematics and physical science. To help his father, who was a tax collector, he invented the first calculating device (some call it the first ‘computer’)” known as ‘the Pascaline.’ “With this last invention, he had made a name for himself (at age 19!) and began his richly diverse scientific career. He tested the theories of Galileo and Torricelli (who discovered the principles of the barometer), culminating in his famous law of hydraulics, which states that pressure on the surface of a fluid is transmitted equally to every point in a fluid. He added important papers on the vacuum, on the weight and density of air, and the arithmetic triangle. He developed the theory of probability, which is still used today. He invented the syringe, the hydraulic lift, and is credited with inventing the wristwatch and mapping out the first bus route in Paris” (Galli and Olsen, 2000, 61). To this point in his life Pascal had dabbled with religion, but his commitment to mathematics and physical science was paramount. In his late 20s he regressed in a so-called “worldly period.” One night, however, when he was 31, he had a mystical experience that changed him forever. Immediately after it was over, he jotted down the following note, a raw impression of that night:

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Promotion

The year of grace 1654, Monday, 23 November, feast of St. Clement, pope and martyr, and others in the martyrology. Vigil of St. Chrysogonus, martyr, and others. From about half past ten at night until about half past midnight, FIRE. GOD of Abraham, GOD of Isaac, GOD of Jacob

not of the philosophers and of the learned.

Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.

GOD of Jesus Christ.

My God and your God.

Your GOD will be my God.

Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, except GOD.

He is only found by the ways taught in the Gospel.

Grandeur of the human soul.

Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you.

Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.

I have departed from him:

They have forsaken me, the fount of living water.

My God, will you leave me?

Let me not be separated from him forever.

This is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and the one that you sent,

Jesus Christ.

I left him; I fled him, renounced, crucified.

Let me never be separated from him.

He is only kept securely by the ways taught in the Gospel:

Renunciation, total and sweet.

Complete submission to Jesus Christ and to my director.

Eternally in joy for a day’s exercise on the earth.

May I not forget your words. Amen. [Ps 119:16]

He titled this little note “Memorial” and sewed it into the lining of his jacket over his heart where it remained until he died just eight years later at 39—his own private covenant document. His legacy from the last eight years of life was not scientific discovery (sadly?), but a profound unfinished work of theological philosophy and apologetics known simply as the Pensées (Thoughts). In it he wrote, “The heart has its reasons that reason does not know.” Encountering the LORD and hearing his speech changes us. Interpreting Scripture is entering into a theological conversation that connects from the heart of the Triune God to Moses to the author of Hebrews to the Church Fathers to mathematical geniuses like Pascal and to you—with your Bible in your hands—whether you’re in your favorite chair at home or standing before your church. You are approaching the LORD to hear him speak to you from the cloud. In fact, your ability to open your Bible and read this passage at all is a direct result of the historical and spiritual reality that we read about in the text—redemptive acts and speech acts converging. The LORD has redeemed his people. The LORD is speaking to his people. This is no easy thing. You might legitimately be terrified (Exod. 19:16; 20:18–19). You have to examine yourself (Exod. 19:10–11). You must listen and respond (Exod. 19:8). But in the darkness, smoke, and fire, Christ is speaking an invitation to you. Approach this mountain, and I will meet with you there. LORD, thank you that you are our LORD who appears to us and speaks to us. May we learn to approach the mountain of your Word with due reverence knowing that we hear your voice. Yet may we not fail to draw near, knowing that you are calling us to approach in Christ. Draw us into a real relationship with you that transforms us. Alex Kirk is the Visiting Professor of Old Testament at William Tennent School of Theology. He has been married to Meghan for over ten years, and currently lives in Durham, England, where he is nearing the completion of his Ph.D.. Alex is most passionate about leading people deeper into the literature of the Old Testament as the living and active word of the LORD to his people.

References

Galli, Mark, and Ted Olsen. 2000. 131 Christians Everyone Should Know. Nashville, TN: Christianity Today, Inc.

williamtennent.org - Approaching the Mountain of God: Exodus 19 and the Nature of the ...

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