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All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance. They said to Moses, “Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don’t let God speak with us, lest we die.”
Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid, for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you, that you won’t sin.”
Exodus 20:18-20 sits inside this longer paragraph.
All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance. They said to Moses, “Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don’t let God speak with us, lest we die.”
Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid, for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you, that you won’t sin.” The people stayed at a distance, and Moses came near to the thick darkness where God was.
All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance.
They said to Moses, “Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don’t let God speak with us, lest we die.”
Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid, for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you, that you won’t sin.”
And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.
(20-15) And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the horn, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood afar off.
(20-16) And they said unto Moses: 'Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.'
(20-17) And Moses said unto the people: 'Fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that His fear may be before you, that ye sin not.'
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv18, 20 Or, heard.
Or, heard.
Hebrew, fire brands.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv18–20 Exo 20:18 And all the people saw the thunderings,…
Exo 20:18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw [it], they removed, and stood afar off.
Ver. 18. They removed, &c., ] viz., From the hill foot, where they stood and trembled. {Deu 4:11} They feared and fled. Man is ζωον φιλοζωον, {a} a creature that would fain live.
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{a} Aristot.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv18–20 Saw the thunderings, i.e. heard them. One sense is…
Saw the thunderings, i.e. heard them. One sense is oft put for another, as seeing, Gen 42:1, for hearing, Act 7:12.
They removed from the bottom of the mountain, where it seems they stood.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v18 I. The extraordinary terror with which the law was…
I. The extraordinary terror with which the law was given. Never was any thing delivered with such awful pomp; every word was accented, and every sentence paused, with thunder and lightning, much louder and brighter, no doubt, than ordinary. And why was the law given in this dreadful manner, and with all this tremendous ceremony? 1. It was designed (once for all) to give a sensible discovery of the glorious majesty of God, for the assistance of our faith concerning it, that, knowing the terror of the Lord, we may be persuaded to live in his fear. 2. It was a specimen of the terrors of the general judgment, in which sinners will be called to an account for the breach of this law: the archangel's trumpet will then sound an alarm, to give notice of the Judge's coming, and a fire shall devour before him. 3. It was an indication of the terror of those convictions which the law brings into conscience, to prepare the soul for the comforts of the gospel. Thus was the law given by Moses in such a way as might startle, affright, and humble men, that the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ might be the more welcome. The apostle largely describes this instance of the terror of that dispensation, as a foil to set off our privileges, as Christians, in the light, liberty, and joy, of the New Testament dispensation, Heb 12:18, etc.
II. The impression which this made, for the present, upon the people; they must have had stupid hearts indeed, if this had not affected them. 1. They removed, and stood afar off, Exo 20:18. Before God began to speak, they were thrusting forward to gaze (Exo 19:21); but now they were effectually cured of their presumption, and taught to keep their distance. 2. They entreated that the word should not be so spoken to them any more (Heb 12:19), but begged that God would speak to them by Moses, Exo 20:19. Hereby they obliged themselves to acquiesce in the mediation of Moses, they themselves nominating him as a fit person to deal between them and God, and promising to hearken to him as to God's messenger; hereby also they teach us to acquiesce in that method which Infinite Wisdom takes, of speaking to us by men like ourselves, whose terror shall not make us afraid, nor their hand be heavy upon us. Once God tried the expedient of speaking to the children of men immediately, but it was found that they could not bear it; it rather drove men from God than brought them to him, and, as it proved in the issue, though it terrified them, it did not deter them from idolatry, for soon after this they worshipped the golden calf. Let us therefore rest satisfied with the instructions given us by the scriptures and the ministry; for, if we believe not them, neither should we be persuaded though God should speak to us in thunder and lightning, as he did from Mount Sinai: here that matter was determined.
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III. The encouragement Moses gave them, by explaining the design of God in his terror (Exo 20:20): Fear not, that is, "Think not that the thunder and fire are designed to consume you," which was the thing they feared (Exo 20:19, lest we die); thunder and lightning constituted one of the plagues of Egypt, but Moses would not have them think they were sent to them on the same errand on which they were sent to the Egyptians: no, they were intended, 1. To prove them, to try how they would like dealing with God immediately, without a mediator, and so to convince them how admirably well God had chosen for them, in putting Moses into that office. Ever since Adam fled, upon hearing God's voice in the garden, sinful man could not bear either to speak to God or hear from him immediately. 2. To keep them to their duty, and prevent their sinning against God. He encourages them, saying, Fear not, and yet tells them that God thus spoke to them, that his fear might be before their face. We must not fear with amazement - with that fear which has torment, which only works upon the fancy for the present, sets us a trembling, genders to bondage, betrays us to Satan, and alienates us from God; but we must always have in our minds a reverence of God's majesty, a dread of his displeasure, and an obedient regard to his sovereign authority over us: this fear will quicken us to our duty and make us circumspect in our walking. Thus stand in awe, and sin not, Psa 4:4.
IV. The progress of their communion with God by the mediation of Moses, Exo 20:21. While the people continued to stand afar off, conscious of guilt and afraid of God's wrath, Moses drew near unto the thick darkness; he was made to draw near, so the word is: Moses, of himself, durst not have ventured into the thick darkness, if God had not called him, and encouraged him, and, as some of the rabbies suppose, sent an angel to take him by the hand, and lead him up. Thus it is said of the great Mediator, I will cause him to draw near (Jer 30:21), and by him it is that we also are introduced, Eph 3:12.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv18–20 And Moses said unto the people,.... By representatives and…
And Moses said unto the people,.... By representatives and messengers, the heads of the tribes and elders:
fear not; be not afraid of God with a slavish fear; be not afraid of the thunders and lightnings, as if they were like one of the plagues of Egypt, which terrified Pharaoh and his people; be not afraid of being consumed by them, they will do you no hurt; be not afraid of dying by the hand of God, at his presence, and through the voice of his words spoken to you; be of good courage, for the design of God is not to destroy you, but to instruct you, and do you good:
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for God is come to prove you; whether, being now freed by him from Egyptian bondage, they would take and own him for their King, and be subject to his laws and government; whether they would abide by what they had said, all that the Lord hath spoken will we do, Exo 19:8, whether they thought they had purity and righteousness enough to answer to the divine law, and whether they imagined they had strength enough to fulfil it, and whether they needed a mediator between God and them or not: some Jewish writers (q) give a different sense of this clause, as if the coming of God to them in this grand and majestic manner was to exalt them, and make them great and honourable among the nations of the world; taking the word used to be derived from a root, which signifies to lift up, as a banner or ensign is lifted up on high: but the former sense is best:
and that his fear may be before your faces; not a slavish fear of death, of wrath, and damnation, before dehorted from; but a reverence of the divine Majesty, an awe of his greatness and glory, a serious regard to his commands, delivered in so grand a manner, and a carefulness to offend him by disobeying them:
that ye sin not: by breaking the law, and transgressing the precepts of it, which they might be deterred from, as it might be reasonably thought, when they reflected with what solemnity, and in what an awful manner it was delivered to them.
(q) Jarchi in loc. Medrash apud Kimchi in Sepher Shorash. rad. & Ben Melech in loc.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv18–20 They removed and stood afar off - Before God…
They removed and stood afar off - Before God began to speak, they were thrusting forward to gaze, but now they were effectually cured of their presumption, and taught to keep their distance.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv18, 20 Verse 18. And all the people saw the thunderings,…
Verse 18. And all the people saw the thunderings, c.] They had witnessed all these awful things before, (see Ex 19:16), but here they seem to have been repeated probably at the end of each command, there was a peal of thunder, a blast of the trumpet, and a gleam of lightning, to impress their hearts the more deeply with a due sense of the Divine Majesty, of the holiness of the law which was now delivered, and of the fearful consequences of disobedience. This had the desired effect; the people were impressed with a deep religious fear and a terror of God's judgments; acknowledged themselves perfectly satisfied with the discoveries God had made of himself; and requested that Moses might be constituted the mediator between God and them, as they were not able to bear these tremendous discoveries of the Divine Majesty. "Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die;" Ex 20:19. This teaches us the absolute necessity of that great Mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus, as no man can come unto the Father but by him.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv18, 20 Exo 20:18-19. They removed, and stood afar off —…
Exo 20:18-19. They removed, and stood afar off — Before God began to speak, they were thrusting forward to gaze, but now they were effectually cured of their presumption, and taught to keep their distance. Speak thou with us — Hereby they obliged themselves to acquiesce in the mediation of Moses, they themselves nominating him as a fit person to deal between them and God, and promising to hearken to him as to God’s messenger.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v18 Compare Deu 5:22-31. Aaron Exo 19:24 on this occasion…
Compare Deu 5:22-31. Aaron Exo 19:24 on this occasion accompanied Moses in drawing near to the thick darkness.
Exo 20:22 to Exo 23:33 is a series of laws which we may identify with what was written by Moses in the book called the book of the covenant, and read by him in the audience of the people Exo 24:7.
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The document cannot be regarded as a strictly systematic whole. Portions of it were probably traditional rules handed down from the patriarchs, and retained by the Israelites in Egypt.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv18–19 Saw. The Hebrews often substitute one organ of sense…
Saw. The Hebrews often substitute one organ of sense for another. (St. Augustine 9. 72; Jeremias ii. 30.) --- The Samaritan reads, "the people heard the thunders, and the sound of the trumpet, and beheld the lightning." Henceforward till chap. xxiv., Moses and Aaron alone heard the voice of God; and the laws delivered. Chap. xxv. to xxxi., were revealed to Moses only.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv18–19 all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings--They…
all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings--They were eye and ear witnesses of the awful emblems of the Deity's descent. But they perceived not the Deity Himself.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv18–20 THE EFFECT ON THE PEOPLE, Exo_20:18-21.
THE EFFECT ON THE PEOPLE, Exo_20:18-21.
These words form a transition from the decalogue to the legislation which was given through Moses. The statements are considerably amplified in Deu_5:22-33.
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18. The people saw the thunderings — Hebraic mode of expression. Comp. Rev_1:12 : “I turned to see the voice that spake with me.” On the sublime scenes here described see notes on Exo_19:16-20. Such an awful theophany could not fail to inspire all who witnessed it with a profound fear of Jehovah, and they naturally shrank away, and stood afar off. To effect this wholesome fear was one object of theophany and the commandments.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv18–20 18. saw] Heb., more graphically, were seeing.
18. saw] Heb., more graphically, were seeing.
the thunderings (Heb. voices), &c.] see Exo_19:16; Exo_19:19.
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and when, &c.] Heb. and the people saw and trembled, where ‘saw,’ after clausea, is tautologous. Read probably, with merely a change of vowel-points, and the people were afraid, and trembled (so Sam. LXX. Vulg.; cf. v. 20).
trembled] swayed to and fro, shook, is the meaning of the Heb. נוע: cf. Isa_7:2 ‘and his heart shook … as the trees of a forest shake with the wind’; Nah_3:12. On the marg. it is rendered, not very expressively, were moved, as in Isa_6:4 RV., Isa_7:2 EVV., Isa_19:1 EVV.
18–21. The people, alarmed by the terrible accompaniments of the theophany, express a desire that in future Moses may speak to them instead of God. Their wish is implicitly granted. Cf. Deu_5:22-31.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv18–20 (18) And all the people saw the thunderings
(18) And all the people saw the thunderings
—i.e., Perceived them. On the true character of the Sinaitic manifestation, see Note on Exo_19:16-20.
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They removed.—Moses had brought the representatives of the people as near to Sinai as possible—close to the foot of the great precipice of Ras Sufsâfeh (Exo_19:17). The wide plain of Er-Rahah allowed of a removal to a considerable distance.
AT THE PEOPLE’S REQUEST, MOSES BECOMES THEIR INTERMEDIARY.
(18-21) The delivery of the Ten Commandments by a voice manifestly superhuman impressed the people with an awful fear. They felt the near contact with God to be more than they could bear. Even Moses was so deeply moved that he exclaimed, “I exceedingly fear and quake” (Heb_12:21). The people were still more afraid, and felt compelled to withdraw to a distance, beyond the sound of the terrible voice. From Deuteronomy we learn that they retired within their tents (Deu_5:30), having first sent a deputation to Moses, with a request that he would thenceforth act as their intermediary. It pleased God to assent to this proposal; and the remainder of the Law was communicated by God to Moses, and by Moses to the Israelites.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv18–20 Vers. 18-21. WITHDRAWAL OF THE PEOPLE, AND NEARER APPROACH…
Vers. 18-21. WITHDRAWAL OF THE PEOPLE, AND NEARER APPROACH OF MOSES TO GOD. The effect produced upon the people by the accumulated terrors of Sinai thunderings and the lightnings, the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking the cloud, and the voice out of the cloud was an awful and terrible fear. They could not bear the manifestation of the near presence of God; and therefore "they removed and stood afar off." It seemed to them as if, on hearing the voice of God, speaking out of the thick darkness, they must die (ver. 19). Moses, upon their expressing these feelings, comforted them with an assurance that God had shown his terrors, not for their injury, but to put his fear in their hearts (ver. 20), and allowed them to retire to a distance from the mount, while he himself "drew near unto the thick darkness where God was" (ver. 21).
The people saw the thunderings. The use of a specific verb for a generic one, with terms to all of which it is not, strictly speaking, applicable, is common to many writers, and is known to grammarians as zengma. "Saw" here means "perceived, witnessed." The mountain smoking. Compare Exo_19:18. in Deu_5:23 it is said that "the mountain did burn with fire." When the people saw it, they removed. It appears, from Deu_5:23, that. before retiring, the people sent a deputation of heads of tribes and elders up to Moses in the mount, to convey to him their wishes, and suggest that he should be their intermediary with God. Moses laid their wishes before God, and was directed to give them his sanction, whereupon they withdrew to their tents (ib, 30).
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Vers. 18-21. The Divine presence at once attractive and repellent.
When Christ was upon the earth, so winning was his graciousness that crowds flocked to him, and one man at least exclaimed, "Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest." But at the same time so terrible was the manifestation of his power, that there were those who "besought him that he would depart out of their coasts." God is love, and God is power, and wherever he is, be exhibits both qualities; but there are some who sea mainly the love, and there are others who see only the power. Hence the Divine presence at once attracts and repels, charms men and affrights them. The Israelites invited to draw near to God, and hold with him direct communication, after brief trial, decline the offer, and will have an intermediary. Moses, given the same invitation, and a witness of the same sights and sounds, not only stands his ground, but at the end draws more near. The reasons for the difference would seem to be these
I FEAR, WHERE IT IS EXCESSIVE, EXPELS LOVE. The devils, who have no love, "believe and tremble." Men, who have greatly sinned, and who therefore cannot help seeing in God mainly a "consuming fire," and "an avenger to execute wrath," lose sight of all his gentler attributes, cease to feel that he is their Father, no longer look upon him as "merciful and gracious," and consequently no longer have any feeling of love towards him. We cannot love one from whom we expect nothing but punishment.
II LOVE, WHERE IT IS STRONG, COUNTERACTS FEAR AND MASTERS IT. "The fear of the Lord endureth for ever no love of which a creature is capable can altogether cast it out. Tim very angels veil their faces before the Lord of Hosts, and feel themselves unworthy to gaze upon the Divine perfections. But where love increases, fear diminishes. Let love grow, and become strong, and glow within the heart like a flame of fire by degrees fear changes its character, ceases to be a timorous dread, and becomes awe. Awe and love can very well co-exist; and love draws us towards God more than awe keeps us back. Love is glad to have no intermediary rejoices that it may "go boldly to the throne of grace seeks to draw as near as possible to the beloved one so constrains fear, that fear ceases to act any longer as a deterrent, is mastered, and held under restraint. "Moses drew near into the thick darkness where God was." The loving soul presses towards God would "see him face to face and "know even as it also is known.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR Vers. 18-22. The terrors of Sinaitheir design and their effects.
I THEIR DESIGN.
1. Not to slay the people. The people dreaded that if God spoke to them again, they would die (ver. 19). But Moses said No; this was not the design of the manifestation. "Fear not" (ver. 20). The voice of the law in Scripture, though it is felt in the conscience to be a voice of death, (Rom_7:9-11) is not intended to be really so. It is meant to lead to Christ.
2. To prove the people (ver. 20). God gave this awful manifestation, that his fear might ever after be before their faces. They had heard with their own ears the proclamation of the law, and they had seen these terrors. If anything could awaken fear in them a salutary fear and keep them from apostasy, these things should. But, alas! terror is a very ineffective instrument of conversion. These Israelites soon forgot their terrors, and within forty days were dancing in mat glee round their golden calf (ch. 32.).
II THEIR EFFECTS.
1. They inspired the keenest alarm. This is the invariable result in the sinful breast of any near approach of God. A fear akin to that of the Israelites has often been manifested
(1) In presence of unusual appearances of nature (comets, eclipses, etc.).
(2) Under the powerful preaching of the realities of judgment.
(3) In prospect of death.
2. They awakened the cry for a mediator (ver. 19). However much, under ordinary circumstances, the unbeliever may scout the idea of being indebted to a mediator, it will be strange if there do not come times in his life when he feels that he needs one. Three principles in our nature give birth to this feeling
(1) The sense of weakness and finitude.
(2) The sense of sin.
(3) The feeling of need.
The longing for fellowship with God gives rise to the desire for one to mediate that fellowship, to bring it about by making peace.
3. They impelled the self-convicted Israelites to flee from Gods presence (vers. 18, 21). This is what will take place at the last judgment. How different with Moses, who had "boldness" to enter even into the thick darkness! The good man need not fear to be anywhere with God J.O.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v18 They removed, and stood afar off.
Exo_20:18-21
They removed, and stood afar off.
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Israel and Sinai
I. That all men as sinners must be brought into conscious contact with moral law. The guarantees of this conscious contact are found--
1. In the law of our spiritual nature.
2. In the special Providence that is over us.
3. In the provisions of the gospel.
4. In the transactions of the final retribution.
II. That this conscious contact is ever associated with feelings of the most terrible alarm.
III. That under the influence of this most terrible alarm there will arise a conscious necessity for a Mediator.
IV. That heaven has graciously provided such a Mediator, who is equal to the emergency. (Homilist.)
The superficial and the profound
I. Superficial views of Divine proceedings induce fear.
II. Profound views of Divine proceedings encourage confidence.
III. Profound views of Divine proceedings lead to a correct understanding of Divine purposes.
IV. The unenlightened and the fearing stand afar off. And the people stood afar off. There is no reason to keep away from God. Why should we shut out the light of a Fathers compassion?
V. But the heaven-taught are taken into the thick darkness where the true light appears. Moses drew near, or more correctly, was made to draw near, unto the thick darkness where God was. (W. Burrows, B. A.)
Gods revelation of Himself
I. The mode of this revelation was striking (Exo_20:18).
1. Such a mode was necessary.
(1) To reveal Gods majesty--to men familiar with the puerilities of heathen worship;
(2) to show that God was not to be trifled with, and His laws broken with impunity;
(3) to meet the case of those open only to impressions made on their fear.
2. Such a mode served some of the most important functions of the old dispensation.
(1) Preparatory;
(2) symbolic.
3. Such a mode was appropriate, as accompanying judicial proceedings.
II. The reception of this revelation was what God intended it should be.
1. Intelligent.
2. Reverent.
3. Prayerful.
III. The comfort of this revelation disarmed it of all its terrors.
1. The God of their fathers had spoken.
2. God had spoken for their encouragement.
3. God had spoken but to prove their loyalty to Him. If they could stand the test, what could harm them? (Rom_8:39).
4. God had spoken for their moral elevation.
(1) That His fear may be before your faces.
(2) That ye sin not (1Jn_2:1-2).
Learn--
1. Not to dread Gods revelation.
2. To approach God through the one new and living way which is ever open.
3. To keep all Gods laws in the strength of the comfort which His presence brings. (J. W. Burn.)
The seriousness of life
The Hebrews had come up out of Egypt, and were standing in front of Sinai. They turn to Moses and beg him to stand between them and God. At first it seems as if their feeling were a strange one. This is their God who is speaking to them. Would it not seem as if they would be glad to have Him come to them directly, to have Him almost look on them with eyes that they could see? That is the first question, but very speedily we feel how natural that is which actually did take place. The Hebrews had delighted in Gods mercy. They had come singing up out of the Red Sea. They had followed the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud. But now they were called on to face God Himself. In behind all the superficial aspects of their life they were called on to get at its centre and its heart. There they recoiled. We are willing to know that God is there. We are willing, we are glad, that Moses should go into His presence and bring us His messages. But we will not come in sight of Him ourselves. Life would be awful. Let not God speak with us, lest we die! I want to bid you think how natural and how common such a temper is. There are a few people among us who are always full of fear that life will become too trivial and petty. There are always a great many people who live in perpetual anxiety lest life should become too awful and serious and deep and solemn. There is something in all of us which feels that fear. We are always hiding behind effects to keep out of sight of their causes, behind events to keep out of sight of their meanings, behind facts to keep out of sight of principles, behind men to keep out of the sight of God. We have all known men from whom it seemed as if it would be good to lift away some of the burden of life, to make the world seem easier and less serious. Some such people perhaps we know to-day; but as we look abroad generally do we not feel sure that such people are the exceptions? The great mass of people are stunted and starved with superficialness. They never touch the real reasons and meanings of living. They turn and hide their faces, or else run away, when those profoundest things present themselves. They will not let God speak with them. So all their lives lack tone; nothing brave, enterprising, or aspiring is in them. For we may lay it down as a first principle that he who uses superficially any power or any person which he is capable of using profoundly gets harm out of that unaccepted opportunity which he lets slip. You talk with some slight acquaintance, some man of small capacity and little depth, about ordinary things in very ordinary fashion; and you do not suffer for it. You get all that he has to give. But you hold constant intercourse with some deep nature, some man of great thoughts and true spiritual standards, and you insist on dealing merely with the surface of him, touching him only at the most trivial points of living, and you do get harm. The unused capacity of the man--all which he might be to you, but which you are refusing to let him be--is always there demoralizing you. But--here is the point--for this man with his capacities to live in this world with its opportunities and yet to live on its surface and to refuse its depths, to turn away from its problems, to reject the voice of God that speaks out of it, is a demoralizing and degrading thing. It mortifies the unused powers, and keeps the man always a traitor to his privileges and his duties. Take one part of life and you can see it very plainly. Take the part with which we are familiar here in church. Take the religious life of man. True religion is, at its soul, spiritual sympathy with, spiritual obedience to, God. But religion has its superficial aspects--first of truth to be proved and accepted, and then, still more superficial, of forms to be practised and obeyed. Now suppose that a man setting out to be religious confines himself to these superficial regions and refuses to go further down. He learns his creed and says it. He rehearses his ceremony and practises it. The deeper voice of his religion cries to him from its unsounded depths, Come, understand your soul! Come, through repentance enter into holiness! Come, hear the voice of God. But he draws back; he piles between himself and that importunate invitation the cushions of his dogma and his ceremony. Let Gods voice come to me deadened and softened through these, he says. Let not God speak to me, lest I die. Speak thou to me, and I will hear. So he cries to his priest, to his sacrament, which is his Moses. Is he not harmed by that? Is it only that he loses the deeper spiritual power which he might have had? Is it not also that the fact of its being there and of his refusing to take it makes his life unreal, fills it with a suspicion of cowardice, and puts it on its guard lest at any time this ocean of spiritual life which has been shut out should burst through the barriers which exclude it and come pouring in? Suppose the opposite. Suppose the soul so summoned accepts the fulness of its life. It opens its ears and cries, Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth. It invites the infinite and eternal aspects of life to show themselves. Thankful to Moses for his faithful leadership, it is always pressing through him to the God for whom he speaks. Thankful to priest and church and dogma, it will always live in the truth of its direct, immediate relationship to God, and make them minister to that. What a consciousness of thoroughness and safety; what a certain, strong sense of resting on the foundation of all things is there then! Oh! do not let your religion satisfy itself with anything less than God. Insist on having your soul get at Him and hear His voice. Never, because of the mystery, the awe, perhaps the perplexity and doubt which come with the great experiences, let yourself take refuge in the superficial things of faith. It is better to be lost on the ocean than to be tied to the shore. Therefore seek great experiences of the soul, and never turn your back on them when God sends them, as He surely will! The whole world of thought is full of the same necessity and the same danger. A man sets himself to think of this world we live in. He discovers facts. He arranges facts into what he calls laws. Behind his laws he feels and owns the powers to which he gives the name of force. He will go no further. He dimly hears the depth below, of final causes, of personal purposes, roaring as the great ocean roars under the steamship which, with its clamorous machineries and its precious freight of life, goes sailing on the oceans bosom. You say to him, Take this into your account. Your laws are beautiful, your force is gracious and sublime. But neither is ultimate. You have not reached the end and source of things in these. Go further. Let God speak to you. Can you not hear the answer? Nay, that perplexes all things. That throws confusion into what we have made plain and orderly and clear. Let not God speak to us, lest we die! You think what the study of Nature might become if, keeping every accurate and careful method of investigation of the way in which the universe is governed and arranged, it yet was always hearing, always rejoicing to hear, behind all methods and governments and machineries, the sacred movement of the personal will and nature which is the soul of all. The same is true about all motive. How men shrink from the profoundest motives! I ask you why you toil at your business day in and day out, year after year. I beg you to tell me why you devote yourself to study, and you reply with certain statements about the attractiveness of study and the way in which every extension or increase of knowledge makes the world more rich. All that is true, but it is slight. This refusal to trace any act back more than an inch into that world of motive out of which all acts spring, this refusal especially to let acts root themselves in Him who is the one only really worthy cause why anything should be done at all--this is what makes life grow so thin to the feeling of men who live it; this is what makes men wonder sometimes that their brethren can find it worth while to keep on working and living, even while they themselves keep on at their life and work in the same way. Let us be quiet and natural, men say, and all will be well But the truth is that to be natural is to feel the seriousness and depth of life, and that no man does come to any worthy quietness who does not find God and rest on Him and talk with Him continually. The whole trouble comes from a wilful or a blind under-estimate of man. Let not God speak to me, lest I die, the man exclaims. Is it not almost as if the fish cried, Cast me not into the water, lest I drown? or as if the eagle said, Let not the sun shine on me, lest I be blind? It is man fearing his native element. He was made to talk with God. It is not death, but his true life, to come into the Divine society and to take his thoughts, his standards, and his motives directly out of the hand of the eternal perfectness. We find a revelation of this in all the deepest and highest moments of our lives. Have you not often been surprised by seeing how men who seemed to have no capacity for such experiences passed into a sense of Divine companionship when anything disturbed their lives with supreme joy or sorrow? Once or twice, at least, in his own life, almost every one of us has found himself face to face with God, and felt how natural it was to be there. And often the question has come, What possible reason is there why this should not be the habit and fixed condition of our life? Why should we ever go back from it? And then, as we felt ourselves going back from it, we have been aware that we were growing unnatural again. And as this is the revelation of the highest moments of every life, so it is the revelation of the highest lives; especially it is the revelation of the highest of all lives, the life of Christ. Men had been saying, Let not God speak to us, lest we die; and here came Christ, the man--Jesus, the man; and God spoke with Him constantly, and yet He lived with the most complete vitality. And every now and then a great man or woman comes who is like Christ in this. There comes a man who naturally drinks of the fountain and eats of the essential bread of life. Where you deal with the mere borders of things, he gets at their hearts; where you ask counsel of expediencies, he talks with first principles; where you say, This will be profitable, he says, This is right. And in religion, may I not beg you to be vastly more radical and thorough? Do not avoid, but seek, the great, deep, simple things of faith. (Bp. Phillips Brooks.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v18 Exo_20:19. We will hear.] Kalisch happily remarks that “in…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Exo_20:19. We will hear.] Kalisch happily remarks that “in the word v‘nishma‘AH, with the he paragogicum, lies the readiness and willingness: ‘we will eagerly and gladly hear.’ ”
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MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Exo_20:18-21
THE SUPERFICIAL AND THE PROFOUND
The law was given under circumstances of great solemnity. Nature assumed her sternest aspect; and spoke in tones of thunder. All was calculated to impart deep and striking emphasis to every enactment given forth by the world’s great legislator. The whole scene was so appalling that the people were filled with terror. When we think of our own emotions as we listen to the thunder’s deep base, or watch the lightning’s vivid flash, we are not surprised that these people were alarmed. Let us, however, seek to get a correct view of Divine proceedings, and thus gain confidence.
I. Superficial views of Divine proceedings induce fear. Superficial views are always dangerous, though they may not always lead to fear. The superficial man is bold through his very shallowness. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Ignorant men are not troubled with doubts. They sometimes speak with repellant fluency and painful dogmatism upon subjects they have never thoroughly studied and much less mastered. Nevertheless, superficial views are dangerous, and lead to great mistakes. They did so in this case. The people said unto Moses, “Speak thou with us and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” Their fear led them to prefer the human and to reject the Divine. This is the history of fearing and deluded humanity. Human voices are followed through a mistaken sense of safety. Divine voices are rejected through baseless terror. The world follows the teaching of the priests, instead of listening to the still small voice of the Infinite. And the world is thus led fearfully astray; for earthly priests are not constituted after the Mosaic type. Our fears are the result of our sins; for conscience doth make cowards of us all. Earthly and self-seeking priests take advantage of our fears; but not so Moses, he was the world’s sublime prophet.
II. Profound views of Divine proceedings encourage confidence. The voice of the earthly priest is fear; but the exhortation of the Heavenly Priest is, Fear not. The former carries on his trade by increasing the fears of the people; but the latter, with Divine benevolence, seeks to encourage a legitimate confidence. Moses had profound views of Divine proceedings, therefore his exhortation. A correct understanding will remove terror; it often does so in things temporal. The lions produce terror, until we get a further revelation and find that they are chained. It must do so in things moral. God is to be feared in the assembly of His saints, but He is not to be regarded with terror. Fear not, is the exhortation of Moses; Fear not, is the exhortation of Jesus Christ, of whom Moses was an eminent type. If men were to fear not in the presence of the mount that might not be touched, how much more may we say, Fear not, to men who see the mount which is bright with the light of Divine love?
III. Profound views of Divine proceedings lead to a correct understanding of Divine purposes. “For God is come to prove you, and that His fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.” Shallow views lead to disastrous mistakes. The religion of mere sentiment will be a religion of terror. We must think upon the Divine ways, and then shall we turn our feet unto the Divine testimonies, and understand more correctly the deep things of God. Here is a seeming paradox, fear not and yet fear. Fear not with slavish terror; but fear as loving children. Fear not with that terror which makes you shrink from the Divine voice; but fear so as to shrink from that which the Divine voice forbids. The purpose of Divine proceedings is that His people may be proved. Nature herself tests man’s powers. His power of labour and of endurance are tested. The phenomena of nature may become great moral tests. The thunder’s peal and the lightning’s flash may develop a true manhood. God comes to prove His people, not always by the thunder and the lightning and the smoking mountain, but by the common events of our daily life. Disappointments in business, defeats in ambitious projects, a new and seemingly unpromising opening in life, disorders in the family or in the nation, sickness, and bereavement, are the pathways along which God travels to prove His beloved. The ultimate purpose of all Divine methods is that His people sin not. The terrors of the Jewish economy were to keep people from transgression. The love and grace of the Gospel are intended to promote holiness. Jesus came to save people from their sins, to deliver them from moral bondage and corruption.
IV. The unenlightened and the fearing stand afar off. “And the people stood afar off.” There is no reason to keep away from God. He invites and welcomes to Himself the children of men. We do not get to ourselves the true knowledge of the Divine Fatherhood, and therefore we keep at a distance. The prodigal felt himself unworthy to be called his father’s son, until he understood the greatness of the father’s love. Let us pray for more light. Let us consider that God is our Father in heaven, bending down with loving gaze and deep interest to us His children upon the earth. And why should we keep away from a Father’s love? Why should we shut out the light of a Father’s compassion? Why should we stand afar off, when we may be embraced by the arms of the Eternal?
V. But the heaven-taught are taken into the thick darkness where the true light appears. Moses drew near, or, more correctly, was made to draw near, unto the thick darkness where God was. The rabbis suppose that God called unto Moses, and encouraged him, and sent an angel to take him by the hand, and to lead him up. This may be a mere fancy, but it has its foundation in fact. God’s encouraging call is heard in the hearts of the faithful. God’s guiding angels lead by the hand God’s faithful ones into the thick darkness where the true light appears. The pure in heart shall see God. At first the vision may seem only like thick darkness, but soon it will be one of celestial splendours. This is often the Divine method through the thick darkness into the Divine celestial splendour. Through the thick darkness of earlier formations into the light, and glory of the finished creation. Through the thick darkness of the law into the light of the Gospel. Through the darkness of repentance into the light of pardon. Through the darkness of this world, and through the deeper darkness of death, into the land of unclouded light and unsullied glory.
—W. Burrows, B.A.
GOD’S REVELATION OF HIMSELF.—Exo_20:18-20
God’s revelation of His law was accompanied by a revelation of Himself. What was this but a symbolic promise that He would be with them and enable them to keep His law. Cf. Mat_28:19-20; Mar_16:20; Luk_14:4-9. We have dealt with this subject under other aspects before, (see on Exo_19:14-25). Here we have the mode, the reception, the comfort. Notice—
I. That the mode of this revelation was striking. Exo_20:18.
1. Such a mode was necessary
(1.) to reveal God’s majesty to men familiar with the puerilities of heathen worship;
(2.) to show that God was not to be trifled with and His laws broken with impunity;
(3.) to meet the case of those—and the Israelites in general were such—who are open only to impression which can be made upon their fear.
2. Such a mode served some of the most important functions of the old dispensation.
(1.) Gal_3:24, cf. Joh_1:17. It was preparatory to the mild and beneficent grace of Jesus Christ that by contrast with it the latter might be the more welcome. It was the storm before the calm, the night before the day. See also Heb_12:18.
(2.) It was a symbol of the workings of the law in an awakened conscience before the blessing and liberty of the Gospel of Christ (Romans 7, 8).
3. Such a mode was appropriate as accompanying judicial proceedings. It was the same
(1) at the flood;
(2) at the destruction of the cities of the plain;
(3) it will be so at the last day (2Th_1:7-9; Revelation 20.) &c. &c.
II. That the reception of this revelation was what God intended it should be.
1. It was intelligent. “All the people saw it.”
(1.) Revelation is not an appeal to credulity, but to reasonable faith. Its evidences and credentials all appeal to the intelligence of man.
(2.) The people saw what God intended them to see, not merely a spectacle which it would be difficult to forget, but the manifestation of Himself in it. So many painful providences tax our energies to see the meaning of them; but if our eyes are opened we shall see Him there (2Ki_6:14-17).
2. It was reverent. “They removed and stood afar off.”
(1.) This was reasonable; undue familiarity would have been shocking.
(2.) This was exemplary. Many Christians in their references to the person, words, or works of God, may learn a profitable lesson from it.
(3.) This should be usual (Exo_3:5; Ecclesiastes 6).
3. It was prayerful. Exo_20:9.
(1.) This shows the natural and reasonable yearning of man’s heart for a mediator.
(2.) This shows how desirable it is that the mediator should be man.
(3.) This shows that the benefit of mediation is mercifully accepted by God.
III. That the comfort of that revelation disarmed it of all its terrors.
1. God had spoken. The God of their fathers. Their Redeemer. The God who had promised to bless them if they would keep His law.
2. God had spoken for their encouragement, “Fear not.” The fire should not burn, the lightning should not strike them. These were but manifestations of the power which was on their side.
3. God had spoken but to prove their loyalty to Him. If they could stand the test, what could harm them? (Rom_8:39).
4. God had spoken for their moral elevation.
(1.) “That His fear may be before your faces.”
(2.) “That ye sin not” (1Jn_2:1-2), especial in earnest with Exo_20:21. Learn—
I. Not to dread God’s revelation. “Ye fearful souls, fresh courage take.” II. To approach God through the one new and living way which is ever open. III. To keep all God’s laws in the strength of the comfort which His presence brings—J. W. Burn.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
THE REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
Law and Love! Exo_20:18. The prodigal’s father was no Eli, chiding with bated breath. Faithful and monitory were his counsels; urgent and expostulatory were his warnings. Did he love the wayward child less when thus he chided sternly than when he gently seated him at the festive board with its fatted calf? We trow not. The same deep, tender love was there in both; only it differed in expression. When I warn one dear to me from entering on some desperate plunge that must end in peril if not death, is my affection less than when I plunge in to save him! No. And so there is the same love in the law as in the gospel. In the law of Moses, love warns; in the gospel of Messiah, love wins. Both are the true mirror of Him who thus defines His own character, “God is love.”
“The Law brought forth her precepts ten,
And then dissolved in grace.”
—Erskine.
Divine Discernment! Exo_20:20. The law was in one sense God’s “odometer.” It reminded men that He could tell when they had gone beyond the boundaries of righteousness. The odometer is a machine something like a clock which can be fastened on to a carriage, and in some way is connected with the motion of the wheels. It is so arranged that it marks off the number of miles travelled over. Two young men hired such a conveyance, not knowing that it had an odometer fastened to it. Having gone ten miles more than the hire, they returned to the stableyard, where the postmaster asked them how many miles they had been? “Twenty” was the reply. He touched the spring, the cover opened, and there on the face of the instrument the thirty miles were found recorded. The moral law is the odometer divinely fastened to the conscience, and when the journey of life is over, its face will tell how far the conscience has deviated from the way of holiness.
“Law of the Lord most perfect!
And traced in burning light!
How can a fallen rebel
Survive the dreadful sight!”
Divine Design! Exo_20:20. The tidal river, below the banks of which a pretty rural village stood, suddenly overflowed with an unusual spring-tide, and sweeping away the low banks for hundreds of yards, poured its rushing waters over the whole district for miles round. Nancy’s cottage was one of the first to be surrounded by the roaring torrents, and but for the land sloping behind, it must at once have been swept away as a frail leaf. As it was, the rushing waters made it tremble and almost totter, and to save herself from the fast-rising water within the cottage, she retreated up her little staircase. As step by step the waters rose, she retreated still higher, “wondering what the end would be.” Her husband was away in the fields a mile or two distant, and no human help was at hand. “And how did you feel then, Nancy!” I inquired, as we talked together in the evening of that memorable day. “O miss, it was dreadful to hear the rushing of the water come so sudden. But I thought, ‘Well, the Lord’s here too;’ and SO I sat on the stairs and sang that verse—
“ ‘This awful God is ours,
Our Father and our Love;
He will send down His heavenly powers
To carry us above.’ ”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv18, 20 afar off
afar off
For contrast between law and grace, cf. Eph 2:13; Luk 1:10 with Heb 10:19-22.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v18 The Terror of the People
The Terror of the People
v. 18. And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. The impression was made on all the senses, but that of sight was chiefly involved. The manifestation of God’s majesty was so powerful that it effected not only a wholesome awe of the great Jehovah, but an extreme terror as well. And when the people saw it, they removed, they shrank back from the vicinity of the mountain, and stood afar off.
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v. 19. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with us, lest we die. The consciousness of their own sinfulness, their freshly fear and terror, caused them to promise a ready obedience to an the words of Moses.
v. 20. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not; for God is come to prove you, His intention was to test the disposition of their hearts, to try them out with this terrifying aspect, that His fear may be before your faces that ye sin not. By the Law is the knowledge of sin, and God wanted to manifest His glory in order to work in their hearts the proper, holy reverence which would keep them from faithlessness and disobedience.
v. 21. And the people stood afar off, remained standing at a distance, and Moses, as the mediator of the people, drew near unto the thick darkness where God was; in order to receive the further commands of the Lord.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v18 voice of the trumpet
voice of the trumpet
"sound of the trumpet"
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the mountain smoking
"smoke coming from the mountain"
they trembled
"they shook with fear"
stood far off
"stood far away" or "stood at a distance"
so that the honor of him may be in you, and so that you do not sin
"so that you will honor him and not sin"
Moses approached
"Moses went closer to"
translationWords
trumpet
Moses
die
fear
test
honor
sin
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v18 20:18-26 This interlude is about access to God. The…
20:18-26 This interlude is about access to God. The first part (20:18-21) deals with the need for a mediator between the people and God. In 20:22-26, we find the appropriate form for an altar in the interval before God revealed his plans for a more permanent sanctuary (see 25:1–30:28).
20:18-21 The people were very conscious of their sinfulness before a holy God and begged Moses to stand between them and God. Moses pointed out that God’s goal was neither to overawe them nor to destroy them. Rather, he wanted their awe of him to keep them from sinning (20:20). Jesus is the ultimate mediator between God and people (1 Tim 2:5).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.