EXODUS CHAPTER NINETEEN ----------------------- Verses 1-2, This is the fulfillment of what God had promised Moses at the burning bush. Ex 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. God was able to execute His promise. Who would have thought that it would have been possible to free, without the use of a sword, 3 million people, and then lead them across a sea and through a desert. But God had made the people willing to leave, and made the Egyptians glad to see them go, and parted the Red Sea and supplied their needs in the wilderness, to bring them to the very mount that He had promised Moses. Two months had passed since they left Egypt and not a single Israelite had perished from hunger or sickness or peril. "the same day came they" - That is exactly the beginning of the third month since they left Egypt. Compare: Ex 12:2 This month [shall be] unto you the beginning of months: it [shall be] the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth [day] of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of [their] fathers, a lamb for an house: Gill says that some have said it was the 47th day so that 3 days later the law was given on the 50th day after the passover thus the feast of Pentecost. It appears from our text that it was the beginning of the 3rd month to the day. Pink says that THREE is ever the number of manifestation. Compare verse 11. Ex 19:11 And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the SIGHT of all the people upon mount Sinai. Christ was 3 days and 3 nights in the earth. He was crucified between two thieves (3). Transfigured on the mount between Moses and Elias (3). It was the third hour that Christ was betrayed into the hands of sinners and said the hour is come (Mr 14:41). "And it was the third hour, and they crucified him" Mr 15:25. God is THREE persons in ONE. Jehovah was now ready to give His people a wonderful manifestation of Himself. They had seen His judgements against Egypt; had witnessed His mighty power at the Red Sea; had beheld His guiding hand in the cloud and pillar of fire; and had experienced His mercies in providing them manna and water from the smitten rock; but now they are to behold His exalted majesty displayed from the mount. Verses 3-6, Many have said that grace has reigned up till now and from this point on they were, with their own consent, put under the law and thus a new dispensation has begun. But God has always dealt with His people under grace. Pink says that the Mosaic dispensation did not begin here with the giving of the law on Sinai, but on Passover night. That was when their natural history, as a nation, began. Remember that was what marked the beginning of their calendar. Passover pointed to GRACE, REDEMPTION and JESUS CHRIST. God had given ordinances and commandments before Sinai. Ex 15:25 And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, [which] when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, 26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his COMMANDMENTS, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I [am] the LORD that healeth thee. Ex 16:4 Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my LAW, or no. ( The meaning is explained in verse 23 ) 23 And he said unto them, This [is that] which the LORD hath said, To morrow [is] the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake [that] which ye will bake [to day], and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. ( Israel's response is in verse 27 ) 27 And it came to pass, [that] there went out [some] of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. ( God's response to Israel was in verse 28 ) 28 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? ( Certainly this was not in perspective of the law given at Sinai ) Pink says that God did deal with Israel differently after Sinai, however. Before when the murmured, he bore with them in much long-suffering, but after Sinai, when they murmured they were visited with chastisements. What was the difference? Pink says that before Sinai, God dealt with Israel on the ground of the Abrahamic covenant; but from Sinai onwards, He dealt with them, nationally, according to the terms of the Sinaiatic covenant. That God had dealt with Israel under the Abrahamic covenant: The Abrahamic covenant: Gen 15:18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: 1) It was done while Abram was asleep, thus with the covenant, ONE party was involved. There were no conditions attached. It's fulfillment was dependent on God's faithfulness, alone. 2) It was based upon sacrifice. 3) It was a covenant of pure grace. "have I given" this land, etc. There were "I wills" and "I haves. Now compare: Ex 2:24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. Ex 6:3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by [the name of] God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them. 4 And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. 5 And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant. The last thing that happened before they reached Sinai was that water flowed from the smitten rock. Ps 105:41 He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places [like] a river. 42 For he remembered his holy promise, [and] Abraham his servant. That this covenant was not the Abrahamic covenant: In verse 5 we see a change. Notice the words "Now therefore." Ex 19:5 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: 6 And ye shall be unto me a KINGDOM of priests, and an holy NATION. These [are] the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. There was nothing in the Abrahamic covenant for the people to keep or obey, for it was an unconditional covenant. But here two parties are involved, namely Jehovah and Israel. A covenant that Israel must keep if they were to enjoy the conditional blessings attached to it. It was a covenant to be performed. What were the terms and conditions and blessings attached to the Siniatic covenant? Ex 34:27 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. 28 And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the TEN COMMANDMENTS. Deut 4:13 And he declared unto you his COVENANT, which he commanded you to PERFORM, [even] TEN COMMANDMENTS; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. 14 And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it. Verses 7-8, In verse 8 we see that Israel accepted the terms of this covenant. Compare also: Ex 24:3 And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do. At which time the covenant was ratified with blood: Ex 24:4 And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD. 6 And Moses took half of the blood, and put [it] in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient. 8 And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled [it] on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words. That Israel did right and that God was pleased that they entered into this covenant: READ Deut 5 and notice the words of verse 28. "they have well said all that they have spoken" Pink says that this covenant was ratified in chapter 24 with blood. The people were sprinkled with the blood of the covenant. The application of the blood to the people plainly signified that God would deal graciously with them. What then was the outstanding lesson taught Israel at Sinai? That His grace toward them would henceforth "reign through righteousness" Ro 5:21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. God had a purpose for the law to enter the picture. It is a revelation and manifestation of His holiness and righteousness. Notice the words of verses 9 through 24. Ro 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: Ro 4:13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, [was] not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if they which are of the law [be] heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: 15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, [there is] no transgression. 16 Therefore [it is] of faith, that [it might be] by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, READ Romans 7:5-25. Heb 12:18 For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, 19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which [voice] they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: 20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: 21 And so terrible was the sight, [that] Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) 22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than [that of] Abel. 25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more [shall not] we [escape], if we turn away from him that [speaketh] from heaven: 26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 27 And this [word], Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: 29 For our God [is] a consuming fire. There is a need in our day to see God not only as "Father" and the "God of all grace" which He certainly is, but also the "High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity" (Isa 57:15); as the "Great and Dreadful God" (Da 9:4); as the One who said, "Behold, the nations [are] as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance... All nations before him [are] as nothing; and they are counted to him " less than nothing, and vanity." (Isa 40:15,17) The God of the New Testament is also the God of the Old Testament into whose hands it is a "fearful thing to fall" (Heb 10:31). The God of the New Testament is One to be reverenced, obeyed and worshiped. We cannot approach God through science or knowledge of the universe. We cannot approach Him by keeping the law, yet the law is good and holy and should be kept. There is only one way out; "JESUS CHRIST."