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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
E X O D U S
CHAP. XIX.
This chapter introduces the solemnity of the giving of the law upon
mount Sinai, which was one of the most striking appearances of the
divine glory that ever was in this lower world. We have here,
I. The circumstances of time and place,
II. The covenant between God and Israel settled in general. The
gracious proposal God made to them
(ver. 3-6),
and their consent to the proposal,
III. Notice given three days before of God’s design to give the law out
of a thick cloud,
Orders given to prepare the people to receive the law
(ver. 10-13),
and care taken to execute those orders,
IV. A terrible appearance of God’s glory upon mount Sinai,
V. Silence proclaimed, and strict charges given to the people to
observe decorum while God spoke to them,
&c.
| The Covenant of Sinai. | B. C. 1491. |
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1 In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone
forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the
wilderness of Sinai.
2 For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the
desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there
Israel camped before the mount.
3 And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out
of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of
Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;
4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare
you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.
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.
7 And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and
laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded
him.
8 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.
Here is,
I. The date of that great charter by which Israel was incorporated.
1. The time when it bears date
(v. 1)–in
the third month after they came out of Egypt. It is computed that
the law was given just fifty days after their coming out of Egypt, in
remembrance of which the feast of Pentecost was observed the fiftieth
day after the passover, and in compliance with which the Spirit was
poured out upon the apostles at the feast of pentecost, fifty days
after the death of Christ. In Egypt they had spoken of a three days’
journey into the wilderness to the place of their sacrifice
(ch. v. 3),
but it proved to be almost a two months’ journey; so often are we out
in the calculation of times, and things prove longer in the doing than
we expected.
2. The place whence it bears date–from Mount Sinai, a place
which nature, not art, had made eminent and conspicuous, for it was the
highest in all that range of mountains. Thus God put contempt upon
cities, and palaces, and magnificent structures, setting up his
pavilion on the top of a high mountain, in a waste and barren desert,
there to carry on this treaty. It is called Sinai, from the
multitude of thorny bushes that overspread it.
II. The charter itself. Moses was called up the mountain (on the top of
which God had pitched his tent, and at the foot of which Israel had
pitched theirs), and was employed as the mediator, or rather no more
than the messenger of the covenant: Thus shalt thou say to the house
of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel,
v. 3.
Here the learned bishop Patrick observes that the people are called by
the names both of Jacob and Israel, to remind them that
those who had lately been as low as Jacob when he went to Padan-aram
had now grown as great as God made him when he came thence (justly
enriched with the spoils of him that had oppressed him) and was called
Israel. Now observe,
1. That the maker, and first mover, of the covenant, is God himself.
Nothing was said nor done by this stupid unthinking people themselves
towards this settlement; no motion made, no petition put up for God’s
favour, but this blessed charter was granted ex mero motu–purely
out of God’s own good-will. Note, In all our dealings with God,
free grace anticipates us with the blessings of goodness, and all our
comfort is owing, not to our knowing God, but rather to our being
known of him,
Gal. iv. 9.
We love him, visit him, and covenant with him, because he
first loved us, visited us, and covenanted with us. God is the
Alpha, and therefore must be the Omega.
2. That the matter of the covenant is not only just and
unexceptionable, and such as puts no hardship upon them, but kind and
gracious, and such as gives them the greatest privileges and advantages
imaginable.
(1.) He reminds them of what he had done for them,
v. 4.
He had righted them, and avenged them upon their persecutors and
oppressors: “You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, how
many lives were sacrificed to Israel’s honour and interests:” He had
given them unparalleled instances of his favour to them, and his care
of them: I bore you on eagles’ wings, a high expression of the
wonderful tenderness God had shown for them. It is explained,
It denotes great speed. God not only came upon the wing for their
deliverance (when the set time was come, he rode on a cherub, and did
fly), but he hastened them out, as it were, upon the wing. He did it
also with great ease, with the strength as well as with the swiftness
of an eagle: those that faint not, nor are weary, are said to mount
up with wings as eagles,
Isa. xl. 31.
Especially, it denotes God’s particular care of them and affection to
them. Even Egypt, that iron furnace, was the nest in which these young
ones were hatched, where they were first formed as the embryo of a
nation; when, by the increase of their numbers, they grew to some
maturity, they were carried out of that nest. Other birds carry their
young in their talons, but the eagle (they say) upon her wings, so that
even those archers who shoot flying cannot hurt the young ones, unless
they first shoot through the old one. Thus, in the Red Sea, the pillar
of cloud and fire, the token of God’s presence, interposed itself
between the Israelites and their pursuers (lines of defence which could
not be forced, a wall which could not be penetrated): yet this was not
all; their way so paved, so guarded, was glorious, but their end much
more so: I brought you unto myself. They were brought not only
into a state of liberty and honour, but into covenant and communion
with God. This, this was the glory of their deliverance, as it is of
ours by Christ, that he died, the just for the unjust, that he might
bring us to God. This God aims at in all the gracious methods of
his providence and grace, to bring us back to himself, from whom we
have revolted, and to bring us home to himself, in whom alone we can be
happy. He appeals to themselves, and their own observation and
experience, for the truth of what is here insisted on: You have seen
what I did; so that they could not disbelieve God, unless they
would first disbelieve their own eyes. They saw how all that was done
was purely the Lord’s doing. It was not they that reached towards God,
but it was he that brought them to himself. Some have well observed
that the Old-Testament church is said to be borne upon eagles’
wings, denoting the power of that dispensation, which was carried on
with a high hand an out-stretched arm; but the New-Testament
church is said to be gathered by the Lord Jesus, as a hen
gathers her chickens under her wings
denoting the grace and compassion of that dispensation, and the
admirable condescension and humiliation of the Redeemer.
(2.) He tells them plainly what he expected and required from them in
one word, obedience
(v. 5),
that they should obey his voice indeed and keep his covenant.
Being thus saved by him, that which he insisted upon was that they
should be ruled by him. The reasonableness of this demand is, long
after, pleaded with them, that in the day he brought them out of the
land of Egypt this was the condition of the covenant, Obey my
voice
(Jer. vii. 23);
and this he is said to protest earnestly to them,
Only obey indeed, not in profession and promise only, not in
pretence, but in sincerity. God had shown them real favours, and
therefore required real obedience.
(3.) He assures them of the honour he would put upon them, and the
kindness he would show them, in case they did thus keep his covenant
(v. 5, 6):
Then you shall be a peculiar treasure to me. He does not specify
any one particular favour, as giving them the land of Canaan, or the
like, but expresses it in that which was inclusive of all happiness,
that he would be to them a God in covenant, and they should be to him a
people.
[1.] God here asserts his sovereignty over, and propriety in, the whole
visible creation: All the earth is mine. Therefore he needed
them not; he that had so vast a dominion was great enough, and happy
enough, without concerning himself for so small a demesne as Israel
was. All nations on the earth being his, he might choose which he
pleased for his peculiar, and act in a way of sovereignty.
[2.] He appropriates Israel to himself, First, As a people dear
unto him. You shall be a peculiar treasure; not that God was
enriched by them, as a man is by his treasure, but he was pleased to
value and esteem them as a man does his treasure; they were precious
in his sight and honourable
he set his love upon them
(Deut. vii. 7),
took them under his special care and protection, as a treasure that is
kept under lock and key. He looked upon the rest of the world but as
trash and lumber in comparison with them. By giving them divine
revelation, instituted ordinances, and promises inclusive of eternal
life, by sending his prophets among them, and pouring out his Spirit
upon them, he distinguished them from, and dignified them above, all
people. And this honour have all the saints; they are unto God a
peculiar people
(Tit. ii. 14),
his when he makes up his jewels. Secondly, As a people devoted
to him, to his honour and service
(v. 6),
a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. All the Israelites,
if compared with other people, were priests unto God, so near were they
to him
so much employed in his immediate service, and such intimate communion
they had with him. When they were first made a free people it was that
they might sacrifice to the Lord their God, as priests;
they were under God’s immediate government, and the tendency of the
laws given them was to distinguish them from others, and engage them
for God as a holy nation. Thus all believers are, through Christ, made
to our God kings and priests
(Rev. i. 6),
a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
1 Pet. ii. 9.
III. Israel’s acceptance of this charter, and consent to the conditions
of it.
1. Moses faithfully delivered God’s message to them
(v. 7):
He laid before their faces all those words; he not only
explained to them what God had given him in charge, but he put it to
their choice whether they would accept these promises upon these terms
or no. His laying it to their faces denotes his laying it to their
consciences.
2. They readily agreed to the covenant proposed. They would oblige
themselves to obey the voice of God, and take it as a great favour to
be made a kingdom of priests to him. They answered together as one man,
nemine contradicente–without a dissentient voice
(v. 8):
All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. Thus they strike the
bargain, accepting the Lord to be to them a God, and giving up
themselves to be to him a people. O that there had been such a heart in
them!
3. Moses, as a mediator, returned the words of the people to God,
v. 8.
Thus Christ, the Mediator between us and God, as a prophet reveals
God’s will to us, his precepts and promises, and then as a priest
offers up to God our spiritual sacrifices, not only of prayer and
praise, but of devout affections and pious resolutions, the work of his
own Spirit in us. Thus he is that blessed days-man who lays his hand
upon us both.
| The Approach of God Announced. | B. C. 1491. |
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9 And the LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick
cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and
believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people
unto the LORD.
10 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and
sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their
clothes,
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.
12 And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about,
saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the
mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount
shall be surely put to death:
13 There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be
stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall
not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to
the mount.
14 And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and
sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.
15 And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day:
come not at your wives.
Here,
I. God intimates to Moses his purpose of coming down upon mount Sinai,
in some visible appearance of his glory, in a thick cloud
(v. 9);
for he said that he would dwell in the thick darkness
and make this his pavilion
holding back the face of his throne when he set it upon mount
Sinai, and spreading a cloud upon it,
Job xxvi. 9.
This thick cloud was to prohibit curious enquiries into things secret,
and to command an awful adoration of that which was revealed. God would
come down in the sight of all the people
(v. 11);
though they should see no manner of similitude, yet they should see so
much as would convince them that God was among them of a truth. And so
high was the top of mount Sinai that it is supposed that not only the
camp of Israel, but even the countries about, might discern some
extraordinary appearance of glory upon it, which would strike a terror
upon them. It seems also to have been particularly intended to put an
honour upon Moses: That they may hear when I speak with thee, and
believe thee for ever,
v. 9.
Thus the correspondence was to be first settled by a sensible
appearance of the divine glory, which was afterwards to be carried on
more silently by the ministry of Moses. In like manner, the Holy Ghost
descended visibly upon Christ at his baptism, and all that were present
heard God speak to him
that afterwards, without the repetition of such visible tokens, they
might believe him. So likewise the Spirit descended in cloven tongues
upon the apostles
(Acts ii. 3),
that they might be believed. Observe, When the people had declared
themselves willing to obey the voice of God, then God promised they
should hear his voice; for, if any man be resolved to do his will,
he shall know it,
John vii. 17.
II. He orders Moses to make preparation for this great solemnity,
giving him two days’ time for it.
1. He must sanctify the people
(v. 10),
as Job, before this, sent and sanctified his sons,
Job i. 5.
He must raise their expectation by giving them notice what God would
do, and assist their preparation by directing them what they must do.
“Sanctify them,” that is, “Call them off from their worldly
business, and call them to religious exercises, meditation and prayer,
that they may receive the law from God’s mouth with reverence and
devotion. Let them be ready,”
Note, When we are to attend upon God in solemn ordinances it concerns
us to sanctify ourselves, and to get ready beforehand. Wandering
thoughts must be gathered in, impure affections abandoned, disquieting
passions suppressed, nay, and all cares about secular business, for the
present, dismissed and laid by, that our hearts may be engaged to
approach unto God. Two things particularly prescribed as signs and
instances of their preparation:–
(1.) In token of their cleansing themselves from all sinful pollutions,
that they might be holy to God, they must wash their clothes
(v. 10),
and they did so
(v. 14);
not that God regards our clothes; but while they were washing their
clothes he would have them think of washing their souls by repentance
from the sins they had contracted in Egypt and since their deliverance.
It becomes us to appear in clean clothes when we wait upon great men;
so clean hearts are required in our attendance on the great God, who
sees them as plainly as men see our clothes. This is absolutely
necessary to our acceptably worshipping God. See
Isa. i. 16-18; Heb. x. 22.
(2.) In token of their devoting themselves entirely to religious
exercises, upon this occasion, they must abstain even from lawful
enjoyments during these three days, and not come at their wives,
v. 15.
See
2. He must set bounds about the mountain,
v. 12, 13.
Probably he drew a line, or ditch, round at the foot of the hill, which
none were to pass upon pain of death. This was to intimate,
(1.) That humble awful reverence which ought to possess the minds of
all those that worship God. We are mean creatures before a great
Creator, vile sinners before a holy righteous Judge; and therefore a
godly fear and shame well become us,
(2.) The distance at which worshippers were kept, under that
dispensation, which we ought to take notice of, that we may the more
value our privilege under the gospel, having boldness to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
Heb. x. 19.
3. He must order the people to attend upon the summons that should be
given
(v. 13):
“When the trumpet soundeth long then let them take their places
at the foot of the mount, and so sit down at God’s feet,” as it is
explained,
Never was so great a congregation called together, and preached to, at
once, as this was here. No one man’s voice could have reached so many,
but the voice of God did.
| The Divine Presence on Mount Sinai. | B. C. 1491. |
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16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that
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.
17 And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet
with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.
18 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.
19 And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed
louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.
20 And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the
mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount;
and Moses went up.
21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people,
lest they break through unto the LORD to gaze, and many of them
perish.
22 And let the priests also, which come near to the LORD,
sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break forth upon them.
23 And Moses said unto the LORD, The people cannot come up to
mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the
mount, and sanctify it.
24 And the LORD said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou
shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests
and the people break through to come up unto the LORD, lest he
break forth upon them.
25 So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them.
Now, at length, comes that memorable day, that terrible day of the
Lord, that day of judgment, in which Israel heard the voice of the
Lord God speaking to them out of the midst of the fire, and
lived,
Deut. iv. 33.
Never was there such a sermon preached, before nor since, as this which
was here preached to the church in the wilderness. For,
I. The preacher was God himself
(v. 18):
The Lord descended in fire, and
(v. 20),
The Lord came down upon mount Sinai. The shechinah, or
glory of the Lord, appeared in the sight of all the people; he shone
forth from mount Paran with ten thousands of his saints
that is, attended, as the divine Majesty always is, by a multitude of
the holy angels, who were both to grace the solemnity and to assist at
it. Hence the law is said to be given by the disposition of
angels,
Acts vii. 53.
II. The pulpit (or throne rather) was mount Sinai, hung with a thick
cloud
(v. 16),
covered with smoke
(v. 18),
and made to quake greatly. Now it was that the earth
trembled at the presence of the Lord, and the mountains
skipped like rams
that Sinai itself, though rough and rocky, melted from before the
Lord God of Israel,
Judg. v. 5.
Now it was that the mountains saw him, and trembled
(Hab. iii. 10),
and were witnesses against a hard-hearted unmoved people, whom nothing
would influence.
III. The congregation was called together by the sound of a trumpet,
exceedingly loud
(v. 16),
and waxing louder and louder,
v. 19.
This was done by the ministry of the angels, and we read of trumpets
sounded by angels,
It was the sound of the trumpet that made all the people
tremble, as those who knew their own guilt, and who had reason to
expect that the sound of this trumpet was to them the alarm of
war.
IV. Moses brought the hearers to the place of meeting,
He that had led them out of the bondage of Egypt now led them to
receive the law from God’s mouth. Public persons are indeed public
blessings when they lay out themselves in their places to promote the
public worship of God. Moses, at the head of an assembly worshipping
God, was as truly great as Moses at the head of an army in the
field.
V. The introductions to the service were thunders and
lightnings,
v. 16.
These were designed to strike an awe upon the people, and to raise and
engage their attention. Were they asleep? The thunders would awaken
them. Were they looking another way? The lightnings would engage them
to turn their faces towards him that spoke to them. Thunder and
lightning have natural causes, but the scripture directs us in a
particular manner to take notice of the power of God, and his terror,
in them. Thunder is the voice of God, and lightning the fire of God,
proper to engage the senses of sight and hearing, those senses by which
we receive so much of our information.
VI. Moses is God’s minister, who is spoken to, to command silence, and
keep the congregation in order: Moses spoke,
v. 19.
Some think it was now that he said, I exceedingly fear and quake
(Heb. xii. 21);
but God stilled his fear by his distinguishing favour to him, in
calling him up to the top of the mount
(v. 20),
by which also he tried his faith and courage. No sooner had Moses got
up a little way towards the top of the mount than he was sent down
again to keep the people from breaking through to gaze,
v. 21.
Even the priests or princes, the heads of the houses of their fathers,
who officiated for their respective families, and therefore are said to
come near to the Lord at other times, must now keep their
distance, and conduct themselves with a great deal of caution. Moses
pleads that they needed not to have any further orders given them,
effectual care being taken already to prevent any intrusions,
But God, who knew their wilfulness and presumption, and what was now in
the hearts of some of them, hastens him down with this in charge, that
neither the priests nor the people should offer to force the lines that
were set, to come up unto the Lord, but Moses and Aaron on, the
men whom God delighted to honour. Observe,
1. What it was that God forbade them–breaking through to gaze; enough
was provided to awaken their consciences, but they were not allowed to
gratify their vain curiosity. They might see, but not gaze. Some of
them, probably, were desirous to see some similitude, that they might
know how to make an image of God, which he took care to prevent, for
they saw no manner of similitude,
Deut. iv. 5.
Note, In divine things we must not covet to know more than God would
have us know; and he has allowed us as much as is good for us. A desire
of forbidden knowledge was the ruin of our first parents. Those that
would be wise above what is written, and intrude into those things
which they have not seen, need this admonition, that they break not
through to gaze.
2. Under what penalty it was forbidden: Lest the Lord break forth
upon them
(v. 22-24),
and many of them perish. Note,
(1.) The restraints and warnings of the divine law are all intended for
our good, and to keep us out of that danger into which we should
otherwise, by our own folly, run ourselves.
(2.) It is at our peril if we break the bounds that God has set us, and
intrude upon that which he has not allowed us; the Bethshemites and
Uzzah paid dearly for their presumption. And, even when we are called
to approach God, we must remember that he is in heaven and we upon
earth, and therefore it behoves us to exercise reverence and godly
fear.
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