A kingdom of priests: the covenant and the Ten Words at Sinai

Exodus 19-20 narrates the arrival of Israel at Mount Sinai, three months after leaving Egypt, and the giving of the Ten Words. Jewish and Christian tradition ascribes the book to Moses, and the text says that Moses wrote down the words of the LORD (Exodus 24:4). Critical scholars assign these chapters to different sources, and some think the Ten Words were first a shorter list that was expanded. The class reads the chapters as they stand.

The location of Mount Sinai is uncertain. A long Christian tradition places it at Jebel Musa in the southern Sinai peninsula, and other sites, including some in northwestern Arabia, have been proposed. The date depends on the date of the exodus, which is debated: an early date of about 1446 BC and a late date in the thirteenth century BC are both defended. The text places the event in the third month after leaving Egypt.

The first readers were the Israelites of the exodus generation and later generations who heard the story at festivals. These chapters tell them who they are and what the LORD requires. Scholars have long noted that the shape of the covenant, with an opening statement of what the great king has done, followed by stipulations, resembles treaties between a great king and his vassals in the ancient Near East. The comparison is helpful, but the text itself does not depend on it, and Israel's covenant has a difference: the king is also the one who has rescued his people.

Exodus 19-20 is narrative that turns into law, a mixture the book of Exodus does regularly. The right way to read the law is within the story. The Ten Words are not given to a crowd of strangers but to a people already rescued. That is why 20:2 comes first: 'I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.' Rescue comes before command. The commands are the way of life for people who have been freed.

The genre of the Ten Words is also worth noting. They are called 'the Ten Words' (Deuteronomy 4:13), and are written in short, direct form, mostly in the second person singular, to be heard by the whole assembly. They are what scholars call apodictic law, plain commands without stated penalties, in contrast to the case laws that follow in Exodus 21-23. The mixture of narrative and law also means the commands should be understood as part of a covenant relationship with the LORD, not as an abstract moral code.

A further principle is that the Old Testament law must be read in light of its fulfillment in Christ. The New Testament does not treat the Ten Words as irrelevant, and it does not treat Israel's covenant as the final form of God's dealings. Paul says that the law was given through a mediator (Galatians 3:19) and that Christ is the goal of the law (Romans 10:4). Christians have disagreed about how much of the Old Testament law still binds. That question is for a later class on law; this class lets the text speak in its own setting.

19:1-8. Israel reaches the Sinai wilderness in the third month and camps before the mountain. Moses goes up, and the LORD tells him what to say to 'the house of Jacob'. First comes what God has done: Israel saw what he did to Egypt, and he carried them on eagles' wings and brought them to himself. The image is of an eagle carrying its young, and 'to Myself' says the purpose of the rescue was relationship, not only freedom. Then comes the offer: if Israel obeys his voice and keeps his covenant, they will be his treasured possession (segullah) out of all the peoples, for all the earth is his, 'a kingdom of priests and a holy nation'. The phrase 'kingdom of priests' means a nation that, as a whole, serves God and stands between him and the nations. 'Holy' means set apart. The people answer together: 'We will do everything that the LORD has spoken.'

19:9-25. The LORD will come in a thick cloud so that the people may hear him speaking with Moses and trust Moses. The people are to wash their clothes and prepare for two days. Limits are set around the mountain, and anyone who touches it must die. On the third day there are thunder and lightning, a thick cloud, a very loud trumpet blast, and smoke rising like the smoke of a furnace. The whole mountain trembles, and the trumpet grows louder. Moses speaks and God answers in thunder. The priests are told to consecrate themselves, and Moses is told to keep the people back again, since the LORD might break out against them. The holiness of God is the main theme: he draws near, and the people must not rush forward.

20:1-2. God spoke 'all these words'. The first is not a command: it is a self-introduction and a history. He is the LORD, he is 'your God', and he rescued them from slavery. Jewish tradition counts this as the first of the Ten Words.

20:3-11. The first table concerns the LORD. No other gods 'before me' (literally 'before my face'), which says that other gods are not to be given a place in his presence. No carved image or likeness of anything in heaven, earth or water, for the LORD is a jealous God. The Hebrew word (qanna) describes the zeal of a husband for his wife, not petty envy. He visits the iniquity of those who hate him to the third and fourth generation and shows steadfast love to thousands who love him and keep his commandments. The name must not be taken up in vain, meaning used emptily, falsely or as a cover for wrong. The Sabbath is to be remembered and kept holy. Six days of work and the seventh a rest for the whole household, including servants, strangers and animals, because the LORD made heaven and earth in six days and rested on the seventh.

20:12-17.

• The second table concerns neighbors. Honor father and mother, with a promise of long life in the land. Do not murder, the Hebrew word being narrower than killing in general. Do not commit adultery, steal or give false testimony. Do not covet a neighbor's house, wife, servants, ox, donkey or anything.
• The last word is about the desire of the heart, and it shows that the law is not only about acts.

20:18-21. The people see the thunder and lightning and the smoking mountain, tremble, and stand far off. They tell Moses to speak with them and not let God speak, lest they die. Moses answers that God has come to test them so that the fear of God would be with them and keep them from sin. The people stand at a distance, and Moses draws near to the thick darkness where God is.

20:22-26. The first instruction is on worship: no gods of silver and gold, an altar of earth, and if of stone, uncut stone, with no steps up to it.

• The first doctrine of these chapters is grace before law. God announces what he has done before he says what he requires. In the whole Bible, the order of rescue and then obedience is fixed, and it is the key to reading the commands rightly. Obedience is Israel's answer to deliverance and does not buy it.
• The second doctrine is election for a purpose. Israel is chosen from all peoples, though all the earth is God's, and the choice is for service: a kingdom of priests. The Old Testament later hopes that Israel's calling will reach the nations (Isaiah 2:2-4; 42:6; 49:6).

• The third is the character of God. He is holy and dangerous to approach, and he is jealous, and he is also the one who carries his people and shows steadfast love to thousands. The Ten Words describe the covenant relationship under two headings, love for the LORD and love for neighbor, a division Jesus later names in his summary of the law (Matthew 22:37-40).
• The fourth is the place of mediation. The people ask Moses to stand between them and God, and God approves this arrangement (Deuteronomy 5:28). The need for a mediator runs through the rest of the Old Testament and sets up the question the New Testament answers.

The Ten Words are repeated in Deuteronomy 5 with one notable change: the Sabbath is grounded in creation in Exodus and in redemption in Deuteronomy. Together they show that the Sabbath looks back to creation and to rescue.

The clearest connection is a contrast and a fulfillment. Hebrews 12:18-24 sets the terrifying mountain of Exodus 19 beside Mount Zion, the heavenly city, and says that believers have come not to the first but to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. The point is not that Sinai was wrong, but that its separation and fear point to something better. John 1:17 says the law was given through Moses, and grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Second, the titles of Israel in Exodus 19:5-6 are given to the church. Peter writes that believers are 'a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession' (1 Peter 2:9), and Revelation says that Christ has made his people a kingdom and priests to God (Revelation 1:6; 5:10). The church receives Israel's calling in the Messiah, and that is a fulfillment. Whether that means the church replaces Israel or is added to it is disputed among Christians and is left to the later classes.

Third, Jesus relates himself to the Ten Words directly. He says he has not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17), and in the Sermon on the Mount he presses the commands inward, to anger and lust and the plain truthfulness of speech (Matthew 5:21-37). Paul says the commands are summed up in love of neighbor (Romans 13:9). Moses is also a type of the mediator. The people's request for Moses to speak for God is linked in Deuteronomy 18:15-18 to a promise of a prophet like Moses, and Peter applies that promise to Jesus in Acts 3:22.

Some readers hear an echo of Sinai in the wind, fire and voice of Pentecost in Acts 2, though Luke does not draw the connection himself, so it is offered here as a tentative echo.