Last week, through Aaron and Hur holding up Moses’ arms and Jethro telling Moses that he couldn’t do everything, we learned that Moses needed assistants to help him. We now find the Israelites at Mt. Sinai where God is going to speak to Moses, and through him, to the Israelites.
God speaks to Moses
Read Exodus 19:1-6
– Who brought the Israelites to God?
– How does God’s “eagles’ wings” metaphor emphasize the doer of this act all the more?
– How do we understand this in our life in the New Covenant?
In verse 5, God then lays out in sequence what it means to be His people.
Now think of what God said before the Old Covenant was formally instituted in a New-Covenant context.
– Where do we “hear” God’s voice?
– Narrowly speaking, what is the New Covenant? How and where do we “keep” that?
– Discuss why our Divine Service looks the way it does.
The nation of Israel had designated men to serve as priests. First, it was the firstborn son in a family. Later, it would be those from the tribe of Levi. However, looking at Israel’s relationship to the rest of the world, God said they were to be a “kingdom of priests.”
– How is this lived out in the New-Covenant Church?
1 Peter 2:9: But you [the people in the congregations to whom Peter wrote] are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, so you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
– What is Peter simply describing?
The Old Covenant gets formalized
Read Exodus 19:7-8
– What do the Israelites agree to do?
What follows are the specifics of the Old Covenant.
Read Exodus 19:9-15
– Verse 9 tells us why God was going to reveal Himself in a thick cloud. What was that reason?
– God has the Israelite do two acts to help prepare them for God’s coming. One involves Moses consecrating them, which included what?
– What did God to prevent the people of Israel from getting too close to His presence?
– Discuss why this may have been the case.
God also told the men not to have sexual relations with a woman. So far from Genesis to this point in Exodus we don’t know the significance of this. Later, Scripture tells us that refraining from sexual activity was a way to help prepare for sacred activity (1 Samuel 21:5). This anticipated the Levitical principle that what discharged from the resulted in ritual uncleanness (Leviticus 15:16-18). The point of this was to show the falleness of our sinful flesh and that it had to be cleansed and purified to be in God’s presence.
– Discuss how not having sex (that which comes from our sinful flesh needs purifying because the sinful flesh from which it originates needs purifying) and God coming to the Israelites on the third day all point forward to the Messiah.
Read Exodus 19:16-25
– God revealed Himself as He said He would. What was the people’s initial response?
– Yet, God tells Moses to go back down to the people to tell them what?
– At this point, who is the only priest whom God will allow up the mountain?
The Ten Words
Read Exodus 20:1-5
– What is the first Word of God?
– What does this establish?
Click here to go to Lesson 12.
