Exodus 20:18, commentary and pictures

All the people beheld the thunderings and lightnings and trumpet sound and smoking mountain, with fire and cloud and tempest and thick darkness and quaking, and overcome with fear and awe they drew back and stood afar off trembling lest they die before God's glory.
On the morning of the third day God stood upon the mount enshrouded in thick darkness with angels, and above the warring elements His voice spoke the Ten Commandments in the hearing of all Israel while Moses drew near where God was.
He joined the proclamation with solemn grandeur and power to impress profound veneration for Himself as Creator and only true God and to show the sacredness and permanence and authority of His law.
He came to test the people and set His fear before them so they would not sin, for the law as His great mirror revealed their guilt and the offensive character of sin before a pure and holy God.
In terror they pleaded for Moses to speak with them instead of God lest they die, not understanding that Christ was their appointed Mediator without whom they would have been consumed, and because they could not grasp the full reach of the commandments further precepts were given privately through Moses.

Signs at Sinai

All the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, with fire and smoke and cloud and tempest and thick darkness and the shaking of the mountain beneath the divine presence. Lightning flashed and illuminated the stern heights, peals of thunder reverberated from every mountainside, the trumpet tones waxed louder and more terrible, and on the summit amid cloud and tempest and thick darkness the glory of God's presence appeared like devouring fire. The scene was the solemn grandeur in which the law was spoken in awful majesty in the hearing of all Israel, showing the majestic presence and upheaval that accompanied it.

The sight filled all the people with fear and awe and terror and reverence, so they removed and drew back and stood afar off, falling on their faces and trembling and quaking. They feared they could not endure His glory and would be consumed, and that they would die if He spoke directly to them more. They remained at a distance while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

The display came on the morning of the third day, when God stood upon the mount enshrouded in thick darkness and surrounded by angels, with both the Father and the Son upon the holy mount. Above the warring elements His voice then spoke the ten precepts, after He had rescued Israel from Egypt and shown them special favors. While the people stood afar off, Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was, and even Moses exceedingly feared and quaked.

Purpose of the Display

God joined the speaking of the law to displays of power and glory in solemn grandeur to press deep veneration for its Author as Creator of heaven and earth and the only true and living God. The thunder, lightning, trumpet sound, smoking and shaking mountain, fire, cloud, tempest, and thick darkness showed to all people the sacredness, importance, permanence, solemnity, exalted character, and sacred authority of His law. The law thus given was instruction from the highest source, and obedience to it is the highest education. The scene taught reverence for everything connected with God.

God came in this manner to test and prove the people and to keep reverence and His fear before their faces so they would not sin. The fear of God is given to keep people from sin. Their drawing back and standing afar off in fear frames their plea for Moses to speak to them, and Moses answered that they should not fear with slavish dread because God had come for this proving purpose.

As God's great mirror the law laid open to the people their true condition. Overwhelmed with a sense of guilt and terror at the awful power of His utterances, they realized as never before the offensive character of sin and their own guilt before a pure and holy God, even fearing they would be consumed. That conviction moved them to fall on their faces, to enter into covenant, and to entreat that Moses speak with them and be heard instead of God speaking directly lest they die.

The grandeur and terrible majesty of the scene was made necessary by lives long spent among Egypt's symbols and ceremonies. Its lightning, thunder, shaking mountain, and tokens of Jehovah's presence made even the careless tremble and made the hearts of Israel fail with fear. In this way the solemnity of the law was impressed upon a people who needed such a display to feel its weight.

Plea for a Mediator

The thunder and lightning and trumpet and smoking mountain filled the people with fear so that they withdrew and stood at a distance, falling on their faces and trembling and quaking. Overwhelmed with guilt and afraid they could not endure the glory and would be consumed if God spoke directly to them more, they entreated that Moses speak with them and be heard instead of God, lest they die. In that fear they entered into covenant with God, while God called Moses up into the mount to communicate the laws for Israel, and while the people stood afar off Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was. Moses answered them to fear not, for God had come to prove them and to put reverence and His fear before them so they would not sin.

They wanted Moses as mediator, yet they did not understand that Christ was their appointed Mediator. Without His mediation they would have been consumed by God's presence.

Because the people were not prepared to grasp the full reach of the Ten Commandments, additional precepts explaining and applying them were delivered privately to Moses for him to pass on to the people. The manifestations accompanying the law were meant to impress reverence for its Author and to show the law's sacredness, importance, and permanence.

Since the people could not endure God speaking to them directly amid the awesome display, they asked to receive His words through Moses. That display of God's power was reason for them to reflect humbly and remember past experiences as evidence that God was leading them through Moses, so they would continue to trust him.

Nature of the Law

Exodus 20 is the chapter in which God spoke the Ten Commandments aloud in the hearing of all Israel at Sinai, amid awful majesty and awe-inspiring grandeur that underscored the sacred authority of His law. That same law was engraved by God's own finger on tablets of stone, and later written by His own finger on stone as His standard of right-doing. The thunderings, lightnings, trumpet, smoking mountain, and glory of God's presence overwhelmed the people with guilt and fear of being consumed, so that falling on their faces they exceedingly feared and quaked and entered into covenant with God. Above the warring elements the voice of Jehovah spoke the ten precepts of His law after Israel had been taken into covenant as a peculiar treasure, a holy nation to be united with a holy God.

The law proclaimed there was already in existence and was not first instituted at Sinai, for God spoke aloud at Sinai what He had already given rather than giving a new law. Those commandments were first given in Eden and were repeated when the Lord came down on Mount Sinai. Both the Father and the Son were upon Sinai's holy mount when the thunder, fire, trumpet-like voice, smoke, and shaking mountain made the people fear and keep their distance. The scene impressed the sacredness and exalted character of the law and taught reverence for what was connected with God. Sinai marks the place where God proclaimed His law after rescuing Israel from Egypt, and their retreat there led them to ask Moses to speak with them instead of God, lest they die.

The law revealed there endures forever and cannot be abolished. Its laws guard against injustice and guide people in their dealings with one another, with Christ as the Teacher who gave those directions. The commandments were given to preserve humanity in integrity and to bring people into harmony with God, so that obedience brings blessing, keeping, and protection. That law is the word entrusted from the beginning, spoken from Sinai in majesty and glory, and its keeping remains essential. Its keeping is summed up in loving God with all heart, soul, strength, and mind and loving neighbor as self, in a life of love for God and neighbor.

The chapter specifies the seventh day as the Sabbath and cites it as the source of the command to keep the seventh day as a memorial of creation. It commands remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy, laboring six days but resting the seventh day as the Sabbath of the Lord, because God made heaven and earth and the sea and all in them in six days and rested the seventh day and blessed and hallowed the Sabbath day. God clearly specified the seventh day as the Sabbath and requires obedience to His commandments. Its Sabbath commandment is not replaced by observance of the first day.

The first four commandments define duty to the Maker. Loyalty to God is bound up with love for neighbor, while pride makes a person a god to himself, and Christ's gospel expels self-love. The commandments in God's Word, including the Sabbath, reveal His will that must be believed just as it reads and done as the Lord directed, so that no person can be saved while refusing to keep the Sabbath but must search the Scriptures with prayer for opened understanding and a willing mind to follow every ray of light even against past belief. God's law thus given with awesome grandeur at Mount Sinai is instruction from the highest source, and obedience to it is the highest education.

To set aside one of these commandments given by God as Ruler of the world and to present in its place the observance of a day that bears no sanctity usurps an authority that infringes upon His divine prerogatives and will be dealt with by Jehovah. The Sunday sabbath set forth to be observed as the Lord's Sabbath is such a human law, and to obey it compels men to transgress the laws of Jehovah. Human enactments that conflict with the laws of God bear not the stamp of divine approval.

Response and Warning

The people saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the sound of the trumpet and the smoking mountain, and withdrew to stand afar off in fear, asking that Moses speak with them and that God not speak directly with them lest they die. Moses told them not to fear, for God had come to prove them and to put His fear before them so that they would not sin, while the people stood afar off and Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was. The fear of God is given to keep people from sin, and the lesson is to fear to sin and to fear placing oneself where God cannot approve the course of action.

The commandments were given to preserve humanity in integrity and to bring people into harmony with God, and obedience to them brings blessing, keeping, and protection. God spoke to impress the importance of keeping His commandments as verity and truth, in contrast to mocking God and selling the soul for gold and silver, and keeping them is the way to receive an eternity of bliss. Keeping them is how people become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world through lust. To make this possible God gave His only begotten Son to come to this world to give humanity an example of sinless humanity, so humanity may grasp the divinity in Christ Jesus, and every sinner coming to God through Christ may believe His arm will encircle, care for, and protect them through trials and difficulties, driving them closer to the Saviour instead of separating from God to relieve difficulty.

God spoke the precepts of His law in awful majesty in the hearing of all Israel, and the thunderings, lightnings, trumpet, smoking mountain, and glory of His presence overwhelmed the people with a sense of guilt and fear of being consumed, so that falling on their faces they exceedingly feared and quaked and entered into covenant with God while entreating Moses to speak with them lest God speak with them and they die. God then called Moses up into the mount to communicate the laws for Israel. Though they had just vowed allegiance to Him, soon after the thunder, trumpet, and divine voice ceased they turned to idolatry. The solemn impression made by this manifestation of God's presence passed away quickly like smoke, even from the leaders, and when Moses' presence was withdrawn old habits of thought and feeling asserted power until the people wearied of waiting for his return and clamored for a visible representation of God, though the glory of God was still like devouring fire on the top of the mount.

Israel heard God's own voice speaking the ten commandments in awful grandeur after He had shown them special favors, and the thunderings, lightnings, trumpet, and smoking mountain made them exceedingly fear and tremble and plead with Moses that the great Jehovah should not speak to them any more, but that Moses should receive the words and speak to them. Despite that fear, while Moses was gone only forty days they committed one of the greatest apostasies, making a calf and turning from God to the lowest idolatry of worshiping the work of their own hands. The people witnessed the terrifying signs including thunder and lightning, yet these signs alone could not move people who refused to be moved by the plain truths of God's word.