Mt. Sinai Where God Met with Man

There are many places in Israel where Jesus in human form walked and talked with man. He did not come in a Divine form but condescended to become dust like the rest of us. However, Mt. Sinai was where God, in much of His glory, met with man. Mt. Sinai stands as a monument of divine history. No other Summit not even the Summit of the Americas can hold a candle to the greatness of that scene.

(1)   Mount Sinai was a meeting place for God and His people

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We often think of Mount Sinai only as the place where Moses met God. Many do not realize that God once met Israel there too, not just Moses. In Ex 19:11 God Himself arranged a meeting between Himself and His people saying:

“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.” It was not God’s original plan that only He and Moses should meet. In Ex. 19 He tells Moses:

Ex 19:9 “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.”

Evidently, He wanted the people to believe Moses and not think that His laws were man’s laws.

Ex 19:18 adds “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.”

However, the people, always ready to murmur and steeped in their sins were terrified rather than awed by God’s majesty. They told Moses in Ex 20:19:

“…  Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

It is then that verse 20 says:

“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.”

(2)   Mt. Sinai was where the Ten Commandments were first given in stone form.

Ex 31:18  says “And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.”

Note that I said it was first given in stone form at that time. However, it was orally given before. As early as Gen. 26:5 we see Abraham keeping God’s laws and in Ex. 16 which is four chapters before the Ten Commandments were given in stone we see God rebuking Israel for breaking the fourth commandment (See Ex. 16:23-31).

(3)   God’s condescension in coming down to talk with man

God could have chosen Everest, the highest mountain, to talk with man. Moses would have had to climb 29,0356 ft to talk with God. God condescended to meet man half-way on a mountain that at its highest point was 7,497 ft. We do not know how high Moses climbed but we know that God does not take delight in penance. We thank God however that we can meet with God anywhere. Moses talked to Him on the mountain. Jonah talked with God in the belly of the big fish under the sea. Rom. 8:35,36 lovingly reminds us:

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Where do you meet with God? God wants to talk to you.

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