The Ten Commandments, Todays Verses: Ex 20:18-19

We continue our look at The Ten Commandments with an in-depth look at Ex 20:18-19

 

You can find the posts on a few of the Scripture passages that precede The Ten Commandments at the following links:

The observational overview of Ex 19:3-11 can be found HERE
And the in depth look at Ex 19:3-6 can be found HERE.
The in depth look at Ex 19:7-11 can be found HERE.
The concluding thoughts on Ex 19:3-11 can be found HERE. 

 

The posts dealing directly with The Ten Commandments can be found at the following links:

 

The initial overview of Ex 20:1-17 can be found HERE.   

The in-depth look at Ex 20:1 can be found HERE.  

The in-depth look at Ex 20:2-6 can be found HERE.

The in-depth look at Ex 20:7 can be found HERE. 

The in-depth look at Ex 20:8-11 can be found HERE. 

The in-depth look at Ex 20:12 can be found HERE. 

The in-depth look at Ex 20:13-16 can be found HERE. 

The in-depth look at Ex 20:17 can be found HERE. 

The concluding thoughts on Ex 20:1-17 can be found HERE.

 

The Initial overview of Ex 20:18-22 can be found HERE.

 

I do encourage everyone to look at all the prior posts in this series as the preceding context helps us to a deeper understanding of the Ten Commandments.

 

You can hover your pointer over (most) any verse reference to read the corresponding verse(s).  (Scriptural cross-references are THE most important resource!)

 

 

 

Exodus 20:18-19 (NASB)
¹⁸ All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance.
¹⁹ Then they said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die."

Grammatical and other Considerations

• These two verses occur directly after God spoke the ten commandments to the Israelites.
• The Israelites were afraid!  They definitely preferred to have Moses act as intermediary!

My Questions

• I understand why there were afraid.  Being so close to God's presence would be overwhelming, but given all that He had done for them up to that point, why were they SO afraid?  Why would they not welcome God speaking directly to them?

Verse Cross References

• Ex 20:18 -- Ex 19:16-18  Heb 12:15-24 Heb 12:25-29 Ps 139:7 Psa 139:8 Jer 23:24 
• The verses Heb 12:15-24 and Heb 12:25-29 help to show the magnitude of this event;  God speaking directly to the Israelites.  As stated before in this study:  How amazing is it that God came down to speak to them directly?!?  And then, How amazing is it that God came down to us in the form of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ?  Not just to speak with us from a mountain, but to actually BE with us, to BE one of us!  Just so that we could be saved?  If the Israelites were so afraid of the intimacy of God speaking to them from a mountaintop how much more are we often afraid of the intimacy of Jesus speaking to us as one of us?  Because when Jesus speaks to us, one on one it is God speaking to us.  That intimacy is awesome and frightening, and oh so real!!
• Ex 20:19 -- Dt 5:23-27  Dt 5:4-5 Gal 3:19  Dt 18:15-19 Ac 7:38 Ex 33:18-23 Ge 32:30 
• And yet they did not die!  That is the point.  ( Dt 5:23-27 )  And yet God knew the people (us) needed a mediator!  That is why He chose Moses and why He planned to send His son.  Someone that was one of us and yet God as well. Dt 18:15-19  And still that intimacy can frighten us more than even thunder and lightening!  God loves us.  He wants us to be with Him.  So much so that He sent His son as a sacrifice for our sins.....
• It is also important to note that God achieved one of His stated goals: Ex 19:9   One of the reasons He came down was so that the people would understand that Moses is the chosen mediator and that they would believe Moses from then on!  And according to what the Israelites say in Ex 20:19 this goal was met (although they would soon forget Ex 32 (as we all so often do!)

Important terms

All the terms in these two verses are fairly straight forward.  However I would like to look at the word perceived (NASB) as it is often translated as witnessed (NKJV and HCSB)

Perceived:

• WORDSearch concordance search -- The Hebrew word is used 1308 times in the Old Testament.  Can be watch, see witness etc. etc.
• Thoughts -- I think I like the idea of witnessed over perceived! 
• Definition -- to see with the eyes, but also "to see that one can learn to know"

Answering My Questions

• I understand why there were afraid. Being so close to God's presence would be overwhelming, but given all that He had done for them up to that point, why were they SO afraid? Why would they not welcome God speaking directly to them? -- Well...as I stated above sometimes we can be afraid of the intimacy and directness that Jesus offers us, and He is in a form that is recognizable to us.  So it would see that to be in God's awesome presence could and would cause fear and AWE!  Even the Peter, John and his brother who were with Jesus daily became afraid when God spoke to them out of the cloud:  Mat 17:2-8 Interestingly enough they were not afraid as Jesus was transfigured, nor were they afraid as Jesus spoke to Moses and Elijah!  The apostles became afraid when God came down!  So THIS answers my question!  And it is also interesting that Jesus tells the apostles to "not be afraid."  Mat 17:8

Summarizing

• God knew they would be afraid.  He also knew He needed to appear before them to help Moses have authority. (authority that God gave to him).  God's presence that close up would be completely awe inspiring and overwhelming:  Mat 17:2-8 and Ex 33:18-23   And yet as Jer 23:23 shows that God is near!  Always near.  Ps 139:1-10 Isa 57:15 James 4:8 Pro 15:3 Isa 66:1 Act 17:27-28

Topics for further study

• Jesus as mediator
• Fear of God

Bibliography

• Baker, Warren, ed. – The Complete Word Study Old Testament Chattanooga, TN: AMG, 1994. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• Baker, Warren and Eugene Carpenter. The Complete Word Study Dictionary – Old Testament. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2003. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• Brand, Chad, Charles Draper, Archie England, ed. Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• God's Word: Today's Bible Translation That Means What It Says Holiday, FL: Green Key Books, n.d.. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• God's Word Application Index. Holiday, FL: Green Key Books, n.d.. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• – Holman Christian Standard Bible Nashville: Holman Bible, 1999. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• Holy Bible, New American Standard. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• Nave, Orville. Nave's Topical Bible: A Digest of The Holy Sciptures. New York: Topical Bible Publishing Co., 1896. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• Holy Bible, New American Standard La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• Thompson, Frank Charles. Thompson Chain Reference Bible. Indianapolis, IN: B. B. Kirkbride Bible Co., 1997. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• Torrey, R. A. The New Topical Textbook. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1897. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• Vine, William E. Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old Testament and New Testament Words. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1940. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• Walton, John H., Victor H. Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas. The IVP Bible Background Commentary – Old Testament. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000. WORDsearch CROSS e-book. 

We will continue next time with an in-depth look at Ex 20:20-22