The Sinai Summit (Exodus 19)

Smoke rolls over the mountain, lightning splits the sky, and a trumpet blast grows louder until it feels impossible to ignore. That’s the scene at Mount Sinai and it’s also the doorway into a question that hits home fast: what does it really look like to meet with God, not casually, but with reverence that changes us?

We walk through Exodus 19 to see why the Sinai summit happens in the first place. God starts with a review of grace, carrying His people like an eagle, then calls for a real response of obedience and faithfulness within the Mosaic covenant. Along the way we unpack what it means to belong to God instead of treating Him like someone who exists to serve our plans. The covenant language reveals identity and purpose: God’s treasured possession, a kingdom of priests who represent Him and intercede for others, and a holy nation set apart for His name.

From there we get very practical about “summit meetings” with God today: choosing a quiet place, coming with a prepared mind, and cultivating a teachable heart that doesn’t just hear Scripture but listens and obeys. We also name the common blockers that keep Bible study inconsistent motivation, priority, technique, and apathy and connect it to daily battles with temptation, including how Jesus answered temptation with Deuteronomy. We end by holding two truths together: God is approachable through Jesus Christ, and God is still holy enough to produce awe and trembling.

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Transcript

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Smoke settles in, lightning begins to flash. Then the sound of the trumpet, verse 19, grew louder and louder, and Moses spoke, and God answered him with thunder. And the Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses. I would have loved to have been in the company of people who stood around, although it would have been very, very frightening. They were all trembling. Fire and lightning crisscrossing

Thunder, Smoke, And Holy Fear

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the air, shooting toward that mountain. Perhaps confusion, all silence, and then God says, Moses, come up here.

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Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart. Today Stephen Davy takes us back to the book of Exodus. The Israelites have arrived at Mount Sinai. The mountain is shaking. Smoke is rising, lightning is flashing across the sky. The trumpet grows louder and louder, and God is about to speak. Stephen helps us see why this moment matters.

Why Sinai Still Matters

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God is calling his people to know him, to walk with him, and to revere him. And that same challenge reaches us today. Stephen will also challenge us with a very practical question. What does your own meeting with God look like? Here's Stephen Davy.

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One day Pat Kelly came to his manager and they were talking about his relationship with the Lord, and he told his manager, who was an unbeliever, he told Weaver, he said, I am learning how to walk with God. And to that, his manager in cryptic tone said, I would be more interested if you learned to walk with the bases loaded. It is interesting, men and women, that the world would view what we consider

What It Means To Walk With God

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our passion as something insignificant and unnecessary. We walk with God. What is that? And I fear that we really don't talk enough about it from day to day and Sunday to Sunday, oftentimes finds its absence. And in Exodus chapter 19, we are given some principles as to how to walk with God and why it is important to walk with God and how it all began back then near the mountain we refer to as Mount Sinai. Exodus chapter 19 answers first of all the question why did the Sinai summit occur? And one of the first reasons is that God wanted to communicate significant revelation to the people in light of his own character. Look with me at chapter 19, let's begin with verse 1. In the third month, after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. When they set out from Rephedim,

Covenant Identity And Conditional Blessing

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they came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness, and there Israel camped in front of the mountain. And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the sons of Israel. Now, revelation from God is based upon several things. First of all, his revelation begins with a review. Verse 4. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagle's wings, and brought you to myself. The word eagle or the title, there is a reference throughout the Old Testament of his deity. In the book of Ezekiel, the eagle's face represents the deity of God. In the book of Revelation, chapter 4, it is the eagle that surmises all of the wonderful character of God's holiness and awesome power. And he refers to himself here as an eagle. He says, just as that eagle with all of its majesty bore you out of Egypt, or just as he flies, so I bore you out of Egypt. In fact, it's interesting if you were to study the life of that bird, whenever that eagle will take her little eaglets and force them out of the nest, she will fly underneath so that if they're not able to fly, they will land on her back and she'll swoop them up and then turn and drop them off again until they learn how to fly. And he refers to his care as an eagle. He says, I know you will stumble, I know you have failed already, but like that mother eagle, I am underneath you. And that is the review that he gives. And then he says, My revelation to you is dependent upon a response, verse 5. Now then, if you ought to circle the word if, because this is a conditional covenant. If you will indeed obey my voice, and if you will keep this covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine. We need to get just a little deeper here, and I think it'll make sense as we go through the Old Testament. There are several covenants given between God and men. A covenant determines how he will respond to them and how they should respond to God. The word covenant comes from the Hebrew word, which means to bind or to fetter. And it is the idea of binding two parties in contract. God was, in a sense, saying, I am giving you another treaty, and this is how you are to respond to me, and this is what you can expect from me. Now the Abrahamic covenant, which we studied in earlier days, was unconditional. And that was no matter what Israel did, they were his people. Then there is the Noahic covenant, and now we come to the Mosaic covenant, and this is what we would refer to as conditional. That is, if you do all of these things, you will enjoy the benefits of being my people. You will never fear not being my people, but you may or may not experience all the benefits of this covenant. And so it depends upon their response. It is obeying and it is keeping. But he says there are rewards involved if you obey, if you keep my word. And you ought to underline each of the three. The first word is possession. You will be my own possession. This is a tender term, not that they would not be the nation that belonged to him, but they will experience all of the benefits of being his possession. And I think he uses this word to imply something greater, a greater truth. Theologically, it is so true that God would not belong necessarily to Israel. He wants them to think in terms that they belong to God. And there is a missing element today. We tend to think that God is a heavenly bellboy who belongs to us, and he does, but there is a greater truth underlying that, and it is that we belong to God. He is the creator, we are the creature, and there is a fine line that we so easily transgress. We'll talk about that more in this chapter. But he says, You will be my possession. That is, I am in control, I am in charge, you are mine. And he says in verse 6, you will also be a kingdom of priests. Interesting in Peter's writings in chapter 2, verse 9 of the first epistle, he talks about this in terms of New Testament believers. He says, You are a royal priesthood. It's a fascinating concept that could be a sermon in itself. A priest was one who stood between God and men. A priest is one who spoke to God on behalf of some people, and spoke to people, as it were, in response to what he would learn from God. And you and I, ladies and gentlemen, are priests, Peter says so. We don't necessarily have priests between us and God, but we as his priests speak to the people, the neighbor, the person we work with in light of who we represent. And we go to God and pray and intercede for this people. So even today we have, in effect, the office of priests. We all as believers speak to God in behalf of someone we intercede for, and we speak to them in behalf of God. He says, You will be my priests. He says also, thirdly, circle or underline the word nation. You will be a holy, a set apart, a distinct nation. So what we find in the covenant is an identity. They're his possession, they are his nation. But a responsibility. You are priests, and you are to obey the conditions of the covenant. Now God will come and speak to Moses, who will speak to the people, and we've had the idea, and I in fact did, and it wasn't until I began studying. I thought Moses went up and down the mountain twice. He went up the first time, he came down with the tablets. He broke them because uh the people were disobeying already, and then he goes back up and he gets a new set. And that was it. It's interesting that Moses will go up the mountain seven times, and the first five are preparatory to receiving that first issue, that first revelation from God. God has some specifics to say to his people before he will entrust them with his revelation. And that's the second point. And that is this God not only wants to give them revelation, he wants to create in them a sense of sincere respect for who he is. Look over at chapter 20, verse 20. He says, And Moses said to the people, Don't be afraid, for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of him may remain with you, so that you may not sin. In other words, what God is doing, and while all of the fireworks that we're about to look

Learning Reverence Without Running Away

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at occur, it is so that he will create in you a sincere awe and respect of who he is, his holiness, his majesty. And he says, in order to create that respect and to have that evidenced, there are four things that I want to see. And first of all, you must, if you respect God, have a willingness to obey. Look at verse 7. So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words which the Lord had commanded him. That is in verses 1 through 6. And all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And

Four Marks Of True Respect

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Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord. The beginning step, that first step prior to the receiving of revelation was, God, whatever you have to say prior to this moment, and ahead of time, we want you to know we'll obey. We will obey. I wonder if God would speak to us more in our hearts through his Spirit. I wonder if His word would mean more as we study it, if He knew ahead of time that in us dwelt an obedience, an obedient heart. The second thing is that there had to be an openness to listen. Look at verse 9. And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will come to you in a thick cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe in you forever. Then Moses told the words of the people to the Lord. It wasn't necessarily that they would hear. In fact, I've used the word listen, an openness to listen, because we all hear many things, but few things we are literally listening to. When we listen, we act upon what we have heard. But I want you to not just hear words, I want you to listen to the words, and I want you to put them into practice. In fact, I think James has a good illustration of what I'm trying to say. Turn over to James chapter 1. Look at verse 22. He says, But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers, who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer or a listener, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror, for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he is immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently, I like to think of that as listening intently to the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer, this man shall be blessed in what he does. That's the difference between listening and hearing. Now back to Exodus chapter 19. There's a third thing. Not only a willingness to obey, an openness to listen, but an attention to instruction. Verses 10 and 11. The Lord also said to Moses, Go to the people and consecrate, or prepare, set apart, purify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments. It's interesting. Let them be ready for the third day. And on the third day, the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in sight of all of the people. It's interesting that God didn't just decide to toss Ten Commandments down to the people on clay that would soon disintegrate. He had a system that was worked out that is marvelous in detail, and I don't think we'll ever understand why it was the third day and why they washed their clothes and why five times up and five times down before they got it. We really won't know. The point is that God sometimes gives specific instructions we may not understand, but if we respect him, we follow those instructions. Even though we don't understand. Then there's a recognition of holiness. Look at verse 12. You shall set bounds for the people all around this mountain. Beware that you do not go up on the mountain or touch the border of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. Why? Is God cruel? No, God is impressing on them that there is a separation between the creator and the creature, and this mountain is that which he has chosen to, in a sense, indwell. Just as the ark, only the high priest could go in. It was an awesome thing to come into the presence of God, an awesomeness that we do not understand today, because we forget that he is indwelling us. But they said, Build a border, he said to Moses, so that no one accidentally rubs up against it. No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through, verse 13. Whether beast or man, he shall not live. When the ram's horn sounds a long blast, they shall come up close to the mountain. So Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and he set them apart, he consecrated them, and they washed their garments, and he said to the people, Be ready, be ready for the third day, do not go near a woman. So it came about on the third day when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes, and a thick cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. Smoke settles in, lightning begins to flash. Let's read on and find out. Then the sound of the trumpet, verse 19, grew louder and louder, and Moses spoke, and God answered him with thunder. And the Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses. I would have loved to have been in the company of people who stood around, although it would have been very, very frightening. They were all trembling. Fire and lightning, crisscrossing the air, shooting toward that mountain, smoke, perhaps confusion, all silence. And then God says, Moses, come up here. Can you imagine all of that happening? And then God saying, Come up. I would have said no way. You know, wait till the storm quits. But in the middle of all of that, God says, Moses, I want you to come up to the top of the mountain. And the last part of verse 20 reveals his great faith. Moses went up. Is he going to give the revelation or the ten commands? No. In fact, he's going to say to Moses, Go down, warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish. The ten cent term is theophany, and you'll run across that as you study your Old Testament. Tha'a means God. The word aphony or phony means to appear. It is the appearance of God, but because God is spirit, because God has never revealed a face to man because he has no face. The visible personification of God is Jesus Christ. Sometimes it's confusing as you read the Old Testament. It talks about seeing the face of God or the feet of God or the hands of God. Those are terms referring to him in human understanding when he is a vast, awesome spirit. But God didn't want them to try to gaze through just to see the glory of his manifestation, because they would die. In fact, when Moses will come down at a later time, his face glows for days. Because he has seen the magnificence of God's glory. He says, Go down and tell them not to try to look through. They'll perish. Verse 22, and also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them. It's serious to approach God. And Moses said to the Lord, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for thou didst warn us, saying, Set, bounds about the mountain and consecrate it. The Lord said to him, Go down and come up again, you and Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break forth upon them. So Moses went down to the people and he told them. I think all of these verses basically are God's point of creating in this nation that he's calling to himself a great sense of respect and awe. In fact, that awe would be carried through so that when the Hebrew scribes would copy Scripture, as you perhaps already know, when they would come to one of the names of God, they would place their quill down and or whatever the instrument was that they were writing, and they would go and they would wash their hands carefully. And they would come back and they would pick up a brand new writing instrument and they would write out the name Elohim. El Shaddai. Whatever name it was. And then they would put that one down, never to use it again, and they would pick up the old one and they would continue writing. All through the Old Testament. They reverenced even the names of God. In fact, the Old Testament Yahweh didn't have any vows because they didn't want anybody to pronounce it. It was sacred. God would share that respect or develop that respect with his people. It is a respect men and women that I believe we should have for him too. We go to him and worship. And we love him. We go boldly, openly, without a mask. He knows our hearts. And yet we go respecting his sovereign power. We don't go to change him. We allow him to change. Now, as I've studied this passage, I've come up with some things that I think are very necessary that are taught to us from the Sinai Summit. Let's call them summit meetings. And these are times men and women and young people, when you meet with God, will refer to them as your summit meeting, whenever, wherever that may be. From this chapter, I think that there are principles to help us make these meetings profitable and inspiring.

Planning Personal Summit Meetings With God

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The first is this it would be good to have a place that's alone and quiet, where you meet with God in a specific way. I think another thing that this chapter gives me is this. When we come to approach God, our minds, our focus, it isn't, alright, I've got to catch my ride in five minutes. Go, Lord. And we start flipping. But we come with a prepared spirit. We come with the idea that God is literally meeting with us to change us, to conform us, to motivate us. It isn't 15 minutes just so I can do my duty. It is 15 minutes so that God can conform me and prepare me for the day. I've already mentioned this before, but I believe this is one of the key thoughts, and that is we need teachable heart. Not just to hear, but to listen. Not just to read, but to obey. Now, I'm talking to you very practically about times that you meet with the Lord. I believe that this is a basic principle from chapter 19 that so many have never put into practice. And I come up with what I believe are excuses as to why. Suggestions. I have heard these and put these down for myself, and let me give you four excuses that you or someone else may use for not studying the Bible. Why is it that we are not in this book? Why is it that we will drive across town to get under the sound of the word, but we will not walk across the living room and pick up the Bible and

Four Excuses For Avoiding Scripture

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get in it ourselves? Perhaps you'll see yourself in here. I sure have. In fact, I think I've used all of them at one time or another. The first is the excuse of motivation. The excuse of motivation. And this would be the individual who says, I get enough at church. The truth is, people are waiting to get motivated off the launching pad. Lord, give me a blast, and I'll take off. When he gives motivation to those people who have said, I'll meet you. I've set aside a place and I've got a time and I've got a spirit and a teachable heart. Now meet me here. It is that individual that has motivation. And let me say this too. We don't hear enough of this. I believe the greatest motivator in a married man's life is his wife. When Paul told women in 1 Corinthians 14, if you have a question, do what? Ask who? Husband. All the wives said that. All the men are thinking, boy, you're getting me in trouble. Great motivator! You have a question? Go to that husband and say, look, I'm studying the Bible, I've got this question. Would you find out the answer for me? Could you imagine? One of the best things you can do, dear lady, when you have a question is ask your husband. Motivation. Number two, the excuse of priority. This is the individual who says, I'm really too busy. And I've used this illustration before, and I always think about this whenever someone says to me or I say to myself, I don't have enough time. I think of the investment that God has given me today of 86,400 seconds. Now, if that were dollars, I guarantee you I could take 900 a day and put it aside. God has given you and me 86,400 seconds. Can we invest 900 seconds for him? There is always enough time to do what we want to do. But that is an excuse often given. The third is the excuse of technique. Someone came up to Sam Sneed and asked him, a great golfer, how did you become such a great putter on the greens? How could I become as great as you? Sam Sneed said, I got a fantastic solution. It'll work guaranteed. I want you, and this is how you will be as great as a putter, I want you to go putt 100,000 golf balls. That wouldn't work today. I want something quick. Technique is developed by people who are already doing it. Then the fourth, I think, is probably an excuse, but perhaps a result. It is the excuse of apathy. This is the person who says, Why should I? Let me ask you a question. Are you tempted to sin? And what is that temptation that you struggle with? What is that pressure at the job or at school? And people are saying, Do this, your flesh says, I want this. What is the temptation? Are you tempted? Of course. What if we suggested a study for you of the book of Deuteronomy? Is it relevant? Yes, it is. In fact, Jesus Christ, the three times that he was tempted in the wilderness, quoted from the book of Deuteronomy. How well would we overcome temptation if it depended upon our knowledge of Deuteronomy? The question is not, can I or should I study the Bible? The real question, men and women, is can I afford not to? There is a direct relationship between overcoming temptation and an understanding and application of this book. Are we in it for ourselves? Do you have a summit meeting? Is there a place? A time? A teachable heart? The second point of application is this moments when God meets with you are not to be taken casually. And I fear we have taken him for granted. Back in the book of Exodus, chapter 19, it says, and this is an interesting jigsaw puzzle that we find the missing piece to in the New Testament. It says in verse 19, then the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. That is, the smoke is coming, the lightning

Fear And Trembling Meets New Testament Grace

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is flashing, the mountain is quaking, and then here's this trumpet. And this sound gets louder and louder and louder. And it says, And Moses spoke. We don't know what he said, but we find out in the book of Hebrews. Turn there. Chapter 12. Look at verse 21. The verses before that, verses 18 to 20, talk about this mountain. Let's start with verse 18. Don't come to the mountain that may be touched into a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom, and a whirlwind, and to a blast of a trumpet, and the sound of words, which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word could be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command, even if a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned. And so terrible, so awesome was this sight that Moses said, here's what he said back in Exodus I am full of fear and trembling. All this is taking place in Exodus chapter 19, and it says, Moses spoke. What was it? Moses said, I am full of fear and I am trembling. I am emphasizing a point, ladies and gentlemen, that you may think I am over-emphasizing. I am not forgetting the approachability of God through Jesus Christ. I am emphasizing his holiness and the awe that we should have when we approach him. Like Moses, when he saw the glory of God, he trembled. It would revolutionize our respect for him.

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