Original Meaning
The People’s Response to the Theophany at Horeb (5:23–27)
UPON HEARING THE THUNDER of Yahweh’s voice, a delegation consisting of all the leaders of the tribes and elders approached Moses. The way they approached Moses reflects their excitement. They acknowledged that Yahweh had revealed his glory and majesty and that they had heard his voice from the midst of the fire. They expressed amazement that they survived the experience (v. 24), but then they were not so sure they had actually escaped (vv. 25–26). They expressed their fear with two rhetorical questions: “Why should we die?” and “What mortal man1 has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived?” Yahweh’s fiery presence has convinced them that he is indeed the living God, but they fear that the One who lives will take their life. To ward off the danger, the people request that Moses serve as mediator (v. 27), and they promise from now on to listen to him and to treat the voice of Moses as if it were the voice of God.
Bridging Contexts
ALTHOUGH MOSES HAS ACKNOWLEDGED earlier that the present generation is not faithless like their parents (4:3–4), for the first time he hints that all is not what it appears to be. Verses 28–29 suggest that Yahweh lacks confidence in his people and that their present enthusiasm will be short-lived.
This motif will return in chapter 31, where Yahweh declares explicitly that as soon as Moses is gone, the people will go after other gods, abandon him, and break his covenant (31:16). But Yahweh goes further. When he has brought the people into the land “oozing with milk and honey” and they prosper, they will serve other gods, spurn Yahweh, and break his covenant (31:20). Moses concurs. He knows how rebellious and stubborn the people are, even while he is alive; as soon as he has died, they will give full vent to their rebellion (31:27). The history of Israel proves how warranted Yahweh’s present reservations are here. Within a generation or two of Moses’ death (Judg. 2:1–23) they have turned from the way of Yahweh to a course that persisted until finally in 586 BC, the fire of divine fury engulfed the nation.
Contemporary Significance
YAHWEH AS A CONSUMING fire. This portion of Moses’ speech contains little that we have not heard before. However, in its recapitulative nature, it reminds modern readers of several fundamental spiritual lessons. First, Yahweh is a consuming fire before whom mortals rightfully recoil. Although the “Word becoming flesh” in Christ highlights God’s continued determination to communicate with human beings, he does so in ways that sacrifice nothing of his glory (John 1:14). As he was before ancient Israel, so God remains before all who have been grafted in and made heirs of the promises. He is a consuming fire, before whom acceptable service will always arise out of deep reverence and awe (Heb. 12:28–29).
The disposition of fear. The proper human disposition before the glorious and gracious God remains fear, the deep sense of awe in his presence, which alone will produce acceptable liturgical response and the worship of daily obedience. Where there is no fear, there is no sense of obligation and no sense of gratitude that we have stood in the presence of God and lived to tell about it. Without fear, the privileged life of obedience is reduced to a burdensome duty.
Yahweh’s longing for devotion. Third, Yahweh’s longing for constancy of devotion (5:29) reminds us of the fundamental depravity of the human heart. Moses knows only too well how short-lived will be the Israelites’ fearful disposition. While in 10:16 he will call on the Israelites to circumcise their hearts, ultimately he will declare (30:6) that this too involves a divine act of grace. People with hearts of stone rebel against God and insist on their own ways; those with circumcised hearts fear God and walk in his ways.
Original Meaning
Yahweh’s Response to the People’s Proposal (5:28–31)
YAHWEH ACKNOWLEDGED THAT HE overheard the people’s request to Moses (cf. 4:28) and affirmed their response. He also expressed his wish that the Israelites would never lose their present reverential disposition toward him.2 If they would demonstrate it by obedience to all his commands forever, then their well-being would be assured forever. The remainder of Yahweh’s comments were directed to Moses. He was to send the people home to their tents while he remained in Yahweh’s presence to receive further revelation, identified as “the whole command” (NIV, “all the commands”), and the “decrees and laws.”
The singular form of the first expression is striking. As elsewhere,3 it refers to the first command of the Decalogue (the Supreme Command) and its obverse, as expressed in the Shema (6:4–5),4 which underlies all, while the “decrees and laws” refer to the specific stipulations of the covenant. Moses is to teach these to the Israelites that they might live by them in the Promised Land.
The verb “teach” (limmēd) offers the hermeneutical key to the second address. In chapters 6–11 Moses will instruct the people on the nature and dimensions of the Supreme Command, and in chapters 12–26 he will teach them the decrees and laws. This will not mean simply reciting them as they have been previously given, but explaining the principles that underlie them and applying them to new situations.
Bridging Contexts
ALTHOUGH MOSES HAS ACKNOWLEDGED earlier that the present generation is not faithless like their parents (4:3–4), for the first time he hints that all is not what it appears to be. Verses 28–29 suggest that Yahweh lacks confidence in his people and that their present enthusiasm will be short-lived.
This motif will return in chapter 31, where Yahweh declares explicitly that as soon as Moses is gone, the people will go after other gods, abandon him, and break his covenant (31:16). But Yahweh goes further. When he has brought the people into the land “oozing with milk and honey” and they prosper, they will serve other gods, spurn Yahweh, and break his covenant (31:20). Moses concurs. He knows how rebellious and stubborn the people are, even while he is alive; as soon as he has died, they will give full vent to their rebellion (31:27). The history of Israel proves how warranted Yahweh’s present reservations are here. Within a generation or two of Moses’ death (Judg. 2:1–23) they have turned from the way of Yahweh to a course that persisted until finally in 586 BC, the fire of divine fury engulfed the nation.
Contemporary Significance
YAHWEH AS A CONSUMING fire. This portion of Moses’ speech contains little that we have not heard before. However, in its recapitulative nature, it reminds modern readers of several fundamental spiritual lessons. First, Yahweh is a consuming fire before whom mortals rightfully recoil. Although the “Word becoming flesh” in Christ highlights God’s continued determination to communicate with human beings, he does so in ways that sacrifice nothing of his glory (John 1:14). As he was before ancient Israel, so God remains before all who have been grafted in and made heirs of the promises. He is a consuming fire, before whom acceptable service will always arise out of deep reverence and awe (Heb. 12:28–29).
The disposition of fear. The proper human disposition before the glorious and gracious God remains fear, the deep sense of awe in his presence, which alone will produce acceptable liturgical response and the worship of daily obedience. Where there is no fear, there is no sense of obligation and no sense of gratitude that we have stood in the presence of God and lived to tell about it. Without fear, the privileged life of obedience is reduced to a burdensome duty.
Yahweh’s longing for devotion. Third, Yahweh’s longing for constancy of devotion (5:29) reminds us of the fundamental depravity of the human heart. Moses knows only too well how short-lived will be the Israelites’ fearful disposition. While in 10:16 he will call on the Israelites to circumcise their hearts, ultimately he will declare (30:6) that this too involves a divine act of grace. People with hearts of stone rebel against God and insist on their own ways; those with circumcised hearts fear God and walk in his ways.
Original Meaning
The Mediator’s Exhortation (5:32–6:3)
ASSUMING HIS ROLE AS official spokesman, Moses seizes the opportunity to exhort the people to a life of obedience. His exhortation divides into three parts, each with its own charge, goal, and declaration of place: 5:32–33; 6:1–2; 6:3 (cf. 4:40). The first highlights Yahweh as the source of the commands; the second, Moses as the teacher of the commands; and the third, the people as learners and doers of the commands.
Moses’ first charge (vv. 32–33) moves from a simple call to covenant commitment to a metaphorical exhortation (cf. 4:40).5 He speaks of Yahweh’s commands as a road down which he has commanded his people to travel, and he warns them not to get sidetracked by turning off “to the right or to the left.” If they stay on course, they will reach the threefold goal of life, well-being, and length of days in the land they are to possess (cf. 28:1–14).
Moses’ second charge (6:1–2) focuses on what Yahweh has commanded him to teach the people. His goal was not mere memorization but a permanent fear of God that will inspire them and their descendants to obedience and yield the desired result of long life.
As pastor-teacher, he opens his third charge (v. 3) with an appeal to listen,6 followed by a call to “be careful to obey/keep by doing.” His declared goal, defined in terms of well-being for the people and extreme multiplication of the population, links this statement to the narratives of Genesis (e.g., Gen. 13:16; 22:17; 28:14). Cryptically he described the geographic context in which both the charge and the promise will be fulfilled as in “a land oozing [NIV ‘flowing’] with milk and honey.”7 Milk and honey represent products the land produces spontaneously, in contrast to the artificial and irrigational nature of agricultural production in Egypt.8 Oozing with milk and honey, the Promised Land also represented the antithesis to the desert, where for nearly forty years these people had had nothing to eat but manna.
Bridging Contexts
ALTHOUGH MOSES HAS ACKNOWLEDGED earlier that the present generation is not faithless like their parents (4:3–4), for the first time he hints that all is not what it appears to be. Verses 28–29 suggest that Yahweh lacks confidence in his people and that their present enthusiasm will be short-lived.
This motif will return in chapter 31, where Yahweh declares explicitly that as soon as Moses is gone, the people will go after other gods, abandon him, and break his covenant (31:16). But Yahweh goes further. When he has brought the people into the land “oozing with milk and honey” and they prosper, they will serve other gods, spurn Yahweh, and break his covenant (31:20). Moses concurs. He knows how rebellious and stubborn the people are, even while he is alive; as soon as he has died, they will give full vent to their rebellion (31:27). The history of Israel proves how warranted Yahweh’s present reservations are here. Within a generation or two of Moses’ death (Judg. 2:1–23) they have turned from the way of Yahweh to a course that persisted until finally in 586 BC, the fire of divine fury engulfed the nation.
Contemporary Significance
YAHWEH AS A CONSUMING fire. This portion of Moses’ speech contains little that we have not heard before. However, in its recapitulative nature, it reminds modern readers of several fundamental spiritual lessons. First, Yahweh is a consuming fire before whom mortals rightfully recoil. Although the “Word becoming flesh” in Christ highlights God’s continued determination to communicate with human beings, he does so in ways that sacrifice nothing of his glory (John 1:14). As he was before ancient Israel, so God remains before all who have been grafted in and made heirs of the promises. He is a consuming fire, before whom acceptable service will always arise out of deep reverence and awe (Heb. 12:28–29).
The disposition of fear. The proper human disposition before the glorious and gracious God remains fear, the deep sense of awe in his presence, which alone will produce acceptable liturgical response and the worship of daily obedience. Where there is no fear, there is no sense of obligation and no sense of gratitude that we have stood in the presence of God and lived to tell about it. Without fear, the privileged life of obedience is reduced to a burdensome duty.
Yahweh’s longing for devotion. Third, Yahweh’s longing for constancy of devotion (5:29) reminds us of the fundamental depravity of the human heart. Moses knows only too well how short-lived will be the Israelites’ fearful disposition. While in 10:16 he will call on the Israelites to circumcise their hearts, ultimately he will declare (30:6) that this too involves a divine act of grace. People with hearts of stone rebel against God and insist on their own ways; those with circumcised hearts fear God and walk in his ways.