The position of Israel before Sinai was unique. They had been delivered from Egyptian slavery by a succession of miraculous displays of divine power, and every day since they had left that land, whether in the glory-cloud, the manna, or the rock, a miracle had emphasized God’s presence among them. Having reached Sinai, they were absolutely isolated from the world at large, and were shut in with themselves and with God.
The physical characteristics of Horeb and Sinai are remarkable. The barren wilderness generally is a theme for scriptural poetry, and numberless Christian lips and pens have found in it illustrations for daily life. But the mountain of Horeb evokes no song. It produces instead the feeling of awe, and hushes into silence. Horeb is “the great mountain labyrinth” where Sinai itself stands; it signifies “the mountain of the dried-up ground,” and this for generations has been its character. Sinai is the mountain of the thorn. The predominant ideas attached to the region are nakedness and barrenness. Sinai itself is noted for its bare rocks and lifeless crags, from which the soil long since has been swept away. The valley, or wady, at the mountain base, is usually but a dry watercourse, with stones tumbled about over it, brought down by the storms. The bare crags do not absorb the rain, and hence the thunder-clouds which burst over them form floods, which, with marvelous rapidity, carry all before them. The life-giving rains of heaven, by reason of the repelling rocks, are thus the cause of Sinai’s desolation. Silence reigns in the region, and where the voice of a man, or the cry of the hyena, breaks upon it, the sound rises high up on the mountain sides.
In a very marked way in Horeb and Sinai, a locality is prepared and selected by the divine hand for the giving of the law, and even the rain-repelling rocks seem to be a symbol of the human heart hardened against the words of heaven, so that “the commandment which was ordained to life” is “found to be unto death” (Rom. 7:1010And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. (Romans 7:10)).
The Natural Features
Over and over again, in His revelations to man, God has been pleased to give illustration to His words by the natural features of the locality where the words have been uttered. In speaking to men, God uses the natural to give emphasis to the spiritual. We are of the natural, nature surrounds us, and that very environment God uses to teach of the verities which lie outside and beyond the realm of nature. Israel had been all their lifetime educated under the influence of awe-inspiring and magnificent temples, and the most splendid spectacles of religious pomp. They had heard the strains of music and the acclamation of thousands of voices celebrating the glory of the gods. They had yielded to the seduction of idolatry, at least in many cases (see Amos 5:25-2625Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? 26But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. (Amos 5:25‑26)). Jehovah, their Creator, did not forget this. He arranged their encampment in the valley in such a way that they should occupy a nature-temple of such formation and magnitude, that compared with it, Egypt’s mightiest buildings were as toys. Silence, deeper than that which reigned among the columns of the temples their hands had helped to rear, enveloped them, to be broken again and again by the appalling voices and trumpets of heaven. As a roof, arching over the many-colored precipices which walled them in, stretched the thick cloud that composed the footstool of God. Sinai’s shoulder rose up as the end wall of the stupendous temple in which they stood, while from its heights, up into the cloud-roof, the devouring fire ascended.
Sinai was a mountain in a way isolated from others. The Scripture narrative informs us that bounds were set about it (Ex. 19:2323And Moses said unto the Lord, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it. (Exodus 19:23)), that it was in view from a plain in which “all” (Ex. 19:1111And 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. (Exodus 19:11)) the people could stand, and move either “near” it or “afar off” from it (Deut. 4:1111And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. (Deuteronomy 4:11); Ex. 20:2121And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was. (Exodus 20:21)). It was sufficiently broad on the summit to enable one person to be in seclusion when seventy others were also there (Ex. 24:1-2, 9-111And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off. 2And Moses alone shall come near the Lord: but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up with him. (Exodus 24:1‑2)
9Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: 10And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. 11And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink. (Exodus 24:9‑11)). The base of the mountain could accommodate the two or three millions of Israel who stood and faced the fiery mount and see all, without one rank obstructing the view of the rank behind it. Can anyone question the design of God in the selection of this plain? Surely the natural character of Mount Sinai was indeed in keeping with the solemn law that was proclaimed there!
H. F. Witherby (adapted)