Lesson #9

God Reaffirms the Covenant

(Exodus 19: 1-25)
In Lesson #8 the Israelites began their journey through the
wilderness, making their way to Mt. Sinai, the mountain of God,
along the way passing through the wilderness of Shur, Marah, Elim,
the wilderness of Sin and Rephidim.

Three days into the journey the Israelites began complaining,
murmuring: the water is bitter; the food is lousy; theres no
water; the Amalekites are attacking! Leading the whining and
complaining Israelites, Moses is angry, discouraged and
overwhelmed.

In each instance God comes to the rescue, not as a compassionate,
empathetic and nurturing God, but as a tough, no-nonsense drill
instructor whose every action teaches the children of Israel how to
grow up, take responsibility and survive.











In Lesson #9 the Israelites finally reach Mt. Sinai, and there God
reaffirms the covenant he made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying:

You have seen how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on eagles
wings and brought you to myself. Now, if you obey me completely and keep my
covenant, you will be my treasured possession among all peoples, though all
the earth is mine. You will be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.
(Exodus 19: 4-6)
The people respond: Everything the Lord has said, we will do (Exodus
19:8).

In Lesson #9 we examine the covenant in depth, defining precisely what
the covenant is; the obligations and privileges it imposes on both
parties, God and the Israelites; and what consequences follow for
meetingor breakingthe terms of the covenant.
























Land of Goshen
Rameses
Succoth
Marah
Elim
Mt. Sinai
Rephidim
Bitter Lakes
Via Maris
Exodus Route
Mt. Sinai












Photography by Ana Maria Vargas
On the third new moon after the Israelites departure from
the land of Egypt, on the first day, they came to the
wilderness of Sinai . . . they then pitched camp in the
wilderness . . . [and] Moses had gone up to the mountain of
God.
(Exodus 19: 1-3)
A literal translation of the Hebrew, On the third new moon, establishes the
tone and sets the scene at Mt. Sinai. The new moon is the 1
st
phase of the
moon, when the moon and the sun have the exact same ecliptical longtitude,
making the moon invisible. In other words, as the scene at Mt. Sinai opens it is
pitch black, save for the twinkling of the stars. The scene opens ominous and
heavy, tinged with tension, fear and anticipation.

Moses had gone up to the mountain expresses the pluperfect tense,
suggesting that Moses is climbing the mountain, even as the people are pitching
camp, heightening the tension in the story.











You have seen how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on
eagles wings and brought you to myself. Now, if you obey me
completely and keep my covenant, [then] you will be my treasured
possession among all peoples, though all the earth is mine. You will be
to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.
(Exodus 19: 4-6)

Notice the if/then clause. When God reaffirms his covenant with the
people, the covenant is conditioned upon the Israelites obeying God
and keeping the terms of the covenant.

When God states that Israel is my son, my firstborn (4: 22) whom he
will never leave or forsake (Deut. 31: 6), he is making an unconditional
statement about Israels position, relative to God; when he reaffirms
the covenant in Exodus 19: 4-6 he is making a conditional statement
about enjoying the privileges of that position.





























Notice the up and down movement
throughout Chapter 19. God is up,
Moses and the people are down. The
Israelites encounter with God at Mt.
Sinai is the decisive moment in human
history when the heavenly and earthly
realms converge. Such an epic moment
calls for grandeur and solemnity, as well
as accompanying celestial pyrotechnics
and deep, rolling thunder.

At midnight, Dr. Creasys intrepid band of students prepare to climb Mt. Sinai.












Photography by Ana Maria Vargas
Dr. Creasy leads the way up the mountain in the black of night!












Photography by Ana Maria Vargas
Unlike Moses, we stop halfway up for coffee and cookies, served by the Bedouins!












Photography by Ana Maria Vargas
Sunrise from atop Mt. Sinai.












Photography by Ana Maria Vargas
Early morning on the mountain of God.












Photography by Ana Maria Vargas
Later in the morning we descend the mountainup and down, just like Moses!












Photography by Ana Maria Vargas

























I will make of you a great
nation, and I will bless you; I
will make your name great, so
that you will be a blessing. I
will bless those who bless you
and curse those who curse
you. All the families of the
earth will find blessing in
you.
(Genesis 12: 2-3)













The word of the Lord came to Abram:

Look up at the sky and count the stars,
if you can. Just so, he added, will your
descendants be.
(Genesis 15: 5)

To your descendants I give this land,
from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great
River, the Euphrates, the land of the
Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
the Amorites, the Canaanites, the
Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
(Genesis 15: 18)













To you and your descendants I will give
all these lands, in fulfillment of the oath
that I swore to your father Abraham. I
will make your descendants as
numerous as the stars in the sky, and I
will give them all these lands, and in
your descendants all the nations of the
earth will find blessing.
(Genesis 26: 3-4)
















I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your
father and the God of Isaac; the land on
which you are lying I will give to you and
your descendants. Your descendants will
be like the dust of the earth, and
through them you will spread to the
west and the east, to the north and the
south. In you and your descendants all
the families of the earth will find
blessing.
(Genesis 26: 3-4)














The Hebrew word for covenant is berith,
meaning a pact, treaty or binding legal
agreement between two parties.

Ancient Near Eastern covenants were
commonplace between sovereigns and
vassals, and typically they had a 6-part
standardized form:

1. Preamble, or introduction of the speaker;
2. Historical prologue;
3. Stipulations;
4. The document;
5. The gods as witnesses; and
6. Blessings and curses.

Often, the covenant involved animal
sacrifice, sealing the covenant with blood.


The Torah as a whole (Genesis through Deuteronomy) is the
fullest expression of Gods covenant with the Israelites.














The oldest surviving complete Torah scroll, carbon dated A.D. 1155 1225.
University of Bologna, Italy.











Michelangelo, Creation of the Sun
and the Moon, detail (fresco), 1512.
Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.
1. Preamble
Starting with Genesis 1: 1 we begin
to learn who God is: In the
beginning, when God created the
heavens and the earth . . ..

As the three panels of the Genesis
triptych unfold, we come to know
God through his interactions in the
Abraham/Isaac, Isaac/Jacob and
Jacob/Joseph stories.
















Preamble, cont.
Gods self-revelation continues as we
move into Exodus.

When God appears to Moses at the
burning bush in Chapter 3 and instructs
him to go back to Egypt and free the
Israelites, Moses replies: But . . . if I go
to the Israelites and say to them, The
God of your ancestors has sent me to
you, and they ask me, What is his
name? what do I tell them? To which
God replies: I am who I am . . . this is
what you will tell the Israelites: I AM has
sent me to you.


















Preamble, cont.
The nature of Gods I AM identity is
then dramatically confirmed in the
ten plagues, which are designed to do
three things:

1. Teach the Israelites who God is (10: 2);
2. Teach the Egyptians who God is (7: 3-5);
3. Bring judgment on the gods of Egypt (12:
12).
























Preamble, cont.
In the great theophany of Exodus 19,
God gathers the Israelites together at
the foot of Mt. Sinai andafter a
frightening display of his power,
complete with flashing fire and rolling
thunderGod speaks to the Israelites
audibly.

(Deuteronomy 4: 33 notes: Did a people
ever hear the voice of God speaking from the
midst of fire, as you did, and live?).























2. Historical Prologue
Reminding the Israelites that he is
the God of their ancestors,
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (and in
doing so recalling for we readers
the entire book of Genesis), God
summarizes the recent past of
Exodus 1-18: You have seen how I
treated the Egyptians and how I
bore you on eagles wings and
brought you to myself . . . (19: 4).

















3. Stipulations
Then God spoke all these words . .
. (20: 1-17).

The Ten Commandments or
Decalogue are ten principles by
which a covenant people is to live
with God and one another. The
first four principles have to do with
the Israelites relationship with
God; the last six, their relationship
with one another.

















4. The Document
Exodus 21: 1 through Leviticus 27: 34
contain the details of the covenant:

1. How to apply the ten principles in
specific cases (Exodus 21: 1 24: 18);
2. The design and construction of the
Tabernacle (25: 1 40: 38);
3. Five great sacrifices to be offered at the
Tabernacle, four of which are blood
sacrifices (Leviticus 1: 1 -7: 38);
4. The Levitical priesthood (8: 1 10: 20);
5. Laws of purity (11: 1 22: 33); and
6. Sacred time (holy days).

















5. The gods as witnesses
When you have children and
childrens children, and have
grown old in the land, should
you then act corruptly by
fashioning an idol in the form of
anything, and by this evil done in
his sight provoke the Lord, your
God, I call heaven and earth this
day to witness against you, that
you shall quickly perish from the
land . . .
(Deuteronomy 4: 26)


















6. Blessings and Curses
Now, if you diligently obey the voice of the
Lord, your God, carefully observing all his
commandments which I give you today, the
Lord, your God, will set you high above all the
nations of the earth. All these blessings will
come upon you and overwhelm you when you
obey the voice of the Lord your God:

May you be blessed in the city,
and blessed in the country!
Blessed be the fruit of your womb,
the produce of your soil
and the offspring of your livestock,
the issue of your herds and the young of your
flocks!
Blessed be your grain basket and your kneading
bowl!
May you be blessed in your coming in
and blessed in your going out!
(Deuteronomy 28: 1-6)


















6. Blessings and Curses
But if you do not obey the voice of the Lord,
your God, carefully observing all his
commandments and statutes which I give you
today, all these curses shall come upon you and
overwhelm you:

May you be cursed in the city,
and cursed in the country!
Cursed be your grain basket and your kneading bowl!
Cursed be the fruit of your womb,
the produce of your soil
and the offspring of your livestock,
the issue of your herds and the young of your flocks!
May you be cursed in your coming in
and cursed in your going out!
(Deuteronomy 28: 15-19)









1. How does our author set the stage for the great and
terrifying theophany of Exodus 19?
2. How do you define covenant?
3. The covenant God makes with Abraham in Genesis
12 is unconditional; the covenant God reaffirms in
Exodus 19 is conditional. What is the difference?
4. Why does God tell the Israelites to stay away from
the mountain and not touch it?
5. What effect does the theophany at Mt. Sinai
produce on the Israelites?




Copyright 2014 by William C. Creasy
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