OK, so I didn’t really like this paper at all. I’m not sure what grade I received for it since I haven’t picked it up yet. I did get an A- for the course so I must have gotten a decent grade. I was unhappy with it because I couldn’t find any research on the passage. No one had anything interesting to say about it. I picked it because I really loved the passage from Hebrews (12:18-24) that I researched for my exegetical paper in General Epistles and Revelation (which I posted on Wednesday). This was a parallel verse. Only after I told the professor I was using this passage and I started researching it did I realize I’d made a mistake picking it. It wasn’t as interesting as the Hebrews passage and since there wasn’t any thing of interest written about it, I had to come up with my own stuff which is hard to do for 10 pages \ud83d\ude42 <\/p>\n
Hebrew fonts can be found at Bibleworks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Introduction<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Before Israel entered the land of He exhorted them to covenant As Moses recounts the covenant that This paper will explore God’s [1]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> <\/p>\n Translation of Deuteronomy 5:22-27<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n 22<\/span><\/sup> YHWH spoke these 26<\/sup> For who is there of Divine Revelation at Horeb<\/span>[5]<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/span>In preparation for entering the land of In each of the passages that The fact that there is no mention It is clear that the revelation recorded The revelation of God was both his God not only revealed his glory and The giving of the law is the focus Israel’s Response to the Divine Revelation<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n When God revealed himself on Sinai, In the Exodus account, Israel This inappropriate fear aspect and Moses’ God was pleased with their response The revelation of God’s glory and God wanted Israel to put their Israel’s Request in Light of Deuteronomy 18:15-22<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n In Deut. 18:15-22, Moses explains The use of the word ~wq<\/span> indicates that the Lord would chose Israel’s Response in Light of Hebrews 12:18-24<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n In the passages in Exodus and Deuteronomy relating But the author of Hebrews understood much more He also understood the inadequacy of the covenant
\nCanaan to take possession of the land the Lord had given to them as an
\ninheritance, Moses assembled the nation together as the “Lord had instructed
\nhim to do.”[1]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> The
\nbook of Deuteronomy contains the instructions, exhortations, reminders, and
\ncommandments that Moses conveyed to the assembled nation that day. <\/span>He would not be entering the land with them,
\nso he wanted to prepare them to be faithful to God and his covenant by keeping
\nhis commandments so that all would go well with them and they would remain in
\nthe land forever. <\/p>\n
\nfaithfulness by reminding them of all that the Lord had done for them and to
\nuse that knowledge as motivation to obey his commandments and to refrain from following
\nafter other gods. He reminded them of their lack of faith when they were too
\nfearful to fight the inhabitants of the land that the Lord have given them and
\nhow God punished them by making them wander in the wilderness until that
\nfaithless generation died off but he did not abandon them and continued to lead
\nthem and prepare them to enter the land he swore to Abraham he would give to
\nhis descendants. <\/span>Moses reminds them of
\ntheir military victories through the grace of God and exhorts them to remember
\nGod’s faithfulness by responding in worship and obedience to all that he had
\ncommanded them to do.<\/p>\n
\nIsrael made with God, he reminds them of their first encounter with God, the
\nday he spoke to them out of the midst of the fire on Mount Sinai and revealed
\nhimself through his word and through an awesome display of his power and glory.
\nHe overwhelmed them to the point that they did not want to hear his voice again
\nfor they feared they would die. They asked Moses to be their mediator so that
\nthey would not be consumed by the fire. <\/p>\n
\ndivine revelation that day and the response of Israel to it and the
\nimplications of God’s revelation for not only the original reader but for Christians
\ntoday.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nDeut. 1:3<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nwords to your whole assembly[1]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nat the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, the cloud and the thick
\ndarkness, with a loud voice. Then he added no more[2]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nbut he wrote them on two tablets of stone and he gave them to me. 23<\/span><\/sup>
\nBut when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness[3]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nwhile the mountain was burning with fire you approached me, all the heads of
\nyour tribes and your elders. 24<\/sup> And you said, “Behold, YHWH our God
\nhas shown us his glory and his greatness and his voice that we heard out of the
\nmidst of the fire. <\/span>This day we have seen
\nGod speak with man and he has lived. 25<\/sup> But now why should we die?
\nFor this great fire will consume us, if we hear the voice of YHWH our God anymore,
\nthen we shall die.<\/p>\n
\nall flesh who has heard the voice of the living[4]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nGod speaking out of the midst of the fire as we have and lived? 27 <\/sup>You
\napproach and hear all that YHWH our God says and speak to us all that the Lord
\nour God says to you and we will listen and do.”<\/p>\n
\nCanaan, Moses reminds Israel of their covenantal obligation to keep the commandments
\nof God. <\/span>To emphasize the importance of
\nkeeping the covenant he reminds them of their encounter with God at Horeb[6]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nwhere God commanded the nation to be consecrated and their clothes washed and
\nto be assembled before him on the mountain so that he could speak to the Israel
\nand covey his commandments to them. He reminds that God spoke “face to face, on
\nthe mountain out of the midst of the fire.”[7]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nhe reminds them of their fear of God which prevented them from ascending the
\nmountain with him. He also reminds them of the “ten words”[8]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nwhich the Lord spoke to them as they were assembled before him. They had been
\ncommanded by God to be consecrated and their clothes washed and they were gathered
\ntogether before God in worship. They had been told not to touch the mountain
\nsince to do so would mean.[9]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nAnd on the third day the Lord descended on Mount Sinai in fire and the whole
\nmountain was wrapped in smoke, it trembled greatly and there was the sound of a
\ntrumpet, increasing in volume. There was thunder and lighting and the experience
\nwas frightening. <\/span>The Lord called Moses
\nup to instruct him to remind Israel not to touch the mountain. God then spoke
\nto the nation of Israel, revealing his commandments to them.<\/p>\n
\nrecount the Sinai experience, there is an emphasis that God spoke “out of the
\nmidst of the fire.” This phrase is not used in the Sinai account in Exodus
\n19-20 and is used only in Deuteronomy and only in conjunction with the Lord
\nspeaking to the people of Israel.[10]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nAccording to Ian Wilson the use of this phrase indicates that “YHWH himself was
\nin some sense localized within the fire.”[11]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> <\/span>He supports this interpretation by noting
\nthat when Moses recounts the Sinai theophany his choice of words denotes God’s
\npresence at Sinai: “on the day you stood before the Lord your God,”[12]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\n“the Lord spoke to you face to face at the mountain…while I stood between the
\nLord and you at that time,”[13]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\n“heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice,”[14]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nThese are words that are associated with location and clearly demonstrate that
\nGod was present at Mount Sinai.<\/p>\n
\nof God descending in Deuteronomy (as there is in the Sinai account[15]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>)
\nand that Moses says it was “out of heaven he let you hear his voice”[16]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nhas led some[17]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nto believe that God was not considered physically present at Horeb by the
\nauthor of Deuteronomy but Wilson demonstrates that the “first four words of
\neach half of the verse are meant to be parallel” which would mean that YHWH was
\npresent both in heaven and on earth speaking to them out of the midst of the
\nfire.[18]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n
\nin Deuteronomy was considered by Moses to be a divine revelation, that God was
\npresent at Horeb and that he spoke to them out of the midst of the fire and
\nrevealed to them the words of the covenant. The majority instances of the use
\nof the phrase “indicate that it was the initial giving of the law which
\noccurred ‘out of the midst of the fire.'”[19]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> <\/span>The revelation was both the words of the
\ncovenant and God’s presence. <\/span>It was both
\na visual and auditory experience. Moses repeatedly notes that the Lord spoke to
\nthem and they heard his voice. The verb rb’D’<\/span>i<\/span> is used four times in this passage, <\/span>lAq<\/span> is used five times and [m;v’<\/span> is used six times but ha’r’<\/span> is used only twice. The predominate
\naspect of the theophany seems to be auditory but the response of the elders and
\nheads of the tribes is described in visual terms that describe their auditory
\nresponse. <\/span>The voice<\/i> of God came out of the midst of the fire and when the elders
\napproached Moses in response to the theophany, they said that God “has shown<\/i> us his glory and his greatness
\nand we have heard<\/i> his voice” and “we
\nhave seen <\/i>God speak<\/i> with man.” There is a comingling of the auditory and the
\nvisual. It is by “hearing” the word of God that they “had seen” his glory and
\ngreatness.<\/p>\n
\nnature and his word (the law[20]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>)
\nas this pericope demonstrate. <\/span>The elders
\nand heads of tribes said they saw his glory and his greatness and they feared
\nremaining in his presence for fear of being consumed by the “great fire.” <\/span>It is evident from their response that God
\nhad revealed himself as holy, righteous and almighty. It is also evident that
\nthey realized that there was a distinction between the creature and the
\nCreator, that they were mere flesh and he is a living God, not like the gods of
\nthe other nations but a God who can communicate with them and who could destroy
\nthem if they remained in his presence or touched the mountain. <\/p>\n
\npower in the theophany but in his law. God spoke his commandments (the
\nDecalogue) to the people and then “he added no more but wrote them on two
\ntablets of stone.” Thompson notes that the expression, “added no more” may be
\nused to indicate that the “commandments were such a complete summary of the
\nfundamental requirements of the covenant that no other law needed to be added.”[21]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nThere is a distinction being made between the Decalogue and the rest of the
\ncivil ordnances and that the Decalogue was recorded on stone by God because the
\nDecalogue is “the fixed basis, indelibly recorded in stone, years earlier; the
\nrest of the law is more contingent, for it relates specially to life in
\nPalestine.”[22]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nAlso the Decalogue came from YWHW and the rest through the mediation of Moses.
\n“The separation between the Decalogue and other laws, therefore, is part of the
\nsame picture as the insistence that the people saw no form, but heard only a
\nvoice, namely an insistence on the primacy of the word in Israel’s relationship
\nwith Yahweh.”[23]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n
\nof this periscope (as well as Deut. 5). Moses recounts the giving of the Decalogue
\nto remind Israel of their desire on the mountain to be obedient to what God
\nrevealed to them. <\/span>The center of Deut.5
\nis the restatement of the Decalogue, it is enveloped by a reminder of the
\ncovenant that they made that day on Horeb and their response to God speaking to
\nthem out of the midst of the fire.
\n<\/span>Though those assembled in Moab were not present on the day Israel stood
\nbefore the Lord at Horeb, Moses considers them present and accountable for the
\npromise that the elders and the leaders of the tribes made to be obedient to
\nall that the Lord commanded them to do. They bear the weight of their covenant
\nresponsibility to be obedient to God. <\/span>McConville sees Horeb as a unifying event that
\nstretches backward and forward that “becomes a model for all time of Israel’s
\nposition before God, at the place of decision…This paradigm encounter affirms
\nthat Israel did once meet Yahweh in a way that was decisive for its life, and
\ntherefore that it can and must go on doing so.”[24]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nIt is a solemn responsibility to be the people of God as God makes clear by the
\nrevelation of his holiness in the law. They saw and heard that he is a holy God
\nand he expects them to be holy as he is holy. Each generation was expected to
\nbear the weight of that responsibility.<\/p>\n
\nIsrael understood that they had seen God’s glory and greatness and when they
\nsaw it they desired not to see it anymore so that they would not have to face
\nthe judgment of God’s consuming fire (Deut. 4:24; 5:25). The theophany was
\nmeant to provoke fear in them (Ex. 20:20; Deut. 4:36) and obedience to the law.
\nGod wanted them to be his holy people and not to follow the gods of the other
\nnations. He showed them his power and glory so that they would understand the
\npower and wrath that he could unleash on them if they disobeyed but he also wanted
\nthem to realize that no other nation had a god as powerful and majestic as he
\nis. What other nation could say that their god revealed himself on a mountain
\nand spoke to them out of the midst of the fire? What other nation knew exactly
\nwhat their god expected of them? What other nation had such a powerful and
\nliving God to worship and obey?<\/p>\n
\nfeared God “when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning
\nand the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid
\nand trembled, and they stood far off.”[25]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nBut Moses was concerned that they have the right kind of fear so he rebuked
\nthem “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be
\nbefore you, that you may not sin.” <\/p>\n
\nrebuke is missing from this periscope.[26]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nWhen the elders and the heads of the tribes[27]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\napproach Moses they do so because they are amazed that they are still living
\neven though they heard “the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst
\nof fire”[28]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> and
\nthey wanted to continue to do so. They request that Moses approach God for them
\nand they promise to do everything that God commands them to do. Moses does not
\nrecount his response to them but he does tell them that God found their request
\nacceptable and deemed it “good” which is missing from the Exodus account.<\/p>\n
\nbecause it was the reason for the revelation he wanted them to learn to fear
\nhim “all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their
\nchildren so.”[29]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nHe wanted them to fear him so that they would keep his commandments and would not
\nface his wrath. The wrath of God, that consuming fire should have reminded them
\nnot to follow after other gods, other gods who did not come to them in glory
\nand greatness and in fire, who did not bring them out of the land of Egypt into
\nthe land in which they were living, a land that he had given them as an
\ninheritance. <\/span>The fear of God’s wrath
\nshould have been enough to keep them from straying from his word.<\/p>\n
\ngreatness and the voice speaking out of the midst of the fire not only provoked
\nthem to promise to be obedient to his commandments but it also demonstrated their
\nneed for a mediator. They understood that they needed someone to stand between
\nthem and God. <\/span>Why should they risk their
\nlife when Moses has been in the presence of God repeatedly and was still
\nliving? Moses was even able to see much more than they did and yet still lived.[30]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nMaybe that should have given them reassurance. Moses had already experienced
\nGod speaking from a fire before so he understood already that God was a
\nconsuming fire and that he was mighty and just in his judgments.<\/p>\n
\ntrust in the mediatory work of Moses, it was one of the reasons for the
\ntheophany, “I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when
\nI speak with you, and may also believe you forever.” <\/span>Seeing the power of God, hearing God’s voice
\nspeaking his commandments, seeing the fire and realizing the awesome
\nresponsibility of standing in the presence of God, Israel saw their need to put
\ntheir trust in Moses just as the Lord intended for them to do.<\/p>\n
\nto the Israel that God will raise up a prophet like him from among them. <\/span>Just as they desired Moses to listen to YHWH
\nfor them and tell them what he wanted them to do, God will raise up a prophet
\nand put his words in the prophet’s mouth and they are to listen to him. In
\nrecounting their request for a mediator, Moses focuses on the auditory aspect
\nof their encounter, “Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see
\nthis great fire any more, lest I die.”[31]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nSince the words of the prophet are the emphasis of this passage, the focus is
\nmore on hearing God speak instead of seeing him. Israel is able to hear the
\nword of the Lord through a brother like them and not a powerful voice speaking
\nin the midst of a fire that reminds them of the wrath of God that will consume them
\nwhen they fail.<\/p>\n
\nsomeone when the need arose, it was not an office like the king or the priests
\nthat were dynastic in nature. When God wanted to speak to Israel, he would send
\na prophet to do so. <\/p>\n
\nto the Mount Sinai theophany there is only a hint of judgment. The language
\nused to describe the theophany is used elsewhere to describe God’s <\/span>judgment[32]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> but the
\nonly hint that the Israelites feared the wrath of God was their surprise at still
\nbeing alive and their request not to have to face God again so that they would
\nnot be “consumed by fire.” From the Old Testament perspective, God came to
\nIsrael in greatness and glory to institute a covenant with them. He came to
\nmake them a people for his own possession and to invoke fear in them so that
\nthey would keep the covenant and remain forever in the land that he had given
\nthem for an inheritance.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nabout that encounter than they did. He understood that they could not keep the
\ncommandments of God, that even while Moses was acting as their mediator they
\nset up an idol of the gods who brought them out of Egypt, and when they entered
\nthe land the next generation did not drive out the nations before them, they
\nintermarried and worshipped the gods of the other nations. And they continued
\nto do so generation after generation and their kings led the people astray to
\nworship other gods and committed the same heinous sins and even worse than the
\nnations who lived in Canaan and were destroyed by God before them. He
\nunderstood that they did not listen to the prophets that God graciously sent to
\nwarn them and they continued to sin against the God who gave them so much.
\nTheir kings committed great sins and shed the blood of innocents and lead the
\npeople astray so God expelled them from the land. The author of Hebrews
\nunderstood quite well that they would not do all that God had commanded them to
\ndo. He understood that their promise did not last too long.<\/span><\/p>\n