Sinai
Mountain of God
Mount Sinai is in Arabia; this we learn in Galatians 4:22-26, 31: “For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” Mount Sinai corresponds with the old covenant, law, and slavery; by contrast, the New Jerusalem above corresponds with the new covenant and freedom. In Galations 5 we get more clarification: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. . . . For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love. . . . For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. . . . But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, withchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of god. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. and they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. . . . Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. (Galations 5:1, 5-6, 13-14, 18-24, 26, KJV)
This wider context really allows us who are under the new covenant of grace to look back at Mount Sinai and appreciate the freedom found in the New Jerusalem—the Jerusalem above that will come down out of heaven at the appointed time. What kind of freedom? The freedom to serve one another by love.Mount Sinai (or Horeb, the mountain of God) is the place where Moses saw the angel of the LORD appear in a flame of fire in a bush. The angel of the LORD spoke to Moses, indicating that He was the God of Moses’s fathers—that is to say, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—and that He had come down to deliver His people out of the hand of the Egyptians. The angel of the LORD then stated (prophesied) that when Moses has brought the people out of Egypt, he will serve God upon that very mountain (Horeb/Sinai/mountain of God). The angel of the LORD said “I AM THAT I AM,” and told Moses that His name is I AM. (Exodus 3)
When the children of Israel pitched their camp in Rephidim, which had no drinking water, the people murmured against Moses. The LORD told Moses He would stand upon the rock in Horeb, that Moses should smite the rock, and then water would come out of the rock as a provision for the people. And Moses smote the rock in Horeb, using a rod of God, and water came out. Then Amalek came, and the men of Israel fought Amalek in Rephidim, whilst Moses and Aaron and Hur watched from the top of the hill (Aaron and Hur supporting Moses’s outstretched hands). (Exodus 17)
In another instance, the LORD came to Moses in a thick cloud, telling Moses to sanctify the people for two days, and to make sure the people wash their clothes so as to be ready for the third day—for on the third day, the LORD Himself would come down onto Mount Sinai in the sight of the people. Moses was instructed to set bounds around the mountain so the people would not go onto the mountain or even touch the border of it, lest they be put to death; and the LORD instructed that when the trumpet sounds for a long time the people could then come up onto the mount. Sure enough, on the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, a thick cloud was on the mountain, and the trumpet sound was so loud that all the people trembled at the hearing of it. Mount Sinai was smoking because the LORD had descended on it in fire, and the mountain was quaking greatly! God then spoke the Ten Commandments. Moses told the people not to fear, and they stood afar off, and Moses drew close to the thick darkness where God was—putting some of the description together, it would appear that the LORD was in fire in the midst of a thick, dark cloud, on His mountain. (Exodus 19-20) David recalled this event in Psalms 68:7-8: “O god, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness; Selah: the earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.” (KJV) Speaking of moving mountains, Paul noted in 1 Corinthians 13:2 that even if he had the gift of prophecy, knew all mysteries, had all knowledge, and had all the faith necessary to remove mountains, yet he would be nothing if he had not love (or charity, as it is rendered in the King James Version). Though Paul, being only a man, could not have all knowledge, his rhetorical point is important because it underscores the centrality of love, which we remember from the Galations 5 exhortation to love thy neighbor as thyself.