The Bible Course Muestra

Mountain and Covenant – God meets his people

Reflect  

As the epic tale, The Lord of the Rings concludes, an exhausted and weary Frodo and Sam lie in the wreckage of Mordor, resigned to dying there, with home a hopeless dream. Enter the eagles who swoop down and pluck them from danger and carry them safely home.  

What does God remind Israel of in verses 3–6, and why?  

Moses has been here before. At Mount Sinai (Horeb), God met him in a bush. Now he meets with him from a mountain ablaze. This time God is not going to call one person, but a nation. But before calling Israel, he reminds her of the past. They were exhausted and weary, enslaved, oppressed, but God swept in like an eagle and bore them up on his wings. Like vulnerable chicks, the Israelites were surrounded, but God the mother eagle plucks them out of their enemies' hands and carries them to safety.  

How do you view God? God is a passionate mother eagle who will not lose sight of his own. He loves us with a tender, personal but fierce love.  

God reminds before he calls. The order is important. Israel is to be God’s ‘treasured possession … a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’. God reminds Israel of all he’s done so that they’d know their purpose comes from a place of security. Israel’s purpose isn’t to earn the love of God, but because of the love of God.   

With privilege comes responsibility. As the hand-picked conduits of God’s love to the world, Israel is called to show off how good and holy God is. The Israelites are not called to be a subculture, but a new humanity. They are to display what it means to be truly human.  

In verses 12–25, the people prepare and God comes down. What do we learn here about God?  

God is eager to be with his people, and yet Israel is to set limits for all the people around the mountain. Because God is so holy and so perfect, no one could enter his presence and live. We are met with a great tension between his eagerness to be near and his holiness that separates. God had to come down the mountain.  

Respond 

A.W. Tozer once said: ‘What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.’ How do you see God? Does this passage challenge the way you see him?