The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 2 — Section 117

corresponding with the character and circumstances of those to whom it i~ presented. 'l'hore is e. time when it will do to change the rod into a serpent; and so tbere is a time when the so.me people before whom this was done muMt be confronted with all the terrors of 8iue.i. H we.s e. groat defect on the po.rt of the people that tbey harl IH> ade,p1ate sense-it may almost be said they he.d no sense at all-of t~e holiness of God. Upc,n the slightest interference with their self-indulgent desires, they broke out into reproach, almost into rebellion. Therefore, in the very midst of gracious and unfailing provi,lcnces, they must be made to feel that it is a fearful thing as well as a happy thing to fall into the hands of the living God. He is ever loving and desires our good; but he is also supreme in holiness, and in all our thoughts he must be hallowed as one who, when the need appears, can make most terrible manife~tations of his power. We must be alive to God's presence in the terrible and destructive phenomena of the natural world as much as in those which are gentle, attractive, and pleasing. By the terrors of Sinai he intimated to his people, once for all, that he was a Uod not to be trifled with, but one who demanded careful e.nd humble attention at all times when he expressed his will. II. THE PREPARATION FOR IT WHICH HAD TO BE MADE BY THE PEOPLE. The mani- , festation was not to come at once; the people had to wait for it; but waiting was not all. 'l'he waiting indeed was necessary that they might have sufficient opportunity to prepare. Even already it was being signified to them that in external things, and even in such a slight matter as the washing of the clothes, they were to be a holy people. All the :!e.6.lements gathered by the way, all the dust of the conflict with Amalek had to be washed off; and short of water as they had lately been, God, we may be sure, provided an abundant supply before giving this co=and. He required his people through certain symbolic actions to enter into a special state of readiness for himself. Then when they were so far ready by what they did to themselves, they must take further special precautions not to enter on the holy ground. As God took from the dwellers of the earth the house of Jacob to be his holy nation, so he took these steeps of Sinai to be a holy place for himself. Evidently all these preparations being of the character they were, must have produced a state of mind full of expectation and suspense. God fixed the very day of this appearing. This is a thing he can do, sure that the reality will not fall short of the popular notion formed beforehand. But there is another great day of the Lord; and the precise point of this in time no man knoweth. lt was in mercy that the date of the visitation on Sinai was made known to Israel; it is in equal mercy that the great day of the Lord yet remaining is veiled, as to its date, from us. Those who live as they ought to live, trusting in Christ and knowing the indwelling of the Spirit, are doing that which secures present pro.fit and blessedness, makes meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, and at the same time adequate preparation for the trials of the last great day. There is no way .,; being ready for them except to live near to God in prayer and faith and faithfulness in little things. Believe in Christ, and show your faith by your works, and then you are ready whatever comes. III. THE MANIFESTATION ITSELF AND" ITS EFFECTS. Precisely how the manifestation was to take place does not seem to have been indicated beforehand; and even as it stands described by all those terrible terms, thunder, lightning, the smoking and the quaking mount, we feel that the reality must far have transcended the power of human speech to describe. It was truly an unspeakable visitation. The word telling us most is that which says that before this visitation all the people trembled. Evidently it had an overwhelming effect upon them. It is made perfectly plain that when God cannot draw men by love, he can hold them fast by fear. If they will not go like invited children in his way, they are shaken nolentes volentes out of their own. Whatever else men may refuse to God, love, worship, service,-this at all events is ensured, that they shall"be torri.6.ed before him. They he.ve no choice. The earth cannot but quake when he sets to work the mighty hidden powurs underneath. And so the most atheistic life must acknowledge by its disturbed emotions that there is a power _it cannot resist. The boasted discipline and sovereignty of human reason count for nothing then. The earth- quake without gets its duo result from the quaking heart within._ Man may set up his will against God'B will· but that only means that he refuses obedience; he rnmiot keep God from shakincr him 'to the very foundations of his being. Though the people iu a few months left Sinai, yet Sinai in a very important sense followed tl:em. 'l'he tire that. went out from the Lord and devoured Nadab and Ab1b11 • the tire that burned at I,,... THE DOOK OF EXODUS. [ en. x1~ 1'3-20.