This was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. More than that, this was a once-in-the-history-of-humanity kind of thing. The people were prepared. They fasted and prayed. They washed themselves and their clothing. With hope, caution, and anticipation, they looked up the mountain to see what God would do. Then God spoke. This mountain was Sinai.

We most commonly think of Mount Sinai the way it was depicted in the old “Ten Commandments” movie, with Charlton Heston bringing the tablets down the mountain. But take a closer look at Exodus 19-20 and Deuteronomy 5. All the people experience the presence of God, and they hear his voice booming like the blast of a ram’s horn and peals of thunder. How does being in the presence of God affect the people? Look at Exodus 20:19: “And they said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen. But don’t let God speak directly to us, or we will die!’” This is what the mountain represents in the Bible: God comes in power and might with instruction and warning. If the people listen to God, they will live, but their disobedience will lead to their deaths.

Matthew and the Exodus story fit together like a key and lock. A rescuer is born (Moses and Jesus), and God sends a message of deliverance and calling (Moses’ burning bush and Joseph’s angel). A tyrannical king (Pharaoh and Herod) fears and kills Hebrew infants, but there is an escape to a foreign land with the riches of the foreigners (Egyptians and Magi). The journey passes through water (Red Sea and Baptism) and the wilderness, leading to a mountain, where God speaks. The content of Jesus’ message is the law that God gave through Moses.

The books of Exodus and Matthew are like dance partners following the same steps to this culmination, and their importance cannot be overstated because nothing was more important to the Jewish way of life than God’s law. When Jesus says about the law, “I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill,” he is taking the core story that defines the chosen people and their core practice and source of all their traditions, and Jesus is saying that it all points to him.

Jesus turns to the people who want to maintain the status quo, and he pulls them out of their old traditions because the law is being fulfilled. Jesus turns to the people who want to cast the word of God aside to create a new order in their image, and Jesus says, “Your righteousness must be greater than the scribes and the Pharisees” (Matthew 5:20). Jesus is building a new thing, and everything before it was laid as its foundation.

Prayer:

Righteous God, all of history bends under your guiding hand. It points here—to this man standing on this mountain. The one greater than Abraham and Moses, who spoke every last atom into being, is speaking to a huddled mass of humanity. Thousands gathered to hear something, anything encouraging. None can grasp the full depth of what you are doing, and I can’t either unless you open the eyes of my heart. Let me see you. Amen.

Reflection:

  • Read Exodus 19-20 and Deuteronomy 5. Contrast standing in God’s presence with and without Jesus.
  • What does it look like to be more righteous than the Pharisees?
  • How does Jesus accomplish the purpose of the law and the prophets?