(16-20) Thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud.--Compare with this description that of Deut. (Deuteronomy 4:11-12), which is fuller in some respects:--"Ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. And the Lord spake unto you out of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice." The phenomena accumulated to impress the people seem to have been loud thunder, fierce flashes of lightning, a fire that streamed up from the mountain to the middle of the sky, dense volumes of smoke producing an awful and weird darkness, a trembling of the mountain as by a continuous earthquake, a sound like the blare of a trumpet loud and prolonged, and then finally a clear penetrating voice. So awful a manifestation has never been made at any other place or time, nor will be until the consummation of all things. To regard it as a mere "storm of thunder and lightning," or as "an earthquake with volcanic eruptions," is to miss altogether the meaning of the author, and to empty his narrative of all its natural significance.
The voice of the trumpet.--Heb., a voice of a trumpet. The trumpet's blare is the signal of a herald calling attention to a proclamation about to be made. At the last day the coming of Christ is to be announced by "the trump of God" (1 Thessalonians 4:16). In the Apocalypse angels are often represented as sounding with trumpets (Revelation 8:7-8; Revelation 8:10; Revelation 8:12; Revelation 9:1; Revelation 9:14, &c.) when some great event is about to occur.
Verses 16-20. - THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD UPON SINAI. All was ready. The fence had been made (ver. 23); the people had purified themselves - at least so far as externals went. The third day was come - there was a breathless hush of expectation. Then suddenly, in the morning, the presence manifested itself. "There were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud" (ver. 16); "and Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace and the whole mount quaked greatly" (ver. 18) Or, as the scene is elsewhere (Deuteronomy 4:11, 12) described by Moses - "Ye came near and stood under the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. And the Lord spoke unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice." The phenomena were not a mere "storm of thunder and lightning, whereof Moses took advantage to persuade the people that they had heard God's voice" - not "an earthquake with volcanic eruptions" - not even these two combined - but a real theophany, in which amid the phenomena of storm and tempest, and fire and smoke, and thick darkness, and hearings of the ground as by an earthquake shock, first the loud blast of a trumpet sounded long commanding attention, and then a clear penetrating voice, like that of a man, made itself heard in distinctly articulated words, audible to the whole multitude, and recognised by them as superhuman - as "the voice of God" (Deuteronomy 4:33). It is in vain to seek to minimise, and to rationalise the scene, and tone it down into something not supernatural. The only honest course is either to accept it as a plain record of plain (albeit miraculous) facts, or to reject it altogether as the fiction of a romancer. Verse 16. - There were thunders. Literally, "voices," as in Exodus 9:23; but there can be no doubt that "thunder" is meant. A thick cloud. Compare above, ver. 9, and the comment ad loc. The voice of the trumpet. Literally, "a trumpet's voice." The word used for "trumpet" is not the same as in ver. 13; but the variation does not seem to have any importance.
19:16-25 Never was there such a sermon preached, before or since, as this which was preached to the church in the wilderness. It might be supposed that the terrors would have checked presumption and curiosity in the people; but the hard heart of an unawakened sinner can trifle with the most terrible threatenings and judgments. In drawing near to God, we must never forget his holiness and greatness, nor our own meanness and pollution. We cannot stand in judgment before him according to his righteous law. The convinced transgressor asks, What must I do to be saved? and he hears the voice, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. The Holy Ghost, who made the law to convince of sin, now takes of the things of Christ, and shows them to us. In the gospel we read, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. We have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Through him we are justified from all things, from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses. But the Divine law is binding as a rule of life. The Son of God came down from heaven, and suffered poverty, shame, agony, and death, not only to redeem us from its curse, but to bind us more closely to keep its commands.
And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, The sixth of the month, according to the Targum of Jonathan, and so Jarchi; on which day, as the Jews generally say (t), the law was given, and which, they also observe, was a sabbath day: yea, they are sometimes so very particular as to fix the hour of the day, and say (u), it was the sixth hour of the day, or twelve o'clock at noon, that Israel received the decalogue, and at the ninth hour, at three o'clock in the afternoon, returned to their stations:
there were thunders, and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount; which were to awaken the attention of the people to what they were to hear and receive, and to strike their minds with an awe of the divine Being; and to add to the solemnity of the day, and the service of it; and to signify the obscurity and terror of the legal dispensation, and the wrath and curse that the transgressors the law might expect, even an horrible tempest of divine vengeance, see Hebrews 12:18.
and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; or, "exceeding strong" (w); being blown by the mighty angels, and by ten thousand them, with whom the Lord now descended:
so that all the people that was in the camp trembled, at the sound of it, it was so loud and terrible, and it so pierced their ears and their hearts: a different effect the Gospel trumpet the jubilee trumpet, the joyful sound of love, grace, and mercy, has upon sensible sinners, and on true believers: the law with its curses terrifies, the Gospel with its blessings comforts.
(t) T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 86. 2. & Yoma, fol. 4. 2. Seder Olam Rabba, c. 5. p. 18. (u) Pirke Eliezer, c. 46. (w) "fortis valde", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus; so Ainsworth.
The voice of the trumpet.--Heb., a voice of a trumpet. The trumpet's blare is the signal of a herald calling attention to a proclamation about to be made. At the last day the coming of Christ is to be announced by "the trump of God" (1 Thessalonians 4:16). In the Apocalypse angels are often represented as sounding with trumpets (Revelation 8:7-8; Revelation 8:10; Revelation 8:12; Revelation 9:1; Revelation 9:14, &c.) when some great event is about to occur.
there were thunders, and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount; which were to awaken the attention of the people to what they were to hear and receive, and to strike their minds with an awe of the divine Being; and to add to the solemnity of the day, and the service of it; and to signify the obscurity and terror of the legal dispensation, and the wrath and curse that the transgressors the law might expect, even an horrible tempest of divine vengeance, see Hebrews 12:18.
and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; or, "exceeding strong" (w); being blown by the mighty angels, and by ten thousand them, with whom the Lord now descended:
so that all the people that was in the camp trembled, at the sound of it, it was so loud and terrible, and it so pierced their ears and their hearts: a different effect the Gospel trumpet the jubilee trumpet, the joyful sound of love, grace, and mercy, has upon sensible sinners, and on true believers: the law with its curses terrifies, the Gospel with its blessings comforts.
(t) T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 86. 2. & Yoma, fol. 4. 2. Seder Olam Rabba, c. 5. p. 18. (u) Pirke Eliezer, c. 46. (w) "fortis valde", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus; so Ainsworth.