e. All
the people heard the voice. They saw "that God doth talk with man, and
he liveth." They begin to hope. But immediately they bethink them that,
if they hear the voice of the Lord any more, they will die. Thus does a
guilty conscience contradict itself! Again, the people are invited to
come up into the mount when the trumpet shall sound long. Yet, when the
voice of the trumpet sounds long and waxes louder and louder, they are
charged not to come up unto the Lord, lest He break forth upon them. All
this appearance of inconsistency is intended to symbolize that the
people's desire to come to God struggled in vain against their sense of
guilt, and that God's purpose of revealing Himself to them was
contending in vain with the hindrances that arose from their sins. The
whole assembly heard the voice of the Lord proclaiming the Ten
Commandments. Conscience-smitten, they could not endure to hear more.
They gat them into their tents, and Moses alone stood on the mountain
with God, to receive at His mouth all the statutes and judgments which
they should do and observe in the land which He would give them to
possess. The Apostle singles out for remark the command that, if a beast
touched the mountain, it should be stoned to death. The people, he says,
could not endure this command. Why not this? It connected the terrors of
Sinai with man's guilt. According to the Old Testament idea of Divine
retribution, the beasts of the earth fall under the curse due to man.
When God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the days of Noah,
He said, "I will destroy both man and beast."[367] When, again, He
blessed Noah after the waters were dried up, He said, "I, behold, I
establish My covenant with you and with every living creature that is
with you."[368] Similarly, the command to put to death any beast that
might haply touch the mountain revealed to the people that God was
dealing with them as sinners. Moses himself, the mediator of the
covenant, who aspired to behold the glory of God, feared exceedingly.
But his fear came upon him when he looked and beheld that the people had
sinned against the Lord their God[369] and made them a molten calf. His
fear was not the prostration of nervous terror. Remembering, when he had
descended, the awful sights and sounds witnessed on the mountain, he was
afraid of the anger and hot displeasure of God against the people, who
had done wickedly in the sight of the Lord. Almost every word the
Apostle