Exodus 19:21  And the LORD said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish.
22  And let the priests also, which come near to the LORD, sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break forth upon them.
23  And Moses said unto the LORD, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.
24  And the LORD said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the LORD, lest he break forth upon them.
25  So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them.

In this passage we see the difference between the care that God has for man and the care that man has for his fellow man. We have already noted that God is holy. Man is not and man cannot stand in the presence of God unless He provides some way for him to come before Him.
In the Old Testament, God provided the means of coming before Him through animal sacrifices. However, those animal sacrifices needed to be brought by faith in the promises of God. There were restrictions even then. Only the high priest had access into the holiest place. Only Moses could come before God on occasions such as the one we are reading about. The people needed to bring their sacrifices to a true priest and the priest needed to offer it up to God. God has a standard that must be known and followed.
In Genesis 3:15 God promised that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. From there God continued to reveal what that promise meant. At the time of our text, the nation had already seen the significance of the lamb that was slain as the substitute for the sins of the people.
The Old Testament saints believed in the promise of God and looked forward to the day when that seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. That seed is Jesus Christ. He demonstrated His power over sin and death. He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. He laid down His life and shed His blood to provide the only way for man to be forgiven and saved.
In our text, the LORD was going to give the nation of Israel some very important laws to help them to see their need to trust in Him. He was going to give those laws to Moses, His representative. It was important for the people to keep some distance between themselves and this holy God. God knew how impatient we as people can be. He also knows how curious we can be. He did not want anyone to die because of their disobedience to His clear commands.
The danger was that the people might break through the boundaries that God had established. God knew they were not spiritually fit to come near to Him. He did not want anyone to assume they were.
Even the priests needed to keep themselves at a distance from the LORD. The priests were to be a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Great High Priest. The priests were to be holy men who studied the law and taught the law to the people. They were to walk in the fear of the LORD. However, they were still human. Only Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest was and is free from sin.
In verse 23 Moses still had some things to learn. He wanted to argue with God about His commands. Moses had already conveyed God’s laws regarding the mount, to the people. He assumed that having told them, they would obey. Moses did not see the seriousness of anyone breaking these specific laws.
God knows the heart of man. He knows how quick we are to disobey clear commands. That is why He wrote them down. That is why He has preserved them for every generation. In our text, the laws of sanctification were being revealed. The laws of God’s holiness were also being laid out.
It was very important to God, that the people demonstrate the proper reverence for the LORD. Moses saw it as an unnecessary thing to go back and repeat what he had already told the people.
God knew better. He did not allow Moses to argue with Him. He shut him down. He commanded Moses to get back down to the people and remind them to stay away from mount Sinai. Moses and Aaron were to come up into the mount, but the other priests and the people needed to stay away from the mount. God has His order of things. Moses had a special place with God. Aaron also had a special place, but Moses was in a category all by himself.
The people needed to understand that and they needed to accept that. They needed to get it into their heads that they could not go everywhere Moses went. They could not do everything Moses could do.
God was not scared of anyone getting too close to Him and overpowering Him. He was concerned that people would die because they disregarded His holiness and their unholiness.
In the New Testament we are taught that there is one Mediator between God and man. That Mediator is Jesus Christ. We cannot come to God on our own. We are taught that we must come in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must come in the name of the true Son of God. The charismatics have an imaginary God and an imaginary Jesus. They play religion and their game is very costly to their souls.
The Catholics have their false mediator and they call her Mary. They claim she is the “co-redemptrix” with Jesus Christ. The Catholics too will discover too late that their mediator cannot help them. There will be no Catholics in heaven. Catholics can and must repent toward God and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. If they do, they will no longer trust in Catholicism. They will trust in the true God.
The LORD was very concerned in our text, that the people learn to reverence Him. He is still very concerned about that today.
Moses was rebuked by the LORD, and he obeyed Him. He went down and spoke to the people. He repeated the commands already given to them. This was not a waste of time. This was necessary for the well being of the people. It was also important for Moses to obey God’s commands. God has no idle words. Every Word of God is pure and necessary. It is important for man to listen to Him and to heed His Word.
Pastor Bartel