16. What did God propose to encamped Israel at Horeb, and what was the purpose thereof?

¹⁶ It marked a special day when the Israelites came, in the third lunar month (Sivan) after leaving Egypt, into the wilderness of Sinai and encamped at the base of the “mountain of the true God,” Horeb. That is where Jehovah told Moses that they were to serve him. (Exodus 3:1, 12; 19:1) The prophet Moses was now called upon to act as the mediator between God and the encamped people. Jehovah now proposed a covenant between Himself and the people and set forth the purpose of the covenant. To Moses, up on Mount Horeb, He said: “This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and to tell the sons of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, that I might carry you on wings of eagles and bring you to myself. And now if you will strictly obey my voice and will indeed keep my covenant, then you will certainly become my special property out of all other peoples, because the whole earth belongs to me. And you yourselves will become to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’”—Exodus 19:3-6.

17. What procedure shows whether Jehovah forced the covenant upon the saved Israelites?

¹⁷ The Most High God did not force this covenant upon the Israelites. He left them free to choose whether to enter a covenant with him or not, even though he had saved them from Egypt and the Red Sea. Become a “special property” to Jehovah? Become “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” to Him? Yes, that is what the Israelites then desired to do. Hence, when Moses told the representative men of the people about God’s proposed covenant, then, as we read, “all the people answered unanimously and said: ‘All that Jehovah has spoken we are willing to do.’” Moses now reported the decision of the people to Jehovah, who then proceeded with the establishing of the covenant as agreed to.—Exodus 19:7-9.

18. On the third day therefrom, what did God declare to Israel?

¹⁸ On the third day after that Jehovah, by means of his angel on Mount Sinai there in Horeb, declared to the assembled Israelites the Ten Words or Ten Commandments. These commandments we can read for ourselves in Exodus 20:2-17.

A GREATER MEDIATOR FORETOLD

19. (a) Because of the spectacle, what did the Israelites request of Moses? (b) What did Moses say in response?

¹⁹ The occasion was a spectacular one! “Now all the people were seeing the thunders and the lightning flashes and the sound of the horn and the mountain smoking. When the people got to see it, then they quivered and stood at a distance. And they began to say to Moses: ‘You speak with us, and let us listen; but let not God speak with us for fear we may die.’” (Exodus 20:18, 19) The response of God in compliance with this request of the frightened Israelites is set out more fully in Deuteronomy 18:14-19. There, after telling the Israelites that God had not given them magicians and diviners as go-betweens between Him and them, Moses continued on to say:

“But as for you, Jehovah your God has not given you anything like this. A prophet from your own midst, from your brothers, like me, is what Jehovah your God will raise up for you—to him you people should listen—in response to all that you asked of Jehovah your God in Horeb on the day of the congregation, saying, ‘Do not let me hear again the voice of Jehovah my God, and this great fire do not let me see anymore, that I may not die.’ At that Jehovah said to me, ‘They have done well in speaking what they did. A prophet I shall raise up for them from the midst of their brothers, like you; and I shall indeed put my words in his mouth, and he will certainly speak to them all that I shall command him. And it must occur that the man who will not listen to my words that he will speak in my name, I shall myself require an account from him.’”

25. Upon whom was the Law covenant made binding, and by the application of what to it?

²⁵ Let us be sure to note that the Law covenant with Israel was made valid, solemnly binding upon the parties to the covenant, by the applying of the blood of the sacrificial victims. The record in Exodus 24:6-8 tells us: “Then Moses [as the mediator] took half the blood and put it in bowls, and half the blood he sprinkled upon the altar. Finally he took the book of the covenant and read it in the ears of the people. Then they said: ‘All that Jehovah has spoken we are willing to do and be obedient.’ So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it upon the people and said: ‘Here is the blood of the covenant that Jehovah has concluded with you as respects all these words.’”—Note also Exodus 24:3.

26. What was represented by the applying of the blood to God’s altar, and what by the sprinkling of the people with the blood?

²⁶ The altar that Moses had built at the base of Mount Sinai represented Jehovah God, to whom the sacrifices had been offered upon this altar. Hence, by the applying of half the blood of the animal victims to the altar, Jehovah God was representatively brought into the covenant and bound by it as a party to it. On the other hand, by the sprinkling of the other part of the sacrificial blood upon the people, they also were brought into the covenant as the other party thereto and were solemnly bound by it to fulfill those terms of it that applied to them. Thus by the blood the two parties, God and the nation of Israel, were united in a covenant.

27. What, in connection with the establishment of the Law covenant, proves that the Israelites did not walk into it ignorantly or under compulsion?

²⁷ The nation of Israel did not walk into this covenant ignorantly or under pressure and compulsion. The day before the solemnizing of the covenant with blood they had had God’s words and decisions related to them and had accepted these. As Exodus 24:3 states: “Then Moses came and related to the people all the words of Jehovah and all the judicial decisions, and all the people answered with one voice and said: ‘All the words that Jehovah has spoken we are willing to do.’” The following day, after Moses read the “book of the covenant” in the hearing of all the people, they repeated their acceptance of God’s Law, after which they were sprinkled with the sacrificial blood. Now it was obligatory upon the whole nation of Israel to do what God had stated when proposing the covenant, saying: “Now if you will strictly obey my voice and will indeed keep my covenant, then . . . ”—Exodus 19:5, 6.

28. Which party to the Law covenant was put in question as to loyalty to its terms, and, to be holy, what was required?

²⁸ Almighty God could be expected to be faithful to His part of this bilateral covenant, for He does not change. (Malachi 3:6) It was the Israelites who were put in question. Would they be loyal to God in carrying out what they expressed willingness to do? Would they be among the loyal ones that were to be gathered to Jehovah, in fulfillment of Psalm 50:4, 5: “He calls to the heavens above and to the earth so as to execute judgment on his people: ‘Gather to me my loyal ones, those concluding my covenant over sacrifice’”? (NW; NEB) Not as individuals, but as a whole people, as a nation, they had made this Law covenant over a set of sacrifices that were for all the people. Would they prove themselves to be “a holy nation”? To do this they must keep clear from this world.