1. The general terms of the eternal covenant were delivered by God directly to Israel before the writing of the first set of tablets.

2. Moses reported the general terms of the covenant to the people and they agreed to those terms.

COMMENTARY ON AGREEING TO DO WHAT GOD SAID: By their agreement, they effectively said they would enter into the eternal covenant with God. This means that they would obey God’s voice forever — no matter what he might say. This is important because what Israel responded to was a very short statement by God and could not possibly include everything that he might ever say to them.

In effect, this agreement/covenant was open-ended in the sense that it had no limitations on what God might say. If Israel should ever fail to listen to God’s voice and obey it, however, Israel would have broken covenant with God and demonstrated that it is not created in God’s image because it has changed its mind in contrast to God who does not change.

This story still has application for Jews and Christians who claim to love God and claim to have faith to obey him. When they choose to listen to false prophets, and practice religion instead of listening to God’s spoken voice, they break the covenant they have made with God. In other words, they sin.

COMMENTARY ON ENTERING INTO COVENANTS: Several times God warned Israel not to make covenants with surrounding religious nations so they would not sin by serving their gods. This warning is still valid in these modern times because all scripture is useful for training in righteousness for everyone. Therefore, we in these modern times should not agree to serve any of the gods/idols of any religion — including Judaism and Christianity. The practical application of this warning is that people should not join any religion or even informally attach themselves to a religion.

3. God promised that he would appear to his people and speak to them spiritually (i.e. in a thick cloud).

COMMENTARY ON CLOUDS: God says that he lives in clouds. He also says that his home and his throne is in heaven. This is why people commonly think that God is somewhere up in the sky.

STUDY TIP: See God is a Puzzle.

When we recognize that the kingdom of heaven/god is within people, and that he lives in people (i.e. in their hearts), however, we must conclude that references to clouds are also symbolic references to that invisible, amorphous place within humans that is called spirit and heart. Thus, when God refers to clouds, he is symbolically referring to New Covenant disciples who have clean, pure hearts. God speaks through these people who are also identified as true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests, warriors, apostles and witnesses. God anoints and sends these people to speak for him. That is how God speaks from clouds: he speaks through people.

The people God sends are his cloud of witnesses. But these witnesses are not just passive watcher/witnesses. They are active, speaking witnesses who testify/speak about what they have heard. They are witnesses in the same sense that people who testify in court about what they have seen or heard. These witness testify to the world of religion about what they have heard when they hear God’s Spoken Word.

This symbolism of witnesses explains how God and Jesus come in clouds. Literal interpreters of the Bible wrongly believe that Jesus will come in literal clouds in an event called the “second coming” of Christ which is sometimes equated with the “day of the Lord”. These interpretations always fail for lack of understanding of how God refers to time, for understanding of the symbolism of clouds, and for lack of understanding of end times. Thus, religious people imagine that the second coming and the day of the Lord are unique, one-time events that are yet to come. Such interpretations cannot be reconciled with scriptures that talk about “today” and promise that all scripture is useful for training in righteousness.

If the second coming of Christ and the day of the Lord are future events, they have no practical application for people today. The correct way to interpret these events, therefore, is as here-and-now events when God’s chosen ones come as anointed true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests, warriors and witnesses to preach/share/teach the words God has impressed on their hearts to religious people who do not have ears to hear God’s voice. This is what it means to be a witness: Hear God’s voice and report what you hear to others. Witnesses are not passive observers. They are active teachers and watchmen on the walls who call out warnings of danger to religious people who do not listen to God’s spoken voice. This is the essence of sharing the gospel. This is the understanding of clouds of witnesses: New Covenant disciples reporting to others the words that they hear God say to their hearts. It is important to keep clear, however, that these words are not the words of the literal Bible that are preached by religious leaders. Rather the words are God’s words spoken through New Covenant disciples (i.e. clouds). The words they speak are the true gospel.

4. In preparation for seeing God and listening to his voice, Israel had to consecrate itself.

COMMENTARY ON CONSECRATION: The Hebrew word “qadash”, which is translated in English as “consecrate” means to be set apart, make holy, dedicate and sanctify.

It is closely related to another very common Biblical word “qodesh” which is most often translated into English as “holy.” It appears nearly two hundred times in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers.

STUDY TIP: See this link for understanding of holiness.

Looking at these words in the Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon, we find that qadash is a verb, and that qodesh is a noun that is symbolically applied to people after they have been consecrated. Looking at scriptures with qadash, we find that consecration is something that people do to themselves, or is done to them by other people or by God. We also find that in several scriptures, the act of consecration and sanctification is applied to the Sabbath.

5. Israel was warned that it should not use any physical effort to try to approach God.

COMMENTARY ON APPROACHING GOD: All religions require that people use some aspect of their physical bodies to approach God in prayer, worship or service. This contrasts with New Covenant disciples (i.e. true worshipers) who worship in spirit and truth — not with their physical bodies in high places (i.e. mountains or temples).

6. After people cried out in repentance for their participation in religion (i.e. trumpet blast), God spoke to the people spiritually (i.e. smoke and thunder).

COMMENTARY ON REPENTANCE: Repentance for the sin of religion is necessary for deliverance from slavery to religion.

7. God warned the people again that he would retaliate against anyone who tried to reach out and touch him through physical effort (i.e. flesh).

8. God spoke the summary of his commandments spiritually (i.e. through thunder, lighting, smoke.

COMMENTARY ON GOD’S VOICE: This is symbolic language for what it is like to hear God’s voice. Although his voice is like a whisper of the wind, the impact on the one who hears is like thunder and lighting when God gives revelation about spiritual truth found in the symbolic language of the written words of the Bible.

See God’s Written Word and God’s Spoken Voice for more about the sound of God’s voice.

9. The people heard God’s spiritual voice in the thunder, lighting and smoke but became afraid, retreated from God, and said, in effect, that they wanted a human (i.e. a prophet like Moses) to listen to God and report what God has said to them. This is a prophetic picture of how religious people are: They prefer to have a human prophet speak to them instead of listening to God’s voice. This seemingly incidental story provides the history behind the affection that religious people have for false prophets. New Covenant disciples, however, only listen to God’s voice.

10. The first pair of tablets was written by the finger of God and placed inside the Ark of the Covenant which symbolizes the heart of New Covenant disciples.  God’s laws inside the heart symbolizes the New Covenant which provides that God’s laws are written on the hearts of New Covenant disciples and that God speaks to his people directly by his spirit.

11.  The second set chiseled by the hand of Moses is placed beside the Ark of the Covenant symbolizes the Bible written by man. As a work of man, and not of God, it does not deserve to be included in the Ark of the Covenant. These laws are not written on the heart like the laws of the New Covenant written by God. They represent religious laws made by man.

• The ark was made out of wood which symbolizes man, and overlaid with gold which, in this case, symbolizes God’s glory. The ark is what God sees when he sees man because God does not look at the external man but looks at eternal things (i.e. man’s heart).
• The cover of the ark is called the mercy seat or the judgment seat. This is where God sits when he looks at when he judges man to see what is in his heart.
• The testimony of the Ark of the Testimony is God’s word given to Moses to be placed in the ark. The testimony is another term to describe God’s laws written on the hearts of New Covenant disciples.