THE LORD SENDS MOSES TO MOUNT HOREB

EXODUS 16–40

Following the dramatic exit from Egypt, our expectation is that the Lord would speed Israel on toward the Promised Land of Canaan. That was the land from which they had come many years earlier and the land promised to Abraham and his descendants. But rather than leading them on a direct route to Canaan, the Lord first instructed Moses to take the people away from the Promised Land to Mount Horeb for a reason.

The Israelites had personally experienced the Lord’s deliverance out of Egypt. In the third month after leaving Egypt, Moses brought the people into the desert of Sinai and camped in front of Mount Horeb. It was there that the Lord provided Moses with special instructions and preparations for consecrating the people (Exod. 19:1–15). On the morning of the third day of the consecration process, Moses “led the people out of the camp to meet with God” (Exod. 19:17). Why would the Lord want Moses to take the people out from Egypt to Mount Horeb before bringing them to the Promised Land?

This bush, growing in the courtyard of Saint Catherine’s Monastery, is traditionally thought to be the burning bush seen by Moses.

Years earlier, when Moses killed the Egyptian overseer, he had fled to Midianite territory, married, and served his father-in-law. Some time later, while tending the sheep of his father-in-law, he came to Mount Horeb, which the Bible describes as “the mountain of God” (Exod. 3:1). It was here that the Lord appeared to Moses in the form of a burning bush. At that encounter the Lord told Moses to remove his sandals, for the ground on which he stood was holy.

Suggested site of Mount Sinai (Mount Horeb) is identified with Gebel Katherina, the highest peak in Sinai at 2,642 meters (8,668 feet) above sea level.

It was in this first encounter at Mount Horeb that the Lord revealed himself to Moses as “I AM”—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses was then instructed to bring the people out of Egypt (Exod. 3:1–14). The sign to Moses that the Lord had sent him for this task was this: “When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain” (Exod. 3:12).

Thus, as instructed, Moses returned to Egypt. Upon meeting with the Egyptian royal family, his request was not to live in Egypt but rather to take the Israelites out of Egypt to worship the God of Abraham (e.g., Exod. 9:1). Because the pharaoh’s heart was hardened, it ultimately took ten plagues before he allowed the Israelites to leave. After the plague on the firstborn and following the Passover (Exod. 11–12), Moses was finally able to lead the Israelites to Mount Horeb so they too could meet with “I AM” (Exod. 19:16–20) as Moses had done earlier.

Here in the rugged southern Sinai region the Lord used the uplifted mountains as a place from which to project his presence. When we stand among the lofty peaks of the Sinai mountains, we realize how fragile we really are. We know that the mountains of Sinai had that effect upon ancient people because their records indicate their belief that the southern Sinai was home to the Egyptian idols.9 Their idols had no power before the one and only true living God, who revealed himself and provided the law to the Israelites at Mount Horeb.

The Lord sent Moses to Mount Horeb for a reason. One might think that Moses would have been assured of his mission by the rod used in the various plagues against Egyptian idolatry. But it wasn’t the rod or the miracles that were Moses’s sign that the Lord had sent him to deliver the people out of Egypt; it was his return to Mount Horeb where he had first met “I AM.”

Saint Catherine’s Monastery located at the base of Gebel Musa, adjacent to Gebel Katherina.

Mount Sinai/Mount Horeb in the Sinai