John Calvin Commentary Exodus 19

In the third month. This chapter informs us by what means God made the people attentive and teachable when He would proclaim His laws.

Indeed, He had previously delivered the rule of a just and devout life. But by writing the Law on tablets, and then adding its explanation, He not only encompassed the perfect doctrine of piety and righteousness, but also confirmed it by a solemn rite, so that the recognition of it might remain and flourish in future times.

This is the main and principal thing that the prophets celebrate in the redemption of the people. In this, as in a mirror, they present for consideration the image of the renewed Church: that God made known His testimonies to His redeemed and bound the people, whom He had purchased, to Himself by a new covenant.

Indeed, He had made an eternal and inviolable covenant with Abraham. But because it had fallen into disregard through the passage of time and human carelessness, it was necessary for it to be renewed.

To this end, then, it was engraved on the tablets of stone and written in a book, so that the marvelous grace God had conferred on the descendants of Abraham should never sink into oblivion.

But in the first place, we must observe that although the Law is a testimony of God’s gracious adoption, teaches that salvation is based on His mercy, and invites people to call upon God with sure confidence, yet it has this peculiar property: it covenants conditionally.

Therefore, it is worthwhile to distinguish between the general doctrine delivered by Moses and the special command he received.

Moses everywhere exhorts people, by holding out the hope of pardon, to reconcile themselves to God. Whenever he prescribes rites of atonement, he undoubtedly encourages miserable sinners to have a good hope and bears witness that God will be merciful to them.

Meanwhile, this office was separately imposed on him: to demand perfect righteousness from the people, and to promise them a reward, as if by agreement, on no other condition than that they should fulfill whatever was commanded them, but to threaten and denounce vengeance against them if they ever wandered from the way.

Indeed, it is certain that the same covenant, of which Abraham had been the minister and keeper, was repeated to his descendants through the agency of Moses. Yet Paul declares that the Law was added because of transgressions (Galatians 3:19), and he opposes it to the promise given to Abraham. This is because, as he is discussing the peculiar office, power, and end of the Law, he separates it from the promises of grace.

With the same meaning, he elsewhere calls it the ministration of death and the letter that killeth (2 Corinthians 3:6–7). Again, in another place, he states that it worketh wrath (Romans 4:15); as if by its accusation it inflicted a deadly wound on the human race and left them no hope of salvation.

In this preparation, then, by which God instructed the people to reverence and fear, a twofold object may be perceived. Since people's minds are partly swollen with pride and haughtiness, and partly stupefied by indifference, they must be either humbled or awakened to receive divine teaching with the attention it deserves. Nor can anyone be prepared to obey God unless he is bowed down and subdued by fear.

Moreover, they begin to be afraid when God’s majesty is displayed to inspire them with terror. Therefore, let the fact that the authority of the Law was confirmed by many signs and wonders teach us that this is the beginning of piety and faith in God’s children.

To this end also, God shook the earth to arouse people's hearts from their slumber or to correct them by taming their pride. This object is common to the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel, and to the whole sum of divine teaching, to which due honor is never paid unless God’s majesty first shines forth, by which He casts down all the haughtiness of the world.

But we must not overlook what I recently asserted to be peculiar to the Law, namely, to fill people's minds with fear and, by setting forth its terrible curse, to cut off the hope of salvation. For, while it consists of three parts, each of them tends to the same end: that all should acknowledge themselves deserving of the judgment of eternal death. This is because in it God sustains no other character than that of a Judge, who, after rigidly exacting what is due to Him, promises only a just reward and threatens transgressors with vengeance.

But who will be found to be a perfect keeper of the Law? Indeed, it is certain that all, from the least to the greatest, are guilty of transgression, and therefore God’s wrath overhangs them all. This is what Paul means when he writes that believers have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but the spirit of adoption, whereby they cry, Abba, Father (Romans 8:15), showing how much better our condition is than that of the ancient fathers.

The Law kept them enslaved in its bondage, while the Gospel delivers us from anxiety and frees us from the stings of conscience. For all who seek salvation by works must necessarily tremble and finally be overwhelmed by despair; but peace and rest exist only in the mercy of God.

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews pursues this idea at greater length, where he says, You are not come to the mount that must be touched, and that burned with fire, nor to blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice those that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more... (from where Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) but you are come to Mount Zion,... (Hebrews 12:18–22).

The antithesis here proves that what was entrusted to Moses is separate and distinct from the Gospel. God, who appeared in the Law as an avenger, now with fatherly kindness gently invites us to salvation and soothes our troubled minds by offering us the forgiveness of our sins.

Now, Paul shows us that there is no contradiction in this diversity. The people were taught by the Law not to seek salvation anywhere but in the grace of Christ. Convinced of the horrible condemnation under which they lay, they were driven by fear to implore God’s mercy. For, as people are apt to²⁰⁷ allow themselves in sin, for, as Paul says (Romans 5:13), sin is not imputed where there is no law; but those who delight themselves in darkness are, by the teaching of the Law, brought before God’s tribunal, that they may fully perceive their filthiness and be ashamed.

Thus is Paul’s saying fulfilled, that the life of the Law is man’s death (Romans 7:9).

Now we understand why the proclamation of the Law was confirmed by so many miracles: namely, because, in general, the authority of divine teaching was to be established among the dull and careless, or the proud and rebellious; and secondly, because the Law was presented to people, who sought ways to flatter themselves, as the mirror of the curse, so that, lost in themselves, they might fly to the refuge of pardon.

I have thought it advisable to say this much by way of preface, to direct my readers to the proper object of the history related here.

But Moses first recounts that the people came, in a single march, from Rephidim into the region of Sinai (for so I interpret it, that there was no intervening station), as the interpretation of those who take “the same day” to mean the beginning of the month is forced and unnatural.

You have seen. With the view of gently inviting the people to obedience, He first recalls to their memory the blessing of their deliverance. He then promises that the blessings of the future would be no less, if they, for their part, honored their deliverer with the piety and gratitude that belong to Him.

He recounts the two parts of His loving-kindness: first, that He had exerted His tremendous power against the Egyptians; and secondly, that He had marvelously brought His redeemed people through the sea and the mighty wilderness, as if through the clouds and the air.

This was an instance of His inestimable grace: He had made war against a most powerful king, afflicted a most flourishing nation, and devastated a land remarkable for its extreme fertility, all to help a group of despised slaves.

For there was no dignity in them—who were, first of all, foreigners, and moreover, abject herdsmen devoted to base and shameful slavery—by which God might have been prompted, for their sakes, to destroy the Egyptians, who were illustrious in glory, wealth, the richness of their land, and the splendor of their empire.

Therefore, it would have been detestable ingratitude not to acknowledge their great obligations to God.

What He adds secondly, that He bore them as eagles are accustomed to carry their young, refers to the constant course of His paternal care.

Moses will later use the same comparison in his song, and it often occurs in the prophets.

But He mentions the eagle rather than other birds, in my opinion, so that He may magnify their difficulties and thus commend His grace.

For eagles lift their young to high places and accustom them to look at the sun; thus the people, as if carried above the clouds on the wings of God, had overcome every obstacle, however great.

For the idea that some have—that eagles are mentioned instead of other birds because they alone bear up their young on their wings—is a foolish and truly Rabbinical interpretation.²⁰⁸

Now, therefore. God declares that He will always be the same, and will constantly persevere²⁰⁹ (in blessing them), provided the Israelites do not degenerate, but remain devoted to their Deliverer. At the same time, He also reminds them why He has been so bountiful to them: namely, that they may continually aspire to the end of their calling. For He had not intended to perform toward them a single act of liberality, but to purchase them as His peculiar people.

This privilege He sets before them in the word סגלה,²¹⁰ segullah, which means all things most precious, whatever, in fact, is deposited in a treasury. Although the word “peculium” (a peculiar possession), by which the ancient interpreter²¹¹ translated it, is not unsuitable to the passage, it is plain from the immediate context that it denotes the separation of this people from all others, since these words directly follow: "for," or "although," all the earth is Mine.

The particle כי, ki, is often taken adversatively, and there is no doubt that God would more exalt His grace by comparing this one nation with the whole world, as it is said in the song of Moses:

When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel; for the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. (Deuteronomy 32:8).

The sum then is, that while the whole earth is in God’s dominion, yet the race of Israel has been chosen by Him to excel all nations. From this it is evident that while the condition of all is alike, some are not distinguished from others by nature, but by gratuitous adoption.

But, in order that they should remain in the possession of so great a blessing, fidelity towards God is required on their part. And, first, they are commanded to listen to His voice (since no sacrifice is more pleasing to Him than obedience, 1 Samuel 15:22); and then a definition of obedience is added, namely, to keep His covenant.