Jesus: From Genesis to Revelation

Week 20 Discussion Guide: The Mountain of God

Opening

Begin by reciting this week’s memory verse together:

“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” – Exodus 19:5-6 (ESV)

Think about a time when someone entrusted you with a responsibility that felt far beyond your capacity – a role, a calling, a trust that both honored and terrified you. What was your first response? Gratitude? Fear? The sense that you had been seen by someone who believed you could carry it? Hold that memory as we discuss the moment when God looked at a nation of former slaves and said, “You will be my priests.”

Review: The Big Picture

This week we stood at Sinai. Three months after the Red Sea, Israel arrived at the mountain, and the mountain burned. Thunder, lightning, thick cloud, the blast of a trumpet growing louder until even Moses trembled. But before the fire, before the commandments, God spoke a sentence that reframed everything: “I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Exodus 19:4). The destination of the exodus was not merely a land. It was a person. The Ten Commandments followed – preceded not by a demand but by a declaration of grace: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt” (Exodus 20:2). The Book of the Covenant applied these principles to the texture of daily life – oxen, ditches, sojourners, and harvest justice. And the week closed with the covenant ratification of Exodus 24: blood thrown on the altar and the people, a meal eaten in God’s presence on the mountaintop, and seventy elders who beheld God and lived.

The law is not a ladder to climb toward God. It is the shape of gratitude for a people already carried on eagles’ wings.

Discussion Questions

Day 1: Sinai – Thunder, Fire, and a Kingdom of Priests (Exodus 19:1-25)

  1. Eagles’ Wings. Before any commandment is given, God reminds Israel of what he has already done: “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Exodus 19:4). Grace precedes law. Deliverance precedes demand. Why is this sequence theologically essential? What happens to our understanding of obedience when we reverse the order – when we hear the commands before we hear the gospel?

  2. Segullah – Treasured Possession. God calls Israel his segullah – a king’s private treasure, the portion of his wealth he values above all else. He also calls them a “kingdom of priests” (mamlekhet kohanim) and a “holy nation” (goy qadosh). These are not three separate titles but one layered identity. What does it mean for an entire nation – not merely a professional class – to be appointed as priests? How does Peter’s application of this verse to the church (1 Peter 2:9) reshape your understanding of your own vocation?

  3. The Mountain That Kills. Boundaries are set around Sinai. Anyone who touches the mountain dies – not as punishment but as consequence. Even the livestock must be kept back. The holiness of God is not a metaphor at Sinai. It is a physical force. How do you reconcile the God who carries Israel on eagles’ wings with the God whose mountain kills on contact? Is there a way to hold tenderness and terror together, or must we choose?

Day 2: The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-21)

  1. Grace Before Law. The Decalogue begins not with “You shall” but with “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Exodus 20:2). The commandments are given to a people already redeemed. How does this preface change the way you hear everything that follows? What is the difference between obeying a rescuer and obeying a taskmaster?

  2. Vertical and Horizontal. The first four commandments address the relationship between humanity and God; the last six address relationships between people. Jesus will later summarize the entire law with two commands: love God, love neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40). Why does Scripture refuse to separate devotion from ethics, worship from justice? What does it look like when a community tries to keep one without the other?

Day 3: The Book of the Covenant Begins (Exodus 20:22–21:36)

  1. Law in the Dirt. The Book of the Covenant takes the principles of the Ten Commandments and applies them to the gritty details of daily life – what happens when an ox gores a neighbor, when a servant is injured, when a thief is caught at night. Why does God descend into such specificity? What does it reveal about his character that he cares about property disputes and personal injury cases?

  2. The Servant Who Stays. Exodus 21:5-6 describes a slave who, at the end of his term, chooses to remain: “I love my master… I will not go out free.” His ear is pierced against the doorpost, and he serves for life. The early church saw in this image a portrait of Christ, who, being free, chose to bind himself to his people in love. How does this picture of voluntary servitude illuminate what Paul means when he calls himself a doulos – a bondservant – of Christ (Romans 1:1)?

Day 4: The Vulnerable, the Sabbath, and the Feasts (Exodus 22:1–23:19)

  1. Memory Shapes Ethics. “You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 23:9). The command is grounded not in abstract principle but in lived experience. Israel’s ethic toward the vulnerable flows from its own memory of vulnerability. How does your own story of suffering or deliverance shape the way you treat others? Where has the church forgotten its own story and, as a result, failed to show compassion?

  2. The Rhythm of Rest and Feast. The Sabbath command appears again, now extended to servants, animals, and even the land (Exodus 23:10-12). Three annual feasts structure the national calendar around gratitude – Unleavened Bread, Harvest, and Ingathering. Why does God embed worship into the rhythm of time rather than leaving it to individual initiative? What is lost when a community abandons shared rhythms of rest and celebration?

Day 5: The Covenant Sealed in Blood (Exodus 23:20–24:18)

  1. Blood on the Altar, Blood on the People. Moses reads the law aloud. The people respond: “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient” (Exodus 24:7). Then Moses throws half the blood on the altar and half on the people: “Behold the blood of the covenant” (Exodus 24:8). At the Last Supper, Jesus will say, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). What does it mean that every covenant in Scripture is sealed in blood? Why does relationship with God require something to die?

  2. The Meal on the Mountain. After the blood, Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders ascend Sinai. They see God – “under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness” – and they eat and drink in his presence (Exodus 24:10-11). This is astonishing. They beheld God and lived. How does this meal anticipate the Lord’s Supper? How does it anticipate the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9)?

Synthesis

  1. Christ on the Mountain. Jesus stands on another mountain and delivers another law: “You have heard that it was said… but I say to you” (Matthew 5:21-22). No prophet ever spoke this way. Moses said, “Thus says the LORD.” Jesus says, “I say to you” – claiming not delegated authority but original authority. He does not relay the word. He is the Word. How does recognizing Jesus as the author of Sinai’s law change the way you read the Sermon on the Mount? How does it change the way you read Exodus 20?

  2. The Table Has Never Been Cleared. The elders ate and drank in the presence of God after the blood was shed. The disciples ate and drank in the presence of Christ after he said, “This is my blood of the covenant.” The redeemed will eat and drink at the marriage supper of the Lamb. The table was set at Sinai. It has never been cleared. How does this continuity – from the mountain to the upper room to the new creation – shape the way you approach the Lord’s Table?

Going Deeper: Connections Across the Week

Application

Closing Prayer

Close your time together by praying through Exodus 19:5-6. Thank God that he carried you on eagles’ wings before he ever asked you to walk. Thank him for the law – not as a burden but as the shape of life in his presence. Confess the places where you have reversed the order, trying to earn what has already been given. Ask the Holy Spirit to deepen your sense of priestly vocation – that you are treasured, that you are called, and that the God who shook the mountain invites you to eat and drink at his table.

Looking Ahead

Next week God does something even more astonishing than giving the law. He moves in. “Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst” (Exodus 25:8). We will spend the week inside the tabernacle instructions – the ark, the mercy seat, the veil, the altar, the priestly garments – learning the architecture of how sinners approach a holy God. Every board and curtain and golden fitting is theology rendered in wood and linen and blood.