Covenant People at Sinai

Covenant People at Sinai

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Jethro spotted the problem before Moses did.

Moses sat from morning until evening, every single day, judging every dispute among the Israelites. Who stole whose goat. Which family owed what. Whether a well belonged to this clan or that one. Thousands of people lined up, waiting their turn, while one man tried to carry all of it.

Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, watched this for a day and then said what needed saying: "The thing that thou doest is not good" (Exodus 18:17). Not bad advice. Not misguided. Simply unsustainable. "Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee."

This is the first leadership lesson in the Bible, and it comes from a Midianite priest who wasn't even Israelite.

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Delegation Is Not Weakness

Jethro's counsel was practical. Appoint capable men — "able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness" — and divide the work. Let them handle the ordinary cases. Bring the hard ones to Moses. Share the load. Build a system.

Moses listened. He reorganized Israel's governance that week.

What strikes me about this exchange is what it reveals about how God works. The Lord didn't send an angel to restructure Israel's judicial system. He sent a father-in-law with common sense and the courage to say something. Sometimes revelation looks like a trusted person who sees what you can't see because you're inside it.

President Dallin H. Oaks taught that we should not expect the Lord to do for us what we can do for ourselves. Jethro's visit is proof that God often sends solutions through people, not visions. The question is whether we are humble enough to receive counsel from unexpected sources.

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The Mountain

Three months after leaving Egypt, Israel arrived at Sinai. And here the tone of the narrative shifts entirely.

God told Moses to prepare the people. Wash your clothes. Set boundaries around the mountain. Do not touch it. For three days they prepared, and on the third day — thunder, lightning, thick cloud, the sound of a trumpet growing louder and louder, the mountain smoking because the Lord descended on it in fire.

Read Exodus 19:16-19 slowly. The earth shook. The trumpet blasted. Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. The people trembled.

This was not a gentle Sunday School moment. This was terrifying. And it was meant to be.

God wanted Israel to understand something before He gave them the law: who was giving it. The Ten Commandments didn't arrive as suggestions from a committee. They descended from a mountain that shook under the weight of divine presence, delivered by a voice that made an entire nation step backward in fear.

We domesticate Sinai too easily. We hang the Ten Commandments on walls and treat them like moral furniture. They are actually the terms of a covenant delivered in smoke and earthquake by a God who wanted His people to understand that this was serious.

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A Peculiar Treasure

Before the commandments, God made an offer. Exodus 19:5-6 is one of the most significant passages in the Old Testament:

"Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation."

Three things here.

First, peculiar treasure. The Hebrew word is segullah — a personal, valued possession. A king's private collection, kept apart from the general treasury. God was telling Israel: among all the nations, you are the one I chose for myself. Not because you earned it. Because I want you.

Second, a kingdom of priests. Every Israelite was to have direct access to God. The entire nation was supposed to function as mediators between God and the world. This is the birthright Israel later forfeited at the base of this same mountain when they chose a golden calf.

Third, the condition: "if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant." The treasure was real. The priesthood was real. But it was conditional. Covenant always is.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson has taught that "in a covenant relationship with God, we are not simply technically forgiven of our sins; we are transformed." The Sinai covenant was designed to transform Israel from a collection of freed slaves into a holy nation. That transformation required obedience.

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The Ten Words

The commandments themselves (Exodus 20) divide into two tablets, two relationships. The first four govern our relationship with God. The last six govern our relationship with each other. This is the exact structure Jesus summarized when He said all the law hangs on two commandments: love God, love neighbor (Matthew 22:36-40).

What stands out is the order. You don't start with "don't steal." You start with "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt." Identity before behavior. God establishes who He is and what He has done before He asks anything.

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me" is first because everything else depends on it. If God is not God, the rest of the commandments are social convention. But if He is God — the one who split the sea, who fed them manna, who spoke from fire — then "thou shalt not steal" and "thou shalt not covet" carry the full weight of divine authority.

The Sabbath commandment (the fourth) serves as the hinge. It is both vertical (honoring God) and horizontal (giving rest to servants, animals, even the land). It is the commandment most directly connected to covenant identity. "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy" — remember. Because Israel's identity was rooted in remembrance of what God had done.

President Russell M. Nelson has called the Sabbath "a delight" and has asked us to consider what we do on the Sabbath rather than focusing on what we avoid. The Sinai commandment invites the same reorientation: the Sabbath is not restriction. It is the rhythm of a people who belong to God and want to remember that they do.

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Standing at a Distance

Exodus 20:18-21 records a haunting response. After hearing God's voice, the people pulled back. "Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die."

They chose a mediator. They preferred Moses' voice to God's.

This is the moment when Israel traded the higher priesthood for the lower law. Instead of becoming a kingdom of priests — each person standing in God's presence — they chose distance. They asked for someone else to go up the mountain for them.

We do this. We outsource our spiritual experience to leaders, teachers, authors, podcasters — anyone willing to climb the mountain on our behalf. And those people have a role. Moses had a role. But God's original offer was for every person to stand in His presence. The invitation has never been rescinded.

The temple makes the same offer today. Every ordinance, every covenant, is an invitation to stop standing at a distance and to approach God directly. Not through another person's testimony. Through your own.

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Open Your Come Follow Me Manual

This week's study covers Exodus 18-20. Pay attention to the structure: counsel from Jethro, preparation at Sinai, covenant offered, commandments given, and Israel's response. It is the arc of every covenant relationship — invitation, preparation, promise, and the choice of how close we are willing to stand.

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OurGospelStudy, Week 15 of 52
Come Follow Me 2026: Old Testament
Exodus 18-20: "Covenant People at Sinai"