“For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.”
After they set out from Rephidim, they entered the Desert of Sinai, and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain. The campsite in front of the mountain positions the entire community as an audience before the mountain. The mountain is the stage; Israel is gathered before it. Every subsequent act at Sinai — the theophany, the commandments, the covenant ceremony — will take place with this spatial relationship: God on the mountain, Israel at the base. Hebrews 12:18–21 will contrast this arrangement with the New Covenant assembly, where the people approach a different mountain — Zion, the city of the living God. But the arrangement at Sinai is the reference point for the contrast. The physical geography of the covenant ceremony shapes the theology.
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