So Moses went down to the people and told them. The chapter closes with Moses descending — back down to the people, carrying the instruction and the warning. The descent is the act of the covenant mediator: he goes up to receive, he comes down to transmit. Every time Moses descends from Sinai he brings something: a warning (here), the law (Exodus 20), the covenant (Exodus 24), the second tablets (Exodus 34). The movement up and down the mountain is the geometry of revelation — the holy God who cannot be approached from below is willing to be met at the point where the mediator ascends and descends. John 1:51 records Jesus promising that his disciples will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man — the Jacob's ladder pattern and the Sinai pattern converge in Christ.

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