Exodus 19

God tells Moses to lead the people from Rephidim to Mount Sinai. If the Amalekites wanted the water source, they just had to wait for the Israelite to pass on.

At Sinai, Moses ascends and God tells him to relay the offer. "I brought you out of Egypt. If you obey me and keep my covenant, I will separate you from among the peoples of the world. You will be my treasured possession and I will bless you."

Moses runs back down the mountain, tells the elders, and the people agree. The lawyer in me would say, "could I please find out more details on what I am to obey before accepting". The Israelites don't do this, but just agree and jump into the covenant. We'll soon find out, God has a lot of rules for them. We'll also see them break the covenant, which makes you wonder where their hearts are at this point in time.

As Moses runs back up the mountain to relay their acceptance, God says "I'm coming in a cloud so the people will see and hear our conversation.". Moses says, "by the way, we accept."

God tells him to go back to the people, to tell them to consecrate themselves and wash their clothes by the third day. By the way, you better post a boundary at the bottom of the mountain, for if anyone touches the mountain, they are to die. Only after the ram's horn blasts may they approach.

Moses goes back down, relays the message, but also adds, "no sex."

The third day comes. The presence of God descends on Mount Sinai. Smoke, fire, thunder, and loud trumpet blasts is heard. Moses watches this among the people, who are all trembling.

I think there is a stereotype that "Old Testament God" is like this - fire, brimstone, thunder, clouds, etc...But really, this is also to get the attention of 500,000-1,000,000 people all at once. It's going to be big and spectacular.

But really, if we look at the prior encounters with God up to this point, they are far more intimate, but the element of the supernatural remains:

Adam - God is walking through the garden, granted, this is right before Adam and Eve get kicked out.

Abraham - talking with God and the two angels; God predicts his barren, 90 year old wife will have a child.

Jacob - wrestles with an invisible person, but it's an encounter with God.

Moses - meets with God, who is in a burning bush that is not consumed by the fire.

Back to the story, God tells Moses to come back up where God warns Mose to tell the people not come up and even the priests must consecrate themselves or they'll die. Moses' reply, "you've already told us this, God.". Maybe God knows that they people need a second warning or perhaps God is clarifying that the trumpet blast is not the ram's horn.

God tells Moses to bring up Aaron, but not the priests, or they will die.

Mount Sinai is just getting started.

According to Wikipedia, Mount Sinai is about 7500 feet high and is not the highest mountain in the immediate area. We could probably guess that it took Moses 2-3 hours to climb up and maybe one hour to go down, each time he had to go up and down.