Writing as Reading: Deuteronomy’s Perspective on the Day of the Assembly

Abstract This article studies the Torah’s depictions of God’s descent on Sinai, ‘the Day of the Assembly,’ within Exodus 19–20 and across Deuteronomy to argue that Israel’s failure to go on the mountain in Exodus 19:16 is sin. The Torah’s cumulative depictions of this moment convey the Torah’s theology of how God and man approach each other. After a brief contrast with Kibbe’s recent study, this article examines the plausibility and profitability of interpreting Exodus 19 as a discussion of two covenantal relationships between God and Israel by testing its ideas through summary exegesis of Exodus 19–20 and Deuteronomy 4, 5, 9, 10, 18. The Torah revisits Israel’s fear to transform that one moment into a larger story of how God changes the human heart. Israel’s request for God’s words to become Moses’ words sets Moses’ written mediation as the key to His people living with God. Exodus’s and Deuteronomy 5’s accounts of that day unveil the people’s movement from a bad fear of God, which disobeys Him, to a good fear of God, which heeds His words, with the Ten Words standing between the narratives. Deuteronomy 9–10 characterize the trembling of Exodus 19:16 as sin, and Deuteronomy 18 connects that day’s transformation to the request for the Prophet Like Moses and the promise of His victory over death. While Moses could not overcome death, Moses’ book promises the Prophet Like Moses who will overcome death and bring God’s people into God’s presence in the end.