Joshua was on the brink of a new chapter in the history of the Israelites, who had spent forty years wandering around in the wilderness, and God instructs him to 'be strong and courageous' three times; reminding the prodegy of Moses to ‘obey all the law my servant Moses gave you' (Joshua 1:7 NIV). What follows in verse eight is a surprise.

The account of the LORD’s descent on to Mount Sinai in Exodus 19 is full of surprises. Moses alone is permitted to go up to the LORD, and God firmly instructs him to ‘“Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the LORD and many of them perish”’ (Exodus 19:21 NIV). The real surprise is found in the next verse where God states: ‘“Even the priests, who approach the LORD, must consecrate themselves, or the LORD will break out against them” (Exodus 19:22 NIV).

The story of Moses’ encounter with God on Mount Sinai is well known, but it is perhaps less understood that he ascended the mountain a total of six times. After the dramatic events of the first Passover the Israelites made their way from the familiar landscape of the Nile Basin into drier and less hospitable terrain of the Sinai Peninsula. Exodus 19 reports that ‘on the first day of the third month after the Israelites left Egypt – on that very day – they came to the Desert of Sinai’ (Exodus 19:1 NIV).