the LORD said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, 'Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.' When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain." So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people; and they washed their garments. And he said to the people, "Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman." On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The LORD came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. And the LORD said to Moses, "Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the LORD to look and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near to the LORD consecrate themselves, lest the LORD break out against them." And Moses said to the LORD, "The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, 'Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it.'" And the LORD said to him, "Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the LORD, lest he break out against them." So Moses went down to the people and told them.
Exodus 19:10-25
The burden of these verses is the insistence on the unapproachableness of the divine holiness. It almost seems as if Moses, on being commanded to go down again to charge the people (21) against breaking through unto the Lord to gaze, and thus perish, protests to the Lord that they had already been well warned about this, and that it was not necessary to do so again. But God knows our hearts better than we do ourselves, and realises the propensity within us for carnal presumption and irreverence. It may be that He could see, as Moses could not, hidden attitudes of resentment among the people and the priests (24) that they should have been excluded from the holy ground, and were even then tempted to break through and gaze. The events following the giving of the Law, particularly the tragic episode of the golden calf, show how needful this repeated warning was, and how far the people were from a reverent and submissive spirit. It is only the pure in heart that can see, or gaze upon, God, nor does He will to disclose Himself to carnal curiosity. It is salutary for us to be confronted with this attitude, in a day when entrance into the divine presence is made with a casualness that sometimes amounts to irreverent intrusion, as if God were our chum, not our King. If God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable, in His being, power, wisdom, holiness, justice, goodness and truth, how should we suppose that we can presume upon such majesty?