Wilderness of Sinai

In the Bible

The Wilderness of Sinai is the wilderness where Israel remained encamped before Mount Sinai after the Exodus. Exodus 19:1-2 records that in the third month after leaving Egypt, the Israelites departed from Rephidim, came into this wilderness, and camped before the mountain.

The following events took place in this wilderness:

• Israel received the Ten Commandments and the Law and entered into the Sinai covenant (Exodus 19–24).
• The golden calf incident occurred (Exodus 32).
• The tabernacle was built and set up (Exodus 40:17).
• The regulations for offerings were given (Leviticus 7:38).
• A census of the people was taken (Numbers 1:1).
• The second Passover was kept (Numbers 9:1-5).

Scripture also records this as the place where Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, died (Numbers 3:4). On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, when the cloud was taken up, Israel set out from the Wilderness of Sinai toward the Wilderness of Paran (Numbers 10:11-12). Thus everything from the latter part of Exodus through the whole of Leviticus and the opening chapters of Numbers took place in this wilderness.

Background

The Hebrew word midbar does not refer only to sandy desert. It is a broad term for rough, uncultivated land or pastureland. The etymology of the name "Sinai" is uncertain.

The Wilderness of Sinai is distinct from the "wilderness of Sin" in Exodus 16:1, which is described as lying between Elim and Sinai.

Traditionally, Mount Sinai has been identified with Jebel Musa and its vicinity in the southern Sinai Peninsula, and the plain before it is sometimes proposed as the site of the encampment. Other views, however, place the mountain in the northern Sinai Peninsula or in northwestern Arabia, so its exact location remains unsettled. At the foot of Jebel Musa stands Saint Catherine's Monastery, which is believed to have been founded in the sixth century.

Significance in the Whole Bible

The Wilderness of Sinai is where God met His people, made a covenant with them, and had them build a dwelling place (the tabernacle) so that He might dwell among them.

The New Testament takes up this memory in several ways:

• Stephen calls Israel "the church in the wilderness" and says that Moses received "the lively oracles" there (Acts 7:38).
• In Galatians 4:24-25, Paul likens Mount Sinai to Hagar in explaining the old covenant.
• Hebrews 12:18-24 contrasts Mount Sinai, a place of fear, with Mount Zion, a place of grace.
• 1 Corinthians 10:1-11 reads the experiences of the wilderness generation as examples and warnings for the church.

Interpretations and Debates

The prevailing view is that Mount Sinai and Horeb, the name used chiefly in Deuteronomy, are the same mountain, though some hold that they are different places. The phrase "mount Sinai in Arabia" in Galatians 4:25 is cited in support of locating the mountain in Arabia. Others counter that "Arabia" at that time may have included the Sinai Peninsula.

Theological traditions also differ on how the covenant made in the Wilderness of Sinai relates to the New Testament:

• Covenant theology views the Sinai covenant as one stage in the unfolding of the single covenant of grace.
• Dispensationalism draws a sharper distinction between the dispensation of law and the dispensation of grace.

Some traditions go beyond the biblical text. One example is the interpretation that links the giving of the Law with the Feast of Weeks and in turn contrasts it with Pentecost. This interpretation developed in later Judaism and Christianity and is not stated directly in the text of Exodus. Jewish tradition also preserves an interpretation that finds significance in the fact that the Law was given in the wilderness, a land belonging to no one.

In Korean Churches

In the preaching of Korean churches, "the wilderness" is frequently used as a metaphor for a season in which God trains His people and shapes them through His Word. Within this imagery, the Wilderness of Sinai is presented as the place where the Word and the covenant were received. Pilgrimage tours to Egypt organized by Korean churches commonly include climbing Jebel Musa to watch the sunrise.