Acts 7:38

This is he, that was in the church[congregation] in the wilderness i.e. with the congregation of Israel assembled at Mount Sinai.

with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina[Sinai] As in Acts 7:35, the angel is God Himself; just so in Acts 7:31 the voice which spake is called "a voice of the Lord."

and with our fathers Jewish tradition says that the whole world was present at Sinai. Thus Midrash Rabbahon Exodus, cap. 28 ad fin.: "Whatever the prophets were to utter in prophecy in every generation they received from Mount Sinai," and presently after, commenting on the words of Moses (Deuteronomy 29:15), Him that is not here with us this day, it is said, "These are the souls which were yet to be created," i.e. to be sent into the world; and to explain (Deuteronomy 5:22) and he added no more, (on which they found the teaching that all revelation was completely given at Sinai,) they say, "The one voice was divided into seven voices, and these were divided into the seventy tongues," which Jewish tradition held to be the number of the languages of the world.

who received the lively oracles to give unto us Who(i.e. Moses) received living oracles, &c. Moses is thus shewn to have been a mediator (see Galatians 3:19), and thus to have prefigured the mediator of a better covenant (Hebrews 8:6) and of the New Testament (Hebrews 9:15), even Jesus (Hebrews 12:24).

The oracles are called living, just as "the word of God" is called living[A. V. quick] (Hebrews 4:12), because it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. On this effect cp. St Paul's language concerning the law (Romans 7:9), "When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." But there is at the same time the other sense in the word, which appears when (John 6:51) Christ calls Himself "the livingbread which came down from heaven." For the law pointed onward to Christ, who should lead His people "unto livingfountains of waters" (Revelation 7:17). For the thought, cp. 1 Peter 1:23, "The word of God which livethand abideth for ever."