Israel at Mt. Sinai – God’s Treasure, Kingdom of Priests & Holy Nation

INTRO

Many will say Exodus 19 is the heart of the Pentateuch. We’ve gone through the Abrahamic Covenant and seen how, through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God had a special plan for His people (Genesis 12:1–3). The Abrahamic Covenant does not stop until the Messiah comes back. But as the Abrahamic Covenant continues on, God decided to interject another covenant, the Mosaic Covenant. This is where Moses was used as a deliverer for God’s people and for His Seed. The Israelites had been through the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. They had daily manna and quail, and now God said, “I want to show you now that I am with you.” Here Moses began to hear the voice of God even more clearly.

TEACHING

Exodus 19:1–3: The Israelites were in the wilderness of Sinai, where Moses was looking for the mountain God promised! Can you imagine what it would have been like for two million people to camp at the base of this mountain? The southeast part of Sinai Peninsula is called Jebel Musa, the “mountain of Moses.” Josephus recorded that it was the highest mountain in the Peninsula. Verses 3–6 are the heart of the Pentateuch. God gave Moses the message to give to the Israelites. This was the same guy who said he couldn’t talk, and now God was telling him to go communicate to everyone.

Exodus 19:4–5: Moses had his own speechwriter–God! Why use the imagery of the eagle? Wiersbe wrote, “The adult birds [eagles] stay near the fledglings and, if they fall, carry them on their strong wings until the young birds learn how to use their wings, ride the air current, and enjoy the abilities God gave them.”¹Wiersbe also says, “Eaglets illustrate three forms of freedom: (1) Freedom from (they are out of the nest, which to us is redemption). (2) Freedom in (they are home in the air, which to us is maturity). (3) Freedom to (they can fulfill their purpose in life, which to us is ministry).”²God viewed the Israelites three ways. First, they were God’s special treasure.³(Deuteronomy 7:6; 14:2; Psalm 135:4). They didn’t do anything to deserve it; God has chosen them. This was the Mosaic Covenant: Israel as God’s treasured possession. God has not stopped viewing them as His treasured possession. God’s hand was so clearly on Israel right here.

The Abrahamic Covenant is unconditional; it’s by faith. God will pour out His blessing, making the descendants endless. The Mosaic Covenant is a conditional covenant, a covenant for a limited period of time. It began with Moses and ends with Christ. When Jesus came, the law was replaced with the New Covenant. The Mosaic Covenant that was being established was a means for sanctification, rules for living, and redemption for the people (Galatians 3:19.) The Mosaic Law was instituted until the Messiah would come. We needed something to serve as a guideline for our sins. The Mosaic Covenant was a track. The Israelites now had a responsibility to fulfill in order to receive God’s blessings. The difference in this conditional covenant is that they were still God’s people; they just missed out on what He had in store for them.

Exodus 19:6: Second, they were God’s kingdom of priests.⁴This is the first time you’ll see “kingdom” referring to God’s rule through man on earth.⁵ This happened as priests depended on their faith in God. The priests’ role is to stand between God and the people. They were going to become a nation of mediators between God and other nations. They were to be a nation that is different—a serving nation, not a ruling nation.6 Isaiah 61:6: “But you will be called the Lord’s priests; they will speak of you as ministers of our God; you will eat the wealth of the nations, and you will boast in their riches.” They had to change their mindset to “we’re not going to have kings, but priests.” Aaron and his sons became priests (Exodus 28—29). Aaron would carry the 12 tribes in stones on his breast piece every time he went before the Lord.

Third, they were God’s holy nation.⁷The word “holy” means set apart or different.They were holy because they weredevoting themselves to God and separating themselves from sin.Six times in Leviticus it says, “Be holy for I am holy!”God reiterated inExodus 22:31, “Be My holy people.”The Israelites were going to reflect God’s holiness. It is important to remember these three phrases are the heart of the Pentateuch: God’s special treasure, His kingdom of priests, and His holy

6John J. Durham, Exodus, p. 263; quoted in Dr. Constable’s Expository Notes: Exodus, p. 174; available online at https://planobiblechapel.org/tcon/notes/pdf/exodus.pdf.

nation. God has not stopped viewing Israel as a holy nation, as a kingdom of priests, or as a special treasure. Constable wrote, “Israel could have become a testimony to the whole world, of how to live under the government of God.”⁸But the problem was, over the course of time, they only experienced a partial blessing because they only showed a partial time of obedience.

Exodus 19:7–12: Moses delivered this speech with his three talking points: special treasure, kingdom of priests, holy nation. “However, they overestimated their own ability to keep the covenant, and they underestimated God’s standards for them.”⁹Because the Israelites agreed to these things, they needed to start this process. In verse 10, the Lord told Moses to “Consecrate the people today and tomorrow” by the Israelites bathing themselves and changing their clothes, which reflected a new beginning. On the third day, God would come down. Wiersbe points out that Moses put up barriers to keep the people away from the mountain and posted guards with authority to kill anyone who crossed the barriers.¹⁰

Exodus 19:13–15: God continued to put things in order to keep the Israelites from touching the mountain. At this point, all the Israelites knew that God could not be touched. But when the Messiah comes, it’s the complete opposite! John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh.” In the Mosaic Covenant, there was a distance required to stay away from Yahweh the Almighty God. Matthew 1:23 emphasizes, “God with us.” I understand why Jewish people sometimes have a hard time turning to the Messiah. Their mindset has always been that God is holy and can’t be approached. But through the New Covenant, Jesus provides a way for us to approach God with boldness (Hebrews 10:19-25). No longer do we have this mountain or distance in front of us. Remember it took three days for this process to be completed. God issued a temporary prohibition against sexual relations as the Israelites went through the process of cleansing. God was not saying sex is bad but to keep their eyes on Him.

Exodus 19:16–25: The Israelites had to be consecrated. They’d washed their clothes, abstained from sexual relations, and had not touched the mountain. The cloud covered the mountain, and Moses shuddered (Hebrews 12:21). Moses spoke and the Lord addressed him. Again, Moses was back and forth from the people and back up to God on the mountain. Who were the priests at this point? Aaron and his sons hadn’t been instituted yet. They were probably young men who offered sacrifices before God, probably the firstborns (Exodus 24:5). Exodus 19 shows us a covenant that was beginning to take place. There were two types of covenants in Moses’ day¹¹: Parity (a formal contract between two equals), and Suzerainty (a covenant between a sovereign and his subjects). The Suzerainty covenant had a preamble (v. 3), historical prologue (v. 4), statement of general principles (v. 5), consequences of obedience (vv. 5–6), and consequences of disobedience. The covenant here was totally familiar to the Israelites.

CLOSING

Exodus 20 outlines the Ten Commandments. There were a whole lot more than just ten. Wiersbe wrote, “They had documented 613 commands in the law, 248 positive and 365 are negative.”¹²Over time, the Israelites begin to see that they couldn’t keep this pace up. A Deliverer was needed to come in and pull them from this covenant to ultimately set them free.