Exodus 19

Hey, welcome to coffee and devotions is where every day you and I we get together. We have a little bit of coffee We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together in this year 2023 Lord willing make it from Genesis to Leviticus I'm so glad to be with you today when we open up our Bibles and we'll get into the Lord's Word Let's pray father.
We thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word And we pray now that as we read your word that you would bless us Please let us understand it Lord and let it be applied to our lives in Jesus's name. Amen But we're at Exodus chapter 19. This is an extremely, extremely important chapter. The next chapter is going to be one of the most important chapters of the entire Bible, one of the most known ones. And so we are coming to kind of this precipice or this climax in the story. Exodus chapter 19.
In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day they came to the wilderness of Sinai. For they had departed from Rephidim, had come to the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain.
And Moses went up to God, and the Lord God called him from the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, And tell the children of Israel, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.
Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.
So Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before them all these words which the Lord commanded him. Then all the people answered together and said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. So Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, behold, I come to you in a thick cloud. that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe you forever. So Moses told the words of the people to the Lord. Then the Lord said to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today. And tomorrow, let them wash their clothes and let them be ready for the third day. On the third day, the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow. Whether man or beast, he shall not live. When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near to the mountain.
So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people and they washed their clothes. And he said to the people, Be ready for the third day. Do not come near your wives. Then it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunderings and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain. And the sound of the trumpet was very loud so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.
And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God. And they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Sinai was completely in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him by voice. Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on 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 gaze at the Lord. And many of them perish. Also, let the priests who come near the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them. But Moses said to the Lord, The people cannot come up Mount Sinai. For you warned us, saying, Set bounds around the mountain and consecrate it. Then the Lord said to him, Away, get down and come up, you and 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 spoke with them.
Well, it's a pretty amazing scene, isn't it? We need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to this? What's this about? Well, the summary of this passage is God brings them finally to Mount Sinai. They're a couple of months into this journey out of Egypt. They come to Mount Sinai. They've defeated one of their enemies. And now the Lord himself shows himself in a different theophonic manner.
His voice is going to come from the clouds in the mountain. Comes to them and fire and thunder is a cloud, a thick cloud, thick, dark cloud descends upon the top of the mountain. And he warns them, don't come near the mountain. Don't even touch it if you do. You gotta stone whoever does it, shoot them with an arrow.
This is how serious the Lord takes, but why does the Lord take it this seriously? Because he's trying to show them that he is holy. that God is holy and it is up to God who he invites into covenant with him. It is God who invites people to come close to him and when he sets a boundary he's the one who says you shall not come any closer unless I tell you to come in. He tells them his intentions for them, right? This isn't because he's somehow capricious or something like that. He has a love for them. He has a desire for them. Didn't we see that? In verse five and six, now, therefore.
If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all the people. For all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." It tells him, I'm going to make a covenant with you. This is a corporate election of these people of his. He's establishing a covenant. This is going to be a peculiar way in which God is going to operate with just the people of Israel. He said, I'm going to make this covenant with you. I'm going to make you into a royal priesthood, a holy nation.
Moses goes back and he asked the people and either the people all together or the elders, I'm not sure exactly how this works out. They say, yeah, we're going to do it. We're going to keep this covenant. We want to be God's people. They enter into this contract. He will be our king. He will be our head. We will be his people.
So the Lord shows that he's going to be present and he's going to show, this is a preview into tomorrow, that he's going to establish the nation by laws. He's going to give them a set of moral laws. that are going to mark them as peculiar. And then he's going to give them all sorts of sundry and civil laws for how they're to operate, both in the temple or in the tabernacle, as well as in their civil courts. So we're going to spend lots of time in Exodus and Leviticus looking at how these people are supposed to be operating as a holy nation, as a royal priesthood. So he's going to work through this with them, establishing his covenant with them. But they're willingly entering into this. They're willingly saying, okay, we want to be into this.
Now, it has been hundreds of years since Abraham, right? as we come into this new Mosaic covenant, there's still the Abrahamic covenant that preceded and is over that covenant. There's still the covenant of grace that preceded when God said to the serpent, That there was going to be a seed that would come from the woman that would crush his head. That covenant of grace that God was going to finally bring about the destruction of Satan. This is still going on. That's still the overarching covenant.
The Abrahamic covenant was another installation of that, that we saw more blessings and more promises, but the scope was more narrow. And now we see that this covenant with Moses is going to be just with the Israelites. Other people we're going to find are allowed to believe and come into that covenant. But as we're going to see that When we come to this covenant, this is a peculiar covenant. It's still part of this covenant of grace. It's still under that umbrella, under that arc of the covenant of grace and under the arc of the Abrahamic covenant. But this is a more peculiar one. It's going to specifically mark off Israel as a nation.
Well, The Lord does come down on Mount Sinai, right, verse 20. Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mountains, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. This is God inviting Moses, the leader of his people, to come up to him. And then he sends him back down, and he says, bring Aaron with you, and he brings Aaron with him. So we're going to find in subsequent chapters that it's going to be God who establishes Aaron and his children as the priesthood forever.
And so this is what's going on, right? God is establishing a new nation. He's made a new covenant to establish this nation. He's going to do his work in them. And it's marked. This nation must be marked, right? Our nation is marked in America. Our nation is marked by our constitution. Our nation is marked by our bill of rights.
But we look back to the Declaration of Independence as that day that we celebrate. This is the type of day that they'll remember. We think of the fireworks. They remember the thundering, the trembling, being in absolute awe that God would show himself. in the lightning and in the thunder on Mount Sinai. Tomorrow we'll get to the Constitution.
As we work through what is Israel supposed to be, how are they supposed to behave, at this point today, they are established under their King, under their God, under their Sovereign, under their Holy One, Jehovah, God of hosts. What's the best verse to summarize this? Well, I have verse 15 underlined. I also have verse 20 underlined, and I have part of 24 underlined. What would you underline in your Bible as the best verse to summarize? Well, I see calling.
What are we called to do? Well, God has called us who were not his people to be his people. We are now in the new covenant. A covenant that Jesus Christ entered into with his own blood. That all who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ may be saved. And the New Testament points back to this passage and says that he is now calling together a holy nation and a royal priesthood by faith. The Israelites had to have faith too. But now we're called to have faith. The covenant is expanded globally to all who will believe upon his name. And he's called us, each and every one of us, to be priests in his kingdom, to be holy as he is holy, to walk in his ways and to follow after him.
You know, the Amalekites didn't get to come to this covenant. The Moabites weren't allowed to. Neither were the Hittites or the Perizzites or the Canaanites or any of the other ites. But the Lord lets you. The Lord has been gracious in inviting even us, foreigners, strangers now. to be filled with the Spirit, brought into His covenant by faith.
Believe in Him. Rest in Him. Be thankful that He has remembered you and has invited you to His holy mountain. Let's pray. Father, You are the Holy One of Israel. You are the Sovereign of the world. The whole earth is Yours. and also our hearts. Father, please teach us to follow after you. Teach us to trust you. Teach us what our place is in your kingdom. In Jesus's name, Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ, and I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.