Exodus 19:3–6

These chapters begin a new dispensation. Up to the end of chapter 18 grace reigned, and it shaped all God's dealings with His people. But from this point on they were put, with their own consent, under the strict requirements of law. Sinai is the expression of this dispensation, and so is tied to it for all time… Grace had already searched them, and found nothing but disobedience, rebellion, and sin; and now they were to be tested by law. This has been God's object in all His dispensations — to test, and so to reveal, what man is. But — blessed be His name — if He has exposed the incurable corruption of our nature, He has revealed at the same time what He is. He taught that, if man is completely ruined and lost, help and salvation are to be found in Him, and in Him alone.

God called Moses up into the mountain, so that he might receive a fresh proposal from Him and carry it to the people.

God reminds them of His mercies… This is God's emphatic way of putting before them the two things — grace and law. Would they accept all as the gift of grace, or risk all upon their obedience? "Say to the house of Jacob" should have reminded them of Jacob's failures — they were of his house, and would fail just as he did. "Tell the people of Israel" should also have told them, loud and clear, that God gave the name "Israel" — prince — in pure grace. All Israel's prosperity was due to grace alone. The same grace was there for them. Their choice was a sad one.

There are two things in the message which the Lord commissioned Moses to carry to the people. First, He reminds them of what He had done for them. He does it in a way that should have taught them their own complete helplessness, and that all their resources were in God… He had rescued them from Pharaoh and destroyed him and his armies. He had carried His people by His might, brought them to Himself, and given them a place of nearness and relationship. He had done everything for them, and He appeals to their own knowledge in proof of it.

"I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself." This is the foremost thought in the salvation of God. In time they would indeed learn that the same work had brought them to the land they longed for. But this was the basis of every blessing right through to the end.

In Exodus the people were to be "a peculiar treasure," "a kingdom of priests," "a holy nation" — but only if they truly obeyed God's voice. In Peter, Christians of Jewish background are reminded what they are, without any "if." They are "a royal priesthood," "a holy nation," "a peculiar people" — three things almost identical with the three things of Exodus. But they are also a fourth thing, which does not appear in Exodus. They are "a chosen generation," and that made a difference of immense importance. They were a new generation of God's choice — a born-again people.

Here a huge change was taking place in Israel's position. Until then the promise made to them had no conditions. Look over chapters 15 to 19. You will find that God had given them everything freely, even while they complained — the manna, water to drink, the sabbath, and so on. He had also supported them in their fight with Amalek at Rephidim. He reminds them of all this: "You yourselves have seen," He says to them, "how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself; now therefore, if…" This is the first time in God's dealings with Israel that the little word if appears.

These words point to divine power. In the deliverance out of Egypt God jealously shut out every other power. Israel was to learn the grace and might of a Saviour-God.

He brought Israel into the wilderness to have them completely alone with Himself. There He could teach them what He was. As He said later: "You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself." He lets us pass through these trials so that we may fully understand that everything there comes from God. The eagle's wing never tires or fails.

Then we find redemption — the active intervention of God to make good the promises made. We do not now have a promise of something still to come, but actual deliverance, as Exodus 19:4 says. Peter says the same in 1 Peter 3:18: "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God." The work done to put away sin is so complete that now not one thing stands — morally, I mean — between God and the one who has part in it.

Israel's special privilege was nearness to God: He "brought you to Myself." Compared with all the nations around them, this gave Israel a priestly standing before God.

In the very giving of the law, God spoke these words: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." The ways of God are very precious; God must be true to Himself. He did not command obedience so that they might be redeemed, but because they were redeemed.

This is God's emphatic way of putting before them the two things — grace and law. Would they accept everything as the gift of grace, or risk everything on their obedience? "Say to the house of Jacob" should have reminded them of Jacob's failures. They belonged to his house, and they would fail just as he did. "Tell the children of Israel" should have told them in the loudest tones that God gave the name Israel — which means prince — in pure grace.

Here was an immense change taking place in the state of Israel: until then the promise made to them had been unconditional. Look over chapters 15 to 19. You will find that God had given them all things freely, even though they murmured — the manna, water to drink, the sabbath, and so on. He had also sustained them in their fight with Amalek at Rephidim. He recalls all this to their memory. "You have seen," He says to them, "how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself; now therefore, if …" This is the first time, in the relationship between God and Israel, that the little word if appears.

Notice, it is "My voice" and "My covenant." What was the utterance of that "voice"? and what did that "covenant" involve? Had the Lord's voice spoken to lay down the rules of a severe and unbending lawgiver? Not at all. It had spoken to demand freedom for the captives. It had spoken to provide a refuge from the sword of the destroyer, and to make a way for the ransomed to pass over. It had spoken to bring down bread from heaven and to draw water out of the hard rock.

And as to His "covenant," it was one of unmixed grace. It proposed no condition. It made no demands. It put no yoke on the neck, no burden on the shoulder… His word to Abraham was, "I WILL GIVE." The land of Canaan was not to be bought by man's doings. It was given by God's grace.

They could not have forgotten what had already happened. In the short three months since they crossed the Red Sea, they had sinned again and again. Every fresh difficulty had only shown their failure and sin. So if they had gone over their past experience, they would have seen that accepting these new terms would cost them everything. They would surely have said to one another, "We have disobeyed time after time. We fear the same thing might happen again, and then we forfeit everything. No; we must throw ourselves without reserve on that same grace which has saved, led and preserved us." But instead they accepted the condition at once and said, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do." Their past experience counted for nothing… Their own felt helplessness should have made them cling to what God was for them, which is grace. Instead they foolishly offered to make everything depend on what they could be for God, which is the principle of law.

You could translate this expression as "My own possession." God used those very words of His people (see Exodus 19:5), if only they would hear His voice and keep His covenant.

When Abraham's nation appeared, the Lord had chosen them to be His witnesses. He put them in possession of a portion of the earth, to hold it under Him as their Lord. This showed that He, who took whatever portion He pleased, had title to the whole. Israel, established as God's people, should have stayed among the nations yet formally separate from them, reflecting the light of God's glory as King of all the earth.

Because of the people's transgressions under the first covenant, this purpose of God was never realised. That did not cancel it. It still holds good that the Lord "has chosen Jacob for Himself, and Israel for His peculiar treasure" (Ps. 135:4).

Had Israel obeyed the voice of God and kept His covenant, they would have been to God "a peculiar treasure", a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:5-6). They failed. The nation was set aside, and believers are now seen as taking the place of Israel as a witness to God before the world.

Priesthood was what God proposed to Israel. It was what He had in mind in connection with redemption... This was His original thought for them, and He held to it all through, although it could not be carried out then. In Christianity the redeemed are in fact priests, as the apostle to the Jewish people shows. "I brought you to Myself," fully realised, is priesthood in at least one of its essential characters: the ability to draw near to God. "The priests who come near to the LORD" (Ex. 19:22) is one of the earliest titles describing them.

For this, holiness was an absolute requirement. A "kingdom of priests" implies a "holy nation." And so in Israel the official nearness was only outward, because the holiness was so largely outward. God was, as we know, teaching spiritual truths by means of outward representation. In Christianity we have the substance of these shadows.

Here was an immense change taking place in the state of Israel: until then the promise made to them had been unconditional. If you look over chapters 15 to 19, you will find that God had given them all things freely, even despite their murmurings — the manna, water to drink, the sabbath, and so on. He had also sustained them in their fight with Amalek at Rephidim. He recalls all this to their memory, and then adds: "now therefore, if…" This is the first time in the relationship between God and Israel that the little word if appears.

Notice, it is "my voice" and "my covenant." What did that voice say? Had it made itself heard to lay down the rules and regulations of a severe and unbending law-giver? By no means. It had spoken to demand freedom for the captives, and to provide a refuge from the sword of the destroyer. It had spoken to make a way for the ransomed to pass over, to bring down bread from heaven, and to draw water out of the hard rock. These were the gracious, clear words of the LORD's voice, right up to the moment when "Israel camped before the mount."

Israel was not willing to take this blessed position. Instead of rejoicing in God's "holy promise," they made the most presumptuous vow that human lips could utter. All the people answered together and said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do." This was bold language. They did not even say "we hope to do" or "we will try to do." That would have expressed some measure of self-distrust. But no; they took the most absolute ground.

Israel never became a "kingdom of priests" under the law. The choice of Aaron and his family afterwards shows this fully. The people as a body were shut out of the priesthood. For anyone not of Aaron's line, entering the priestly office meant death.

It is a clear allusion to Exodus 19. It follows the Hebrew idiom in the true reading: not exactly "kings and priests" here, but "a kingdom, priests." There is of course this essential difference. There it was only an offer, conditional on Israel's legal obedience. Here grace has given us the position.

In that day Israel will stand in priestly nearness to God, compared with other nations. At Sinai He said, "If you will obey My voice… you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests" (Ex. 19:6). This has never yet been realised. In Hosea 4:6 we hear the voice of Israel's indignant God: "I reject you from being a priest to me." But in the day of kingdom-glory, "you shall be called the priests of the LORD; they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God" (Isa. 61:6).