Exodus 19 has to be one of my favourite Old Testament chapters. The reason I like it so much is what it reveals about our God and what He is really like. In bringing the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, God didn’t just bring them to a mountain in the Sinai desert – He brought them to Himself! God said to them,
You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.
Exodus 19:4 (NIV)
It’s important to remember that God rescued them from slavery and brought them to Himself before He gave them the law. Just like us, they were rescued wholly by God’s grace. God then explains He is calling them to be uniquely His.
Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation…
Exodus 19:5-6a (NIV)
Their status as God’s “treasured possession” set the Israelites apart for a special purpose. They are called to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,” serving as God’s representatives to the other nations on earth. This was a high calling!
Exodus 19 goes on to tell us that the Israelite people agreed to do all that God said. They were willing to do all that God was calling them to do.
Instructions on how to live
Three days later, the presence of God descends onto Mt Sinai with thunder, lightning, thick cloud and a loud trumpet blast. (This was actually the inaugural Pentecost – 50 days after Passover in Egypt.)
On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.
Exodus 19:16-19 (NIV)
This would have been utterly terrifying! God certainly had their attention.
The next chapter (Exodus 20) begins with God clearly speaking out and declaring the 10 Commandments. Deuteronomy chapter 5 fills in a little more detail about what this was like. This is how Moses recalls it:
The Lord spoke to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain… These are the commandments the Lord proclaimed in a loud voice to your whole assembly there on the mountain from out of the fire, the cloud and the deep darkness; and he added nothing more. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.
Deuteronomy 5:4, 22 (NIV)
So when they agreed to do all that God said, He declared “in a loud voice” instructions as to how they were to live as His holy people. In other words, their response to God’s grace was to follow these commands. Being obedient to the law meant they were being obedient to the call, and aligning themselves with God’s purpose for them as His holy people.
Bearing God’s name
There’s one particular commandment in association with this that I want to highlight:
You shall not bear (carry, lift up) the name of the Lord your God in vain (falsehood), for God will not hold guiltless one who bears (carries, lifts up) his name in vain.
Exodus 20:7 (Joy’s translation)
As God’s treasured possession, kingdom of priests and holy nation, Israel is to now bear or carry God’s name. They are to represent Him well to the nations around them. This was God’s purpose in bringing them to Himself. They are not to bear His name in vain or falsely, because this would show a distorted view of who He was. This one command was therefore going to affect everything about how they were to live.
Continuing to bear God’s name
Isn’t it interesting that the Apostle Peter picks up this same thread, where he says to believers,
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1 Peter 2:9-10 (NASB)
Yes, the new covenant Jesus inaugurated is far, far greater than the law – but the calling to represent God well remains. In the Old Testament, the response to God’s grace was in their outward behaviour. But from the New Testament until now, the response to God’s grace is firstly an inward transformation (which then flows through to our behaviour).
I’ll leave you to think further about what this means for you today. And as you do, remember that living up to our calling is not about our salvation (which is totally by grace), but it’s about fully aligning ourselves with our God and His kingdom, as those who bear His name in our generation.
(For further biblical background regarding bearing God’s name, see Carmen Joy Imes’ book Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters)
