Focal Passage: Exodus 19:1-8
The book of Exodus tells the wonderful story of how God delivered the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt and led them toward the Promised Land.
This narrative demonstrates the faithfulness of the Lord to His plan of salvation and great desire to make a people for Himself who will be a city on a hill, shining the Light of Christ on a lost and dying world.
Remember what God has done. The Lord led the people to Mount Sinai in the wilderness. God met the people there and reaffirmed His special relationship with them. God proved His covenant promise through preserving Israel during the plagues in Egypt.
He delivered the people from the clutches of Pharoah when He parted the Red Sea, bringing them across on dry ground. God delivered the people and brought them to Himself at Sinai. That is what God does for all those who have faith in Him.
God did not wait for us to get righteous enough to save. Rather, He took the initiative, sent His Son and invites us to Himself.
A key to salvation is understanding what God has done in spite of what we deserve.
Moore
Remember the purpose for which God set apart a people unto Himself. God shared a high calling through Moses for Israel in the wake of His mighty work of deliverance from slavery in Egypt.
As God’s “own possession out of all the peoples,” (Exodus 19:5), He expected His people to follow His covenant under the leadership of Moses. This Mosaic covenant would outline God’s righteous ideals for living and holiness, and the nation of Israel was called to abide by those laws.
In this covenant the Lord set Israel apart as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. God intended to bring all nations to Himself through the faithfulness of Israel to His covenant.
However, the nation of Israel could not fulfill such lofty ideals. Instead of spreading the presence of God and His righteousness throughout the world, they took God’s special relationship with them for granted and became unfaithful to God’s covenant.
However, God’s promises are not lost. The New Testament expands these identifiers for Israel in Exodus 19 to encompass all believers in God and Christ Jesus.
The Apostle Peter calls believers living stones, being built up into a spiritual house (I Peter 2:5). The disciples of Christ are a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession” (I Peter 2:9).
Now that Jesus has fulfilled the law of Moses to the fullest and paid for our forgiveness of sins on the cross, believers can now truly fulfill the high calling of God to Israel in Exodus 19:5-6.
Remember the condition essential to God’s covenant. Moses came down off the mountain and conveyed the Lord’s commandments to them. The people had a decision to make. God’s Word demands a response. We must either believe it or reject it.
If we trust in the truth of Scripture, God calls His people to live a life of obedience. Obedience does not save us, but it does confirm the authenticity of our profession. Jesus Himself calls us to not only hear the Word of God, but to do it. (Matthew 7:24)
We can say that we will do all that the Lord has spoken, but what matters are the fruits of the spiritual life to demonstrate the sincerity of that claim (Galatians 5:22-23). B&R
