Israel finally has its meeting with God in Exodus 19. It would be an unforgettable experience. God came down on Mt Sinai accompanied by thick black smoke, lightning and thunder, and raging hot fire. The mountain itself trembled! The significance of this meeting is seen in Exodus 19:4-6. It was at this meeting with God that the covenant between God and Israel would be officially inaugurated. What is outlined for us in v.4-6 are details about what it would mean for Israel to now officially be God's people. These verses are significant ones in the Bible because they will later inform our understanding of what it means for the church to be God's people.
These verses tell us a couple of things about Israel and its role as a people of God.
1. Israel exists because of the special care and attention God gave them. God saw them in Egypt and specifically brought them out of Egypt to himself. (v.4)
2. Israel was God's "treasured possession." Out of all the nations in the earth, God specially choose and cherished them to be his standout possession. (v.5)
3. Israel was specially chosen for a purpose – to be a priestly, holy kingdom. (v.6) In other words, all of the Israelites were uniquely set apart to represent God to the whole world.
What we are seeing with Israel is God beginning to follow through on his promise to Abraham in Gen 12:2-3. Israel was saved out of the nations in order to be used by God to save the nations. Yet almost immediately we see Israel fail in her calling. Before they even left Mt Sinai they began worshipping something else besides God (see the golden calf episode in Exodus 32). Over and over again throughout their history Israel would blend in and be like all the pagan nations around them rather than stand out as God's people.
Their failure to keep to this covenant points us to the need for a new and better covenant. What was needed was an arrangement whereby a people of God could be formed who would actually be able to live up to their calling. What was needed was a new and better Moses who could usher in this new covenant and ensure that God's people would be able to keep this covenant and fulfill their calling.
All that was needed God provided through Jesus. Jesus is the new Moses who through his life, death, and resurrection forms a new people of God that we know today as the church. This is a people from all backgrounds, cultures, and races, who can now not only come near to God but actually be in his presence (cf Heb 12:18-24). In the old covenant, the best we could ever hear was "Don't come closer to God!" This all changes because of Jesus. Through faith in him we experience God's very Spirit dwelling in our midst. Through him the church can now be the new Israel, the new people of God. 1 Peter 2:9-10 says as much by applying the language of Exodus 19 to the church today.
This reveals some key things for us. Your identity as a Christian is tied up with being part of the people of God. You are of a different race (1 Peter 2:9, "But you are a chosen race") with a special commission, to proclaim the excellent work of God that took us and changed us into being a people of God. This work is known as the gospel. It is a work of God that should shine out in our world through our habits, relationships, actions, and words as a distinct witness to the special and holy God who calls people to himself and makes them into his special and holy people. We embody the gospel when we care for those our world commonly dismisses and pushes aside as outcasts, recognizing that God cared for us through Jesus when we were outcasts from his presence. We embody the gospel when reject the cultural trend to justify ourselves by success or money or power, knowing that we are already justified forever by the finished work of Christ on the cross. We embody the gospel when we are unconcerned about being unrecognized, pushed aside or even humiliated because we already have the only glory that matters shining in our lives – the eternal glory of God.
Our aim then as God's people today should be to live lives with a gospel distinctiveness and gospel missionality, praying that by God's grace it would produce a distinctly gospel result, namely, many people finding salvation in this gospel and thus knowing the joy and blessing that comes when you belong to God as part of his people.
Some parting questions: What will it look like practically today for the church to be a chosen people, a holy nation and a royal priesthood so that we might "proclaim the excellencies" of God? What might we do to build churches full of people who live lives with a gospel distinctiveness and missionality?
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