I read a story this week about two brothers who were in the kitchen getting ready to boil some eggs. The older brother said to the younger brother, “I’ll give you a dollar if you let me break three of these eggs on your head.”
“Promise?” asked the younger.
“Promise!” answered the older.
The older brother broke the first egg over his brother’s head with great delight. It wasn’t long before the second egg was broken over the younger brother’s head.
Standing stiff for fear that the gooey mess would get all over him, the younger brother asked, “When is the third egg coming?”
The older brother replied, “It’s not. That would cost me a dollar!”
There may be times when we feel like this. We are the younger brother who quickly takes a promise without consideration from whom it is coming. We don’t realize that there may be ulterior motives behind it. In situations like these, we are often left with egg on our faces and no extra dollar in our pockets.
It is hard for some people to trust anyone because of broken promises in the past. It makes it very hard to trust trustworthy people when you’ve been burnt by those who are not because they may look and sound very similar.
As we continue our Promises series, we will look at some covenants found in the Bible between God and man. These covenants shown to us by the Bible contain some promises that God makes to man. God has never broken His word, unlike some untrustworthy people we may have encountered in life. There has never been a promise that God has made that has not come to fulfillment.
The covenant that we want to look at today is God’s covenant with the people of Israel. This covenant is sometimes called “The Sinai Covenant.” David Van Reken says, “This covenant was anticipated in the covenant with Abraham and lay behind the covenant with David and the proclamation of the prophets. It was central to Old Testament religion, laying down the foundations of Judaism, which continues into the modern world. The Sinai Covenant was the formal institution of a relationship between God and his chosen people, Israel.”[1]David E. Van Reken, “Covenant,” in Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, vol. 1 [Grand Rapids: Baker Book Publishing, 1988], Logos.
It is found in Exodus 19. As we look at this covenant, I want to focus on four key points of the covenant.
Remember
The first key point that we will look at today is “Remember.” As God brought the Israelites to Mt. Sinai, we see Him call them to remember what He had done for them in verse 4.
You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.
Exodus 19:4 CSB
God had delivered the Israelites from 400 years of bondage and forced labor in Egypt. If you were with us last week, we saw how God told Abraham that this would happen. If you weren’t here last week, you can find that in Genesis 15:13.
God heard the cries of the Israelites while they were in Egypt and sent Moses to deliver them. God displayed His power in mighty ways through Moses and Aaron. In Exodus 19, we see God reminding them of His mighty work. He said that He carried them on eagles’ wings.
The primary purpose of bringing the Israelites out of Egypt was not to get them out of a bad situation. Was the situation terrible? Yes, but that was not the primary purpose. God shows in Exodus 19:4 that the primary purpose was to bring them to Himself.
God was more concerned with bringing the Israelites to Himself than He got them out of harm’s way in Egypt. It would not have been much of a deliverance if God had removed them from Egypt only to let them be on their own. God knew that the best place for them to be was near Him.
The importance of remembering cannot be understated. We forget important things far too often. During times of forgetfulness, we drift back into what we were rescued from, if not getting into something worse than before.
Requirement
The second key point about this covenant is “Requirement.” In the first two covenants that we looked at in this series (Noah and Abraham), we could see that God asked nothing of man. God did every little thing pertaining to the covenant. In this new covenant that God makes with the Israelites, there are two things that God asks of them: listen and obey.
Now if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant…”
Exodus 19:5a CSB
God calls the Israelites to listen to Him. There are so many voices that are attempting to grab our attention. Whom we listen to will determine the direction in which one will go. Listening is much more than hearing. Hearing is simply the body recognizing sounds. Listening is intently hearing with the purpose of allowing what is heard to guide you in some manner. A child may hear his parent telling him to clean his room. That same child begins to listen when he gets up and cleans his room. Listening and obeying are two sides of the same coin.
God doesn’t tell the Israelites that they had to jump through many hoops with this covenant. It was simply an invitation to be in a relationship with Him and listen and obey what He said.
Result
This brings us to the third key point about this covenant: the result.
…you will be my own possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine, and you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation. These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites.
Exodus 19b-6 CSB
God shared with the Israelites what would happen if they would do what He asked of them. He said they would be His own possession out of all the peoples. Everything in creation belongs to God and is under His rule. It may not seem like it at times, but that is how it is. God was saying by this that the Israelites would be used in a way like no other people group for God’s work. He would give them a strong identity, and they would be whom God would use to do great things in this world.
Part of this work would be that the Israelites would be a kingdom of priests. A priest stands between people and God. A priest would be the one who would bring the sacrifices of people before God. A priest would also be the one who would bring God’s word to people. God said that it wouldn’t be just one or two of the Israelites but that He would use the entire nation to serve in this role.
Another part of this work is that the Israelites would be God’s holy nation. This doesn’t mean that they would walk around with a glow and music around them all the time. It means that they would stand out as set apart by God for His purposes. The entire world would recognize that the God of the Israelites was the one true God by how He used them.
When it comes to a commitment, a person wants to know what is in it for them. This isn’t always a selfish thing. If you were called to devote your life to something, you would want to know it was worth the investment. God shares with the Israelites that His plan for their lives is one that no one else could give them. It was also a plan that would have significant effects on many generations.
God comes to each one of us with the same invitation. He calls us to come to Him — our Creator — and follow His ways. He has promised that following Him leads to life as intended to be lived — abundantly or to the fullest. God calls us to come to Him and trade in our broken lives destined for destruction for His renewed life that leads to peace and fulfillment.
Response
There is a final key point to this covenant that I call response. The covenant that God wanted to make with the Israelites called for them to respond to His invitation. God was not going to force the Israelites into being His people. He sends Moses back to the people with the invitation.
After Moses came back, he summoned the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him. Then all the people responded together, “We will do all that the LORD has spoken.” So Moses brought the people’s words back to the LORD.
Exodus 19:7-8. CSB
As Moses gathered the leaders of the people of Israel together, he shared with them all that God had told him. We see a pattern set for us today as God’s people to follow. As we spend time with the LORD, He will give us a message to share with others. We must be faithful in sharing that message. Every follower of Jesus has been given the message of the gospel to share with any who has not trusted in it yet. We are not to decide for them, but how can they choose to trust in Christ if they never hear the message?
How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher?
Romans 10:14 CSB
Moses brings the offer of God’s covenant to the people of Israel and lays it out before them. Now, they have to respond. They can either choose to receive this wonderful gift or reject it and go their own way.
We see this format even being used by God with people today. God has offered a relationship with Him to any person that will listen to Him and obey what He has said. God gave His one and only Son, Jesus, as the only sacrifice to pay for our sins. God raised this Jesus from the grave to show that He alone has the power over sin and death. God calls for us to not just hear about that but to listen to it and accept it. The obedience comes in by us turning from our sin and completely trusting in and following Jesus with everything we are. Any person that will do that will be brought into a relationship with God that lasts from that moment through all of eternity.
No one can make this decision for us, however. That is a response that can only come from our hearts. Our parents cannot do it for us. Our spouse cannot do it for us. Our friends cannot do it for us. That decision is in our hands.
As Moses brings this invitation to a covenant with God to the people of Israel, we see them responding. They chose to take God at His word and enter this new relationship. They say, “We will do all that the LORD has spoken.” God took that response and set into motion His plan from eternity past that is still working today. Through the Israelites, the Savior of the world, Jesus, would come.
Conclusion
This covenant that God would make with the Israelites at Mt. Sinai was a new work at the time in the area of the relationship between God and man. God showed here that He loves His creation even though it has rebelled and turned away from Him. God began to set in motion His plan of redemption. This would not be the last covenant that God would make with man. This one points to a new covenant that would come, but this had to be in place for that to happen.
From this covenant, we get a picture of how God works often. He wants us to know Him as best we can. He desires a relationship with us that nothing or no one else can fill. He has proven Himself repeatedly, and He calls us to remember that. He shares with us that there will be things that He requires of us, but “His yoke is easy, and His burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). God even shares with us what the results would be if we take Him at His word and follow Him. Sure, there may be challenging and difficult times in this life, but He has promised to provide everything needed and walk with us through those times.
The one thing that God doesn’t do is force this upon us. He has laid out an invitation to every person and said, “Now, you have to choose.” This is because God wants us to love Him, and love is a choice that a person makes.
What is God laying before you at this moment? What is God calling you to trust Him with? There are only two ways that we can respond: we can choose to receive, or we can choose to reject. What will we choose?
References
| ↑1 | David E. Van Reken, “Covenant,” in Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, vol. 1 [Grand Rapids: Baker Book Publishing, 1988], Logos. |
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