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1. When did the Israelites come to the Desert of Sinai? (1-2) What is God’s message to the Israelites? (3-6) In these words of God, how did God express his relationship with them? What hope does he have for them? How did the people respond to all the words of the LORD Moses set before them? (7-8) 2. How are Moses to help his people prepare for the LORD who would come down on Mount Sinai? (9-11) What warning did the LORD give? (12-13) When Moses came down from the mountain, what instruction did Moses give to them? (14-15) 3. Describe the sight of the Mount Sinai when the LORD descended on its top? (16-20) What warning did God give again? (21-25) What does this teach us?

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So far we could see how the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, let them cross the Red Sed, and led them in the desert. After crossing the Red Sea, their spirits were high and they praised the LORD. In the desert they grumbled against the LORD in their thirstiness and hunger, yet the LORD cared for them without fail. Also, in their first battle with Amalekites the Israelites were victorious when they depended on God. A noticeable reality in the battle was that as long as Moses lifted up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. So Aaron and Hur supported Moses in his hand-lifting, and finally Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. Then Moses confessed, “The LORD is my banner”, for hands were lifted up to the throne of the LORD. This excellently shows a spiritual reality that victory or defeat relies on the lifting up of our hands toward God, which is our whole dependence on God in prayer. We clearly learn the secret of victory. “The LORD is my banner” may be our confession at each personal battle and in serving God’s ministry, with our hands beingare lifted up to the throne of God. Also, in the last lesson, Jethro, the priest of Midian, impressively confessed, “The LORD is greater than other gods”. His advice to work together with God-fearing people was also significant. After many ups and downs in their journey post-Exodus, the Israelites arrived at the Desert of Sinai, God’s first designated place, where they would stay for approximately eleven months. In today’s passage, God reveals his amazing hope for them to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, reminding them of his marvelous grace of bringing them out of Egypt and making them his treasured possession. First, God’s treasured possession; their obedience (1-5a). Verses 1 and 2 say. “In the third month after the Israelites left Egypt—on the very day—they came to the Desert of Sinai. After they set out from Rephidim, they entered the Desert of Sinai, and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain.” Here, their coming to the Desert of Sinai is emphasized with, “they came to the Desert of Sinai” and “they entered the Desert of Sinai.” In chapter 3, when Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”, God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain” (3:11-12). What Moses thought was impossible became reality. Moses not only went to Pharaoh and brought the Israelites out of Egypt, but also led them to this mountain as God had promised. Now they were going to worship God on this mountain. On arriving there, Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel.” Here is an emphasis on whom Moses is to tell, the house of Jacob, the people of Israel. Then what is the LORD’s message Moses had to deliver to the people of Israel. In verse 4, “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” Let’s think of this one first. The LORD promised that he would bring the Israelites out from under the yoke of the Egyptians, free them, and redeem them with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgments (Ex. 6:6-7). He did so by inflicting on the Egyptians ten plagues. Particularly, at the tenth plague, on the night when the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. Finally, Pharaoh let the Israelites go and worship the LORD as they requested (Ex. 12:29-32). The Israelites could see all these with their own eyes. The LORD also said, “You yourselves have seen how I carried you on eagles’ wings.” In Deuteronomy 32, Moses, in retrospect, wrote that the way the LORD led the Israelites was on that of eagles’ wings. An eagle stirs up its nests, hovers over its young, spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions. This was what the LORD did for the Israelites. Although they lived as slaves in Egypt, they seemed to be okay with such a miserable life, as long as they could enjoy the food they wanted. They were absolved in such a life for a long time. However, God stirred up their nest of comfy life until they groaned and cried out to the LORD under the Egyptians’ oppression. Then the LORD hovered over them, spread his wings to catch them and carried them on the pinions until they could make an Exodus. Yet, the Exodus was not the end. God led them by the desert road. They faced the Red Sea while Pharaoh’s army, made of six hundred of the best chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt, pursued the Israelites. They were terrified. It was like an eagle dropping its young to the point of almost touching the ground. In that terrifying situation, who could save them? Of course, the LORD did. He protected them from the attack of the Egyptian army by dispatching the angel of God and the pillar of cloud from the front to the back, and opened the way for them to walk through by dividing the waters of the sea. It was like the LORD was carrying them again on his eagles’ wings, flying high in the sky. No one but the LORD alone could do this (Dt. 32:12). The LORD’s perfect care and loving discipline continued as he led them into the desert with no water to drink and no food to eat, then providing bread from heaven and water from the rock. In the LORD’s care and discipline, they could be strong enough to confront their first enemy, the Amalekites, and win the battle by following God’s leading. They say that the swallow does not train its young but just provides food for them when they cry. However, the eagle trains its young to catch their own food and fly high in the sky, from babyhood. The LORD is the one who created eagles to bring up their young in this way. Here, he used the term “eagles’ wings” to describe how he cared for Israelites and trained them that they might not remain spiritual babies but grow. And the LORD said, “…brought you to myself.” Apparently, God brought them to Mount Sinai in the course of leading them into the promised land of Canaan. What does it mean that the LORD brought them to himself? In Exodus 6:7, the LORD promised that after redeeming them, he would take them as his own people and he would be their God.” They had belonged to Pharaoh and lived under the bondage of Pharaoh, but the LORD brought them out of that bondage and slavery to bring them to himself. Now they were his own people and the LORD was their God. They became his possession, his treasured possession, through his redemption. What grace! Look verse 5. “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.” We should understand these words correctly. We know that our obedience cannot earn salvation. Rather, those who are saved are to obey God out of thanks for his saving grace and love for him. In the same way, by God’s marvelous grace of redemption, the Israelites became his possession, his treasured possession, in a covenant relationship. In this grace they were to obey God, fully keeping God’s covenant in their hearts. When God called Abraham with his words of promise, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you…” and Abraham accepted the calling by faith, Abraham entered into a covenant relationship with God. It was explicitly expressed in Genesis 15:18, “On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river.’” This was right after Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness (Ge. 15:6). Then the LORD said in Genesis 17:5-7, “…I have made you a father of many nations….I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.” Afterwards, when Abraham obeyed God, even God’s command of sacrificing his son Isaac, God was so pleased and said, “Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Then he confirmed his covenant with Abraham, swearing by himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore” (Ge. 22:12-18). The Israelites, as Abraham’s descendants, were redeemed and regarded as God’s covenant people. Now as Abraham obeyed God, he wanted the Israelites to obey the LORD God so that they might be established explicitly as his covenant people. He wanted them to live as his treasure possession in obedience to God, keeping God’s covenant in their hearts, which later would include the law to develop the relationship. We can think of the term “treasured possession”. To Adam, Eve was his treasured possession, which was expressed when Adam said, “This is now my bone of bones and flesh of my flesh” (Ge. 2:23). Abraham got Isaac, the son of God’s promise, after 25 years of life of faith. So definitely Isaac was Abraham’s treasured possession. God knew this and said to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love…” (Ge. 22:2). To Jacob, Joseph was his treasured possession. When he concluded that Joseph was devoured by some ferocious animal, he refused all comfort and cried, “In mourning will I go down to the grave to my son” (Ge. 37:35). How precious God’s treasured possession is! God shields, cares for and guards his treasured possession as the apple of his eye (Dt. 32:10). He watches over them not slumbering or sleeping (Ps 121:3). He never forgets them (Isa. 49:15). He takes great delight in his treasured possession (Zeph. 3:17). In Deuteronomy, Moses reminded Israelites repeatedly that they were God’s treasured possession. He said in 7:6, “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” Again, he said in 14:2, “for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be his treasured possession.” Then he said in 26:18, “And the LORD has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands.” God’s treasured possession are to obey him fully because of his love for them and their love for him. Nonetheless to say, to God, Jesus was his treasured possession, revealed when he said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Mt 3:17). And Christ Jesus obeyed God unto death, death on a cross (Phil 2:8). For this he had prayed, “yet not my will, but yours be done” (Lk 22:42). He clearly said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:23). We thank and praise God for making us his treasured possession through the sacrifice of his Son, Christ Jesus, in whose blood we have a new covenant with God May we always remember that we are his treasured possession in Christ Jesus and live in this amazing blessing through our personal obedience to him. Second, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (5b-8). The LORD speaks continually, “Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” At that time the Egyptian Empire was most powerful. We can say that Egypt was a kingdom of slave drivers and a mighty army. Pharaoh ruled the people through them. Here, God spoke of Israel as being a kingdom of priests. The exact description, “a kingdom of priest” is only written here in the Bible, though the idea flows throughout Bible. So, it carries a heavy weight, here. When the LORD spoke of a “kingdom of priests”, it was before Israel’s priesthood was established in Exodus. It is interesting that in Exodus, Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, was introduced as the priest of Midian 3 times before this passage, (2:16; 3:1; 18:1). This shows that at that time people knew the concept of priests. Generally speaking, at that time, priests were those who took charge of the sacrificial system through which man could approach their gods. As we thought of in the last lesson, Jethro came to know the LORD, the true God, when he heard of what the LORD had done for Israel. So, his role as a priest was not authentic in the true sense of the word. Now the LORD said that Israel, who experienced with the LORD through his redeeming grace, would be a kingdom of priests. They would be true priests, standing between God and men, and brin the people of the world to the LORD, the true God. What a significant and tremendous role it is! For this purpose, God brought them out of Egypt to himself, making them his treasure possession. They were called to serve this purpose as God’s coworkers to bring the people to the LORD. Here we see the hope of God. They were former slaves and even after coming out of Egypt, they showed their persistent slave mentality. They grumbled against the LORD and his servant Moses time and again in their difficult life situation. They wanted to go back to their miserable life, just to survive. Yet, here, God revealed his great hope for them to be a kingdom of priests. In Genesis, when Abraham grew mature in faith, God told him that he would direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD for the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham (Ge. 18:19). Also, when Abraham heard about the impending judgment upon Sodom, he prayed for the people in the city, earnestly pleading with the LORD and bargaining 6 times. Through this intercessory prayer of Abraham, God rescued Lot from the fiery destruction upon Sodom. What Abraham did is a shadow of the role of the LORD’s priests. Later on, in Exodus, God established Israel’s priesthood. Only Aaron’s descendants were designated as priests to enter the sanctuary and serve God. No one could approach God and do the work of the sanctuary, but only the priests in Aaron’s line. Then in the New Testament, apostle Peter said to the scattered Christians under fiery persecution, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession” (1 Peter 2:9). To God, the redeemed people in Christ are his treasured possession, his special possession. To the world they are his royal priesthood. It is to declare the praises of him who called them out of darkness into his wonderful light. Then we read in Revelation 1:5b-6a, “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father.” Afterwards in Revelation 5, the redeemed church saints sang a new song to the Lamb, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God…” (Rev. 5:9-10). All these words of God in Exodus, 1 Peter and Revelation show God’s heart desire to us his people to keep the wonderful identity as a kingdom of priests and live accordingly in this world. Apostle Paul expressed his priestly duty this way in Romans 15:16, “to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentile with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.” As God’s people, his treasured possession, we have many duties. But the priestly duty would be most important and urgent. That is to proclaim the gospel of God to the people of the world and bring them as acceptable offering to God. The LORD said, “you will be for me a kingdom of priests…” It is in accordance with the Lord’s prayer, “Hallowed be your name; your kingdom come” (Lk. 11:2). A kingdom of priest and a holy nation are to go together. “Holy” means “separated” or “set apart.” One of the reasons God wanted to bring the Israelites to Canaan through conquering the land was because of the extreme corruption of the people in the land. It was God’s judgment upon them. God said to Abraham in Genesis 15:16, “In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” When their sin reached its full measure, God executed his judgment upon them through his people. In doing this the LORD God wanted Israel to be a holy nation there in the promised land. When we look at the world, the moral deterioration is beyond our comprehension, going farther and farther from God and the words of God. Man use all their intellect and human laws to stand against God to be free from God, only to be degraded to animalistic level of being and perhaps even worse, for animals do not know how to defy God. Also, in our modern time, there seem to be so many things to enjoy and so distract us from God-centred life. When God’s people do not positively seek his holiness, they can be swept away in the torrent of sin in moral/sexual complacency and hedonism. This is the reason God wants us to stay close to him, actively engaging in a spiritual battle each day with his words, prayer, and life of mission, growing in loving obedience to him. When we think of God’s treasured possession, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, all these are succinctly expressed in Jesus’ words in John 21, “Do you love me?” “Feed my lambs.” Loving Jesus and feeding his sheep can be the wonderful life of God’s treasured possession and a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Jesus had said in John 10:16, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” Lastly the LORD said to Moses in verse 6, “These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” Moses had to speak God’s message to Pharaoh, “Let my people go, so that they may worship me” again and again, which was not easy for Moses to do. Yet, that mission was completed. Now Moses were to speak these words to Israelites, which must have been harder for Moses to do, for he experienced what kind of people they were. It would be unbelievable that they would be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Moses had to learn obedience to God continually and God’s hope for his people. When Moses delivered God’s message to the people, they all responded together, “We will do everything the LORD has said” at this point. Third, God’s descending on Mount Sinai (9-25). In this part, there is an extensive conversation between the LORD and Moses. The LORD said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud…” in verse 9 and “the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people” in verse 11. Then in verse 18, it is written, “the LORD descended on it in fire” and in verse 20, “The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai.” This happened onec in history. God clearly warned, “Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. He shall surely be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on him. Whether man or animal, he shall not be permitted to live” (12-13). What a strong warning! Consequently, what was the atmosphere? Verses 16-19 says, “On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and very loud trumpet blasts. 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.” God’s coming down was good, but the atmosphere was dreadful and all sinful human beings trembled, while the whole mountain trembled violently. According to Hebrews 12:21, the sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.” In this way God revealed his holiness. Although this was a dreadful event, this coming down of the LORD would be a prelude of the Son of God coming into this world and the Holy Spirit’s coming on the day of Pentecost. We thank and praise God for making us his treasured possession through the coming and sacrifice of his Son Christ Jesus. In this grace may we live in this world as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation in obedience to him.

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