Chapter 24: God’s Covenant with the Israelites
Q1 - What was the purpose of the people having to sanctify themselves before their meeting with God? Does God want us to be physically clean today? Was this for the people’s benefit or for God’s?
A1 - The process of sanctification involved the people washing themselves, washing their clothes, and abstaining from sexual relations. This was to be done in preparation for them coming before God. No doubt while they performed this outward cleansing process, they had time to contemplate on getting their hearts and minds focused on God, an inward cleaning process. God is a holy and righteous God, and they needed to cleanse themselves to be as holy as they could get in order to stand before God. Of course, they could never become clean enough.
Today, we cleanse our inward selves. Jesus shed His blood on the cross to become the perfect sacrifice for sin, once and for all time (Hebrews 10:11–14). We participate in his death, burial, and resurrection when we are baptized into Christ. As Paul explained in Romans 6:3–4 (ESV): “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
The water of baptism cleanses our inward selves. Peter explained that with baptism we receive forgiveness of our sins. He said this in Acts 2:38 (NIV): “‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”
When we are in Christ, we become new creatures in Him. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV), Paul tells us: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
John instructs us to continue to walk in the light. He says in 1 John 1:7,9 (ESV): “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin…If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The steps taken to cleanse one’s self, whether under the Old Law or the New Covenant, were then, and are now, for the benefit of the individual. God is holy and pure already. He cannot be made more so with the steps humans take to purify themselves, nor can He be made less so because of our uncleanness. The steps the Israelites took to purify themselves helped them to focus on God and turn their hearts toward Him. It’s much the same for us today, except we do so on a spiritual rather than a physical level.
Q2 - What does it mean that the Israelites were to be a “kingdom of priests?”
A2 - The priests were set apart for service to God. They served as the go-between, the mediators, between God and the people. They helped the people offer their sacrifices to God, and they helped teach and instruct the people about God and His laws.
As a nation, God promised the Israelites that if they would obey Him and keep His covenant, then out of all the earth, they would be His treasured possession. They would be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:5–6). As a nation, they would perform many of the functions that the individual priests did. They would help bring the knowledge of God to other peoples. They would also serve as the go-between in bringing Christ’s saving grace to the world. Through their lineage would come the Messiah. Because of Jesus, the Israelite nation would ultimately serve as the link that helped connect God with the world.
Q3 - How did the happenings here at the mountain of God help validate Moses’s role as God’s chosen leader of the Israelites?
A3 - God, by communing with Moses and responding to him in the presence of the people showed that Moses was God’s chosen leader. God responded when Moses spoke to Him!
The exhibit of God’s might at Mount Sinai had to have been a sight to behold. The people must have been terrified on the morning when when the thick cloud enveloped the mountain and smoke went up like that of a furnace. Yet, even with the thunder and lightning and the whole mountain shaking violently, Moses led them out to the base of the mountain for them to witness God’s presence. This had to impress upon all the people that Moses was truly the leader God had chosen for the Israelites.