And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives.
Exodus 19:15 belongs to the meeting at Sinai soon after the encampment, when Israel was taken into a close and peculiar relation to God to be incorporated as a church and a nation under His government. They were offered the covenant that if they would obey His voice and keep His covenant they would be a peculiar treasure above all people, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Through their elders they entered into a solemn covenant pledging to do all the Lord had spoken and to accept Him as their ruler as subjects of His authority.
God proclaimed His law to Israel at Mount Sinai after the people had largely lost its knowledge during their bondage in Egypt. He had brought Israel out of Egypt and established them in Canaan to preserve people from complete apostasy. The Lord came to Mount Sinai in awe-inspiring grandeur to give Israel His law, accompanied by promises for obedience to His commandments.
God spoke to the people through Moses to prepare them to hear Him and to meet Him. The required preparation to gather to hear the law was to be clean, with washing of bodies and clothes, for no impurity was tolerated in His presence. Disobedience to that preparation was punishable by death.
The words came straight from God's lips to Moses on the mount and belong to the nineteenth and twentieth chapters of Exodus, which are of great importance to be often repeated, sacredly observed, and studied for profit. That study shows that obedience to all of God's commandments is the highest education. The verse carries the demand of the only true God for obedience to His Word.
What God told Israel then He wants all to understand now, for the law given there speaks to people in every age and the experience of witnessing its proclamation was not to be forgotten. It joins the call for all who would stand on the Lord's side to keep holy the memorial of creation, the seventh day appointed as a day of rest after the work of creation in six days. That day was blessed and sanctified by the Lord of heaven and earth, at a time when every device is used to draw people away from truth and righteousness.
The command to be ready calls God's people up to a higher standard and into covenant relation with God. Unless they meet it, idolatry in one shape or another will be in their midst and will cut them away from the strength of Israel. Minds must be kept on the living God to serve Him and to commit no idolatry over humanity or over anything on the face of the earth. That giving up of idolatry includes spending less on having personal pictures made and putting that money into missionary work, with a missionary box in every house, and teaching children against picture-taking and magazines brought into houses.
Exodus 19:15 belongs to the meeting at Sinai soon after the encampment, when Israel was taken into a close and peculiar relation to God to be incorporated as a church and a nation under His government. They were offered the covenant that if they would obey His voice and keep His covenant they would be a peculiar treasure above all people, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Through their elders they entered into a solemn covenant pledging to do all the Lord had spoken and to accept Him as their ruler as subjects of His authority.
God proclaimed His law to Israel at Mount Sinai after the people had largely lost its knowledge during their bondage in Egypt. He had brought Israel out of Egypt and established them in Canaan to preserve people from complete apostasy. The Lord came to Mount Sinai in awe-inspiring grandeur to give Israel His law, accompanied by promises for obedience to His commandments.
God spoke to the people through Moses to prepare them to hear Him and to meet Him. The required preparation to gather to hear the law was to be clean, with washing of bodies and clothes, for no impurity was tolerated in His presence. Disobedience to that preparation was punishable by death.
The words came straight from God's lips to Moses on the mount and belong to the nineteenth and twentieth chapters of Exodus, which are of great importance to be often repeated, sacredly observed, and studied for profit. That study shows that obedience to all of God's commandments is the highest education. The verse carries the demand of the only true God for obedience to His Word.
What God told Israel then He wants all to understand now, for the law given there speaks to people in every age and the experience of witnessing its proclamation was not to be forgotten. It joins the call for all who would stand on the Lord's side to keep holy the memorial of creation, the seventh day appointed as a day of rest after the work of creation in six days. That day was blessed and sanctified by the Lord of heaven and earth, at a time when every device is used to draw people away from truth and righteousness.
The command to be ready calls God's people up to a higher standard and into covenant relation with God. Unless they meet it, idolatry in one shape or another will be in their midst and will cut them away from the strength of Israel. Minds must be kept on the living God to serve Him and to commit no idolatry over humanity or over anything on the face of the earth. That giving up of idolatry includes spending less on having personal pictures made and putting that money into missionary work, with a missionary box in every house, and teaching children against picture-taking and magazines brought into houses.