Exodus 19:6, commentary and pictures

God promised at Sinai that if Israel obeyed His voice and kept His covenant they would be His special treasure above all peoples, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation set apart for His service under His rule. The offer rested on what He had already done in delivering them from Egypt and bringing them to Himself, and it described a distinct people taken into close relation to Him as kings and priests of His royal family. Through them He would preserve the knowledge of Himself and His law in a darkened world, revealing His character of goodness, mercy and justice and imparting blessing to all nations. Israel readily pledged obedience yet did not know their sinfulness and inability to obey without a Saviour, and within weeks broke the covenant and afterward weakened their holy standing by mingling with surrounding nations and rejecting Christ. The same covenant remains in force and takes in every obedient soul, so that His commandment-keeping people in the last days are still called as a royal priesthood and holy nation to be separate from the world, keep the Sabbath, and show forth His praises.

Words Spoken at Sinai

These words were given in the third month after leaving Egypt, when Moses went alone up the mountain to meet God at the cloud of His presence. Moses was to speak them to Israel by laying them before the elders. They form the charter by which Israel was incorporated as God's people under a solemn covenant, with blessing promised in return for obedience.

All the people answered together that they would do all the Lord had spoken, with upraised hand. By that solemn pledge they entered covenant as God's denominated people and subjects under His rule. They pledged to accept Him as their ruler and to obey all His commandments, choosing Him as their King while He chose them as His people.

The promise rests on God's deliverance from Egypt and bringing them to Himself. Though the whole earth is His, they were to be His special treasure above all peoples. It describes what He had done and will continue to do, including choosing Abraham's faithful family, answering their cry in bondage, providing for them, and adopting them as His own. Receiving His mercies therefore called them to heed and value all His instruction for their good and to honor His name, and obedience would help them understand their duty more fully.

The verse belongs to God's patient preparation before speaking the commandments. He drew near in thick cloud that shielded the people from the glory of His presence so they could hear His voice. He confirmed Moses as spokesman by coming to him in thick cloud so the people would hear God speak with Moses and believe him forever. Bounds were set with priests and people warned not to break through to gaze, and then He descended with thunder and lightning and thick cloud and fire and smoke and earthquake and exceeding loud trumpet to give the ten commandments with audible voice. The law thus proclaimed already existed, and Israel was exalted as the people entrusted to hear it, keep it, and preserve it as its repository.

Jesus as maker of the law proclaimed it on Sinai. For forty years in the wilderness He Himself led them enshrouded in the pillar of cloud, which settled to show where to pitch their tents and lifted to move them forward, working marvelously for them in every difficulty and trial. Through them God displayed supreme authority, so other nations feared because Jehovah was with them. He established them in Canaan to preserve humanity from total apostasy and to fit them to possess the land and carry out His purposes in each life.

The covenant was ordained and established by God, not proposed by the people. Its promises were conditional on faithfulness and perfect obedience. Israel's weakness and instability showed they needed to trust God alone rather than depend on themselves, and the pledge is proved when they come into a hard place where they must believe Him forever instead of murmuring and complaining. Its saving basis is God's love and the gift of His Son received through faith, with the law given at Sinai as part of this solemn relationship.

The Sinai instruction is still needed in the present as the highest education because it comes directly from God. It calls for contention to cease, love among brethren, and softened hearts. Its laws guard against injustice and guide people in justice in their dealings with one another. Its setting belongs to the Jewish economy, whose truths are not yet fully understood.

Conditional Covenant Promise

The promise was conditional: if they obeyed His voice and kept His covenant, they would be His special treasure above all peoples, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, set apart for Him and subject to His divine authority. Moses was to lay these words before Israel, and by answering together that they would do all the Lord had spoken they took their stand as His denominated people under His rule. The covenant promise meant God would honor them, show them His love and power, care for them, and bless them above the nations. Obedience to His commandments would bring life and entrance into His kingdom, where His law will continue to be observed and must never be trifled with.

Merely professing to worship Him was not enough. Faithful obedience to the covenant terms is the basis of acceptance with Him, and the covenant embraces all who obey Him. That acceptance depends on faithfully fulfilling the pledged agreement to do all He commanded, including doing justice and judgment and avoiding evil, with the promised place in His house and an everlasting name belonging to those who take hold of the covenant. Profession does not establish character, which is shown by actions and fruit.

The covenant made at Sinai remains in force today as a perpetual covenant to a thousand generations, a refuge and defense for God's people. These promises apply as truly to God's people now as they did to Israel, and God will fulfill them to those who obey Him and worship in holiness, in spirit and in truth. When they meet His conditions and cooperate with Him, He acknowledges them as His own royal family and peculiar people, honoring them above the nations. Because He is coming near, the people are to be sanctified and stand separate and distinct, free from all worldly influence.

The offer was given to a people who in Egyptian bondage had largely lost the knowledge of God and His principles, after He had shown His power and mercy in delivering them from temporal bondage to lead them to love and trust Him. It was meant to teach them, living amid idolatry and corruption, the holiness of God, the exceeding sinfulness of their own hearts, their utter inability in themselves to render obedience to His law, and their need of a Saviour. Not realizing their sinfulness and that without Christ it was impossible to keep God's law, and feeling able to establish their own righteousness, they readily entered into covenant, then within weeks broke it by bowing to a graven image and could hope for no favor through a broken covenant. Seeing their sinfulness and need of pardon, they were brought to feel their need of the Saviour revealed in the Abrahamic covenant and shadowed in the sacrificial offerings, and by faith and love to be bound to God as deliverer from the bondage of sin, thus prepared to appreciate the blessings of the new covenant.

Obedience to His commandments is the test of love to Him and the only way to show love to the gracious heavenly Father, and it involves every covenant mercy. God is glorified to reign over a loving, obedient people, and He is glorified in those who carefully study His Word to learn what is in it and walk in cheerful, holy obedience. The word spoken to ancient Israel is to be obeyed today as much as by those to whom it was spoken. Wholehearted obedience would show the world that they honor God, make them a wonder and a praise among the nations, and allow God to fulfill His promises to them. Obedience to God's law is the condition of belonging to Him as a holy people and of future and eternal happiness, and spiritual prosperity depends on loyalty and willing obedience. Through Christ's life transgressions can be pardoned, and through repentance and faith people can become God's sons and daughters.

Disobedience weakens His people, as seen in neglect of duties at home and failure to unite with God leaving them unable to train their children for heaven. Israel's failure to keep its promise meant the people forfeited the blessings God wished to give them and were disqualified from being recognized as His peculiar treasure.

Meaning of Priestly Holiness

To be a kingdom of priests is to be taken into priestly service to God as kings and priests unto Him, acknowledged as members of His royal family when meeting His conditions, coming before Him in holiness and worshiping in spirit and truth. That standing is linked to obedience to the commandments given from Sinai, accepted by all with voice and hands lifted to heaven, and it makes its bearers heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, called to serve by leading others to Christ. It was the education the highest Teacher wanted them to receive, furnished with every facility to become a great nation, and it remains the same reward offered now, in which God communicates with His people and they may communicate with Him so they need not stumble along not knowing what they are about. Israel failed that condition when, while Moses was away awhile, they made a calf in idolatry.

To be a holy nation is to be a distinct holy people set apart for Him, taken into covenant as His treasured people in close and peculiar relation to Him and united with a holy God. It means living for His service under His special government and divine authority, subject to Him by obeying His voice and keeping His covenant. Because He was coming near they were to be sanctified, and the same requirement stands today to stand distinct and free from worldly influence, since obedience brings life and entrance into His kingdom where His law will continue to be observed. Their sacred identity forbids forgetting their position or being led away by mingling with the world, as when pursuing elocution so as to displace higher spiritual interests violated that calling and could cause souls to be lost. God intended to establish them in Canaan to live out that service as an example to all nations, and their desire to imitate surrounding nations and have an earthly king brought trouble and distress.

To be His peculiar treasure above all peoples, though all the earth is His, means He chose Israel to be a holy and special people above all on the face of the earth, called out of darkness into marvelous light to show forth His praises as a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people built as a spiritual house to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable by Jesus Christ. That choosing was not because they were more in number than any people, for they were the fewest of all peoples, but because He loved them and would keep the oath sworn to their fathers, bringing them out with a mighty hand and redeeming them out of the house of bondmen. He is the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy with those who love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations.

Their place in the covenant was an expression of His goodness and love after bringing them out of Egyptian slavery, not something they had sought or earned. He graciously took them as His own, invited them to rely on Him for defense, and undertook to educate and train them. The words spoken to them are God's own words, setting a standard of complete character revealed in Christ, joined to obeying His voice and keeping His covenant, and they are to be taught diligently to the young.

To be a kingdom of priests and princes meant living in entire dependence on God, looking to Him for instruction and relying on Him for power to carry out His plans in cultivating the vineyard entrusted to them, with the largest blessing and revenue promised to such dependence. Laws and regulations were given to be obeyed as a nation, as families, and as individuals, so as to give all nations on earth a true idea of His kingdom and government. The Jews expected this calling to mean earthly power and kingship, but it points to service to God rather than the force of arms they imagined. Where hearts controlled by God reflected His character and land was managed by His directions, it would be restored toward Edenic prosperity and beauty to His praise and glory, while selfish and covetous management without His wisdom, treating the land as their own, would lose vigor and bring dearth and sickness as testimony to disobedience.

Israel had a form of government essentially different from the nations around them, with God as their special leader giving laws and statutes and choosing rulers whom they were to obey in the Lord. In difficulty and perplexity they were to seek His direction, depending on Him as lawgiver and source of strength, and that dependence would draw them nearer to Him and elevate and ennoble them to a high destiny. Their demand for a king was a rebellious departure from His leadership and showed lack of faith in His providence. A human king would turn their trust toward human strength and away from God, and his errors could lead the nation into sin and separation from God.

Mission to Bless World

God separated Israel from the world to give a sacred trust as keepers and depositaries of His law, bringing them out of tents and encampments to meet Him at Sinai to hear with an audible voice the law that already existed and was not new. Taken into covenant as His special treasure after crying for deliverance and promising to serve and obey, they were exalted above all peoples though lifted from slaves, with barriers set against mixing with idol-worshiping nations and following their ways lest they be separated from Him. That calling was sacred and significant because the ten precepts were by no means to be confined to them but entrusted to the Hebrews to preserve and hand down to those upon whom the ends of the world are come, for whom their history was written as admonition, holding to the landmarks He gave for their own good and for the good of a world that did not know God.

Through them the knowledge of Himself was to be kept alive among men and the light of heaven to shine into a world covered in darkness, calling all peoples to turn from idolatry to serve the living God. By faithful devotion they would be blessed and made living channels of light to show that He is the only true and living God, a continual witness to the power and majesty of the Lord who made the world and everything in it. God disposed circumstances for them to remain a distinct people whom He would bless and multiply, make a power in the earth, and use to reveal the knowledge of His will, even permitting the descent into Egypt where Joseph's influence was widely felt and where gross idolatry, cruelty and oppression should have inspired abhorrence of idolatry and led them to flee for refuge to the God of their fathers.

By living out God's law and revealing His goodness, mercy, justice and love, they would show the world His character and the distinction of those who serve Him. Their obedience to His commandments was to make them an example of true righteousness before the nations and a model for His church, with their special standing bound to obedience to His word and to solemn covenant with Him. Through Israel God designed to impart rich blessings to all peoples and to prepare the way for diffusion of His light to the whole world, making them a praise and a glory and representatives of Himself through whom blessings would flow. He gave them every spiritual advantage and withheld nothing favorable to the formation of a character that would represent Him.

If true to their trust and obedient, they would become a power in the world with God as defense, exalted above other nations and standing under His wise and holy rule as an example of the superiority of His worship over every form of idolatry. Their obedience would make them marvels of prosperity and admired among nations, with Christ continuing as teacher to give wisdom and skill in all cunning work to ennoble and elevate them, blessing them with vigor of intellect and caring for body and soul in health and prosperity. That prosperity would preserve them if obedient from the diseases afflicting other nations and reveal in it His glory, majesty and power as a kingdom of priests and princes furnished with every facility for becoming the greatest nation on earth.

Israel was entrusted with His truth to make Christ known through revelation of His character and teaching of the sacrificial service, so that people of every nation could look and live. Brought out of Egypt and favored with light, had they remained faithful and shared what they received they would have continued as its guardians. To give all nations a true idea of God's kingdom and government they were given laws and regulations to obey as a nation, as families and as individuals, living in entire dependence on God for instruction and power in cultivating the vineyard entrusted to them, with largest blessing and revenue promised to such dependence. Where hearts controlled by God reflected His character, land managed by His directions would be restored toward Edenic prosperity and beauty to His praise and glory, while selfish and covetous management without His wisdom, treating the land as their own, would lose vigor and bring dearth and sickness as testimony to disobedience. As God prepared to establish them as His treasured holy nation in the promised land He tested them as He had tested humanity before the transgression in Eden, and keeping His Sabbath would mark them as His people set apart to serve Him.

Israel's Breaking and Misreading

Israel did not understand its own sinfulness, and did not understand that without Christ it is impossible to keep God's law, yet feeling able to establish its own righteousness it readily entered into covenant with God. The promise had been given to teach a people who amid idolatry and corruption had largely lost the knowledge of God the holiness of God, the exceeding sinfulness of their own hearts, their utter inability in themselves to render obedience, and their need of a Saviour. Only a few weeks after trembling before the mount they broke that covenant by bowing to a graven image. While Moses was away awhile they made a calf in idolatry, failing the condition of agreeing to obey and keep all the commandments given from Sinai. Their standing as God's special people carried the obligation to remain faithful to the covenant and to be prepared to live by its principles.

By mingling with surrounding nations they were exposed to idolatry and lost much of their holy character. By adopting the customs of the nations around them they sacrificed much of that distinct, holy character and ceased to value their high honor and special standing before God. God had permitted them to go down into Egypt where Joseph's influence was widely felt and circumstances favored remaining distinct, and where gross idolatry, cruelty and oppression should have inspired abhorrence of idolatry and led them to flee for refuge to the God of their fathers, because Israel was disposed to join with the heathen and imitate their idolatry. Satan turned this providence to his purpose by darkening their minds to imitate their heathen masters, by the withholding of sacrificial offerings during bondage which weakened faith in the great Sacrifice, and by seeking to hold that great people of more than two million souls in ignorance, superstition, obscurity and bondage to obliterate the remembrance of God from their minds and resist God's purpose to bless them.

The pledge to do all God had spoken is proved when the people come into a hard place, and many do not stand the proving but begin to murmur and complain and fret against the Lord instead of kneeling in simplicity to ask the Lord God of Israel for help. When they became lax in observance and broke the Sabbath and the other commandments, God was greatly displeased with that generation and permitted punishment to come upon them. Israel's experience shows that obedience brought His encouragement while determined disobedience and self-exaltation brought punishment. Their desire to imitate surrounding nations and have an earthly king was a rebellious departure from God's leadership and showed lack of faith in His providence. In difficulty and perplexity they were to seek His direction as their special leader who gave laws and statutes and chose rulers to be obeyed in the Lord, but turning trust toward human strength brought trouble and distress, where a human king's errors could lead into sin and separation.

The Jews expected the kingdom of priests to be fulfilled through an earthly ruler and prince who would free them from foreign and ruling power and make the nation prominent. They made it a proud boast that their coming king, the star arising from Judah, would break their bondage to the ruling power that governed them and make them that priestly kingdom by freeing them from oppression. Their expectation centered on political deliverance and earthly power and kingship rather than service to God, because they refused to keep the way of the Lord and obey His statutes, commandments and laws. They rejected Jesus because His holiness and light exposed their sin and false claims to purity and His rebuke was unwelcome, not because He lacked outward honor or glory. Christ came first to this specially favored people who alone professed to be governed by God's commandments and who trusted the promises as sure salvation, but they did not receive Him. The leaders failed to recognize Him as the maker of the law who had proclaimed it on Mount Sinai and stood at the foundation of their ceremonies.

Continuing Call and Obedient Life

The promise takes in every person without exception, applying not only to Israel but to every soul who obeys God's word, including those living amid the perils of the last days. It is part of the great covenant charter made with Israel, pledging that if they obey His voice and keep His covenant they shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, a peculiar treasure above all people because all the earth is His. He who is the Author and Finisher of faith will perfect the work begun for those united to the Saviour, for God is faithful by whom they are called to fellowship with His Son. As men and women cooperate with God in the work given them and exercise simple day-by-day faith that He will establish them in Christ, they go forward from strength to greater strength.

The same standing belongs to His commandment-keeping people in the last days as a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation and a peculiar people called out of darkness into marvelous light to show forth His praises. If the people obey His voice and keep His covenant they are set apart to serve Him, living as a set-apart people apart from fleshly desires. God's covenant purpose continues in every age: when they meet His conditions, come before Him in holiness, and worship Him in spirit and truth, He acknowledges them as members of His royal family and honors them as His peculiar people above all nations. The covenant made at Sinai applies for all time, and its promised blessings belong to those who obey and worship in holiness.

The Lord is now separating from the churches and the world a peculiar people zealous of good works, to be unlike any other people with the Lord as acknowledged ruler. As Israel was brought up from Egypt to keep the law, the words given to Moses to speak to Israel apply to His people in these last days to whom He has given great light. Seventh-day Adventists are so called to understand why they are distinct and to teach that identity and the foundations of faith to children in language suited to their understanding. As God brought Israel out of Egypt to keep His commandments and be led at every step into truth and righteousness, so He has brought a people out from the world to honor Him by keeping His commandments and to shine light to the world. Though marked by errors, imperfections and sins, they are still His Israel, not Babylon to be disorganized or called out of, but to be pleaded for with God as Moses pleaded for Israel.

Because God is coming near, the people are to be sanctified and stand separate and distinct, free from all worldly influences, as a peculiar treasure unto the Lord. Each person must be brought to God Himself before He can work through them in preparing a people to stand in the day of the Lord, hearing what He commands and obeying and giving themselves wholly to Him to receive His richest blessings with complete service. Obedience brings life and entrance into the kingdom where the law will continue to be observed and must never be trifled with. The instruction of Exodus 19 and Exodus 20 is of great importance, to be often repeated and sacredly observed, because the Lord is the only true God and demands obedience to His Word.

The words are to be read plainly before congregations and before those determined to enact Sunday laws, with no controversy and no words of men, to set forth the requirement to observe the seventh day and lay the burden of responsibility on those who reject it. The covenant is perpetual and to be held sacred to a thousand generations. Standing on the Lord's side now means refusing every device used to draw people away from truth and righteousness and keeping holy the memorial of creation and the Sabbath, against exalting the first day of the week and the power opposed to God behind it. Keeping the Sabbath is the special sign distinguishing God's people from the world, marking them as His people, while failure to keep it brought sorrow and shame. Parents are to teach children to obey the Sabbath commandment so they may be numbered among God's people.

God trained Israel to reach His ideal of character, leading them through the wilderness to prove them and promising to be their God and take them to Himself as His peculiar treasure on condition of obeying Him in all things, with assurance He would put no disease upon them. The food provided was part of that purpose: manna rained from heaven for free use with purest water from the rock was best suited to them, while meat was withheld in great measure without being fully prohibited. Their demand for the food eaten in Egypt led to a temporary grant of animal food, and the restriction was not made permanent because it continued to provoke discontent. By valuing earthly things above spiritual ones and departing from His plan for diet they failed to attain His purpose to bless and teach the world.

Therefore they must possess their bodies in sanctification and honor and abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Professing to stand on the elevated platform of eternal truth keeping all the commandments while indulging fornication and adultery dishonors Him and reproaches the truth with tenfold greater guilt. Obedience to the commandments fits His people for service as a kingdom of priests, as heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ called to serve by leading others to Christ. God makes an obedient people a holy nation and royal priesthood and gives victory over enemies arrayed against them, so they trust the Lord God of Israel rather than men and do not rely upon men.

As God's peculiar people they are tested to lay aside self and turn from selfishness to carry out His wise purposes by obeying His voice, heeding warnings, walking in His way and statutes, humbling hearts in penitence and taking Christ as pattern. When they do this He pours precious light upon them, confirms them, gives grace and wisdom, makes hearts rejoice, and gives steady prosperity unlike human fluctuations to themselves, their families, the church and His institutions. Refusing to obey and following counsels of their own hearts, words of men, and wrong friendships imperils their own souls and others through influence. Judah was counted among this holy calling which made heart holiness vital in every part of life especially service. The church dishonors God when it neglects being distinct and holy and devoted to Him alone, joining worldly selfish ways, for profession does not establish character which is shown by actions and fruit.

Their sacred identity means they must not forget their position or be led away by mingling with the world, where pursuing elocution displacing higher interests violated the calling and could result in loss of souls. They are not to rely on men but to put trust in the Lord God of Israel with all power on their side, and then they shall gain the victory. When they set aside, neglect and despise light their consciences are blunted, and added messages are given to awaken them to duty and impress sinfulness and danger in neglecting obedience. If His peculiar treasure had obeyed, such special testimonies would not be needed, just as Israel would not have needed multitudes of ceremonies if they had loved to keep the commandments, those forms being given because they would not obey and were prone to forget Him. The covenant at the mount is a covenant by sacrifice setting His people apart for service, meaning drawing near to understand what the Lord means and then obeying, bringing every thought into harmony with His will, consecrating heart mind and life with no neutral position, receiving through life in Christ every blessing with His favor.