Exodus 19:8, commentary and pictures

Soon after encamping at Sinai more than a million people answered together with one unanimous promise to do all the Lord had spoken, lifting their hands in solemn pledge while Moses received their words and returned them to the Lord. By that answer they accepted God as ruler and King and entered a solemn covenant framed by Him, becoming His special treasure above all people, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Their pledge was to obey His voice and keep His covenant by obeying all His commandments, complying with the conditions of His promises and following the way He marked out. That commitment remains a model written for God's people as truly as for Israel, whom God calls in the last days to make the same sincere pledge and faithfully fulfill it through obedience. Yet the promise did not make them dependable, for within the forty days Moses was in the mount they broke it by worshiping the golden calf, revealing how an empty profession that says I go but does not go makes later disobedience a breach of commitment.

Words and Setting at Sinai

Soon after encamping at Sinai Moses laid God's message before the elders and the people, and more than a million people answered together with one unanimous promise to do all the Lord had spoken. Their united answer was a most solemn covenant by which Israel was denominated as a special people pledged to be true and faithful to God. After Moses presented God's words to them, their promise was a commitment to obey God's directions and follow the way He had marked out.

With upraised hands they made their solemn pledge, and Moses received their words and returned them to the Lord. All the people agreeing together to do everything the Lord had spoken marked their acceptance of God as ruler and their entry into solemn covenant, making them in a special sense subjects of His divine authority. By this response the people committed themselves as a nation to obey God and keep His commandments as His covenant people.

The Lord answered that He would come to Moses in a thick cloud so the people could hear Him speak with Moses and believe Moses forever. This coming in the cloud to let the people hear and trust Moses was a remarkable condescension that Israel was to cherish.

The answer came as God patiently instructed and prepared Israel to receive His law. After Moses explained the benefits of following God's instruction and distinguished right from wrong, the people accepted God's words and chose to comply with the conditions of His promises. The laws given there guard against injustice and guide how people deal with one another.

The public proclamation at Sinai restored the law largely lost during long bondage in Egypt, made known publicly to preserve the people from apostasy. By mighty power God had delivered His people from Pharaoh's opposition so they might keep the law given in Eden, and brought them to Sinai to hear that law proclaimed in the hearing of all the people.

Covenant Relationship Established

By their united answer to do all the Lord had spoken, Israel accepted the Lord God as ruler and chose Him as King, entering into a solemn covenant with God and coming as a nation under His special government into a close and peculiar relation to Him. Moses had come down from meeting God on the mount at Sinai and repeated the divine message to the elders in the camp, and after all the people answered together he returned their words to the Lord. By that answer they became in a special sense the subjects of His divine authority.

God offered to take Israel into a close and peculiar relation to Himself, incorporating them as a church and a nation under His government. By their response the people committed themselves as a nation to obey God, accepting Him as their ruler. The condition set before them was that if they obeyed His voice and kept His covenant they would be a peculiar treasure above all people, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Their pledge was a most solemn covenant by which Israel took its stand under God's rule as His denominated people, pledged to be true and faithful to Him. With upraised hands they made the solemn covenant, became His people, and pledged to obey all His commandments, and their consent marked their incorporation under the covenant charter as His special people, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Obeying the offered covenant was their privilege, through which they might be His treasured people with a fuller understanding of duty, and His favor toward them was conditional on their obedience.

God's offer and the people's consent together form the charter by which Israel was received and incorporated as His chosen people. That covenant was ordained, initiated, and framed by God, not a proposal originating with the people, and the human response belonging to it is to exercise living faith in the Saviour. Their answer shows the people accepting the covenant obligation to obey God, a covenant that remains in force today. God made a pledge in return, promising them His blessing as the reward of obedience. The covenant entered there was to be a perpetual one, to be held sacred to a thousand generations. The covenant God made with them was described as applying to every soul, and God's covenant includes all who obey Him.

Obedience Promised and Required

The people bound themselves to carry out everything the Lord had spoken, to heed His voice and keep His covenant by obeying all His commandments, which He then gave from Sinai beginning with the Ten Commandments. With uplifted hands they entered that solemn covenant and became His people, and Moses received their words and carried their answer back to the Lord. The pledge belonged to the giving of God's law at Sinai, where obedience to all God's commandments is set forth as the highest education, and those words of the law are spoken also to later generations who are called to obey God's commandments.

Their answer was given after Moses laid God's words before them, explained the benefits of following His instruction, distinguished right from wrong, and set forth wonderful promises to them if they observed His commandments. In replying they chose to comply with the conditions of God's promises and of what He would continue to do for them. They committed themselves to obey God's directions and to follow the way He had marked out, an agreement to do all that the Lord had spoken which Moses then reported to the Lord.

Obeying the offered covenant was their privilege, and by that obedience they might be His treasured people. That obedience also brings a fuller understanding of duty. Obedience to all God's commandments is the highest education.

Making the covenant means drawing near to understand what the Lord means and then obeying. It means individual consecration of heart and mind and life to His service, accepting Christ and seeing the binding claims of God's law, taking no neutral position but standing in full confidence in the Lord as Helper. Keeping the covenant is obedience to the commandments of God and living by every word proceeding from the mouth of God, with no failure and no careless disregard of His expressed will. In that obedience the soul receives the best of everything and every blessing with the favor of God. God gave His commandments with promise of life if kept, and obedience still brings entrance into the kingdom of God where God's law will continue to be observed, so no one should trifle with the commandments.

Enduring Call for Today

The covenant commitment made in the united answer to do all that the Lord had spoken remains the model of the people's relation to God and holds force today. It was written for God's people now as truly as it was spoken for Israel then, and the obligation to obey God under that covenant still stands. God's people in the last days are to make this same pledge to obey God sincerely and keep His covenant. Their acceptance with God depends on faithfully fulfilling their agreement with Him through obedience, for His covenant embraces all who obey Him.

God must bring each person to Himself before He can work through them in preparing a people to stand in the day of the Lord. Each person must draw nigh to understand what the Lord means and then do whatever He bids. The pledge was followed at once by direction to sanctify the people because He was coming near, which requires His people today to stand as a separate and distinct peculiar people free from all worldly influences. Then He gave His commandments with promise of life if kept, and obedience still brings entrance into the kingdom of God where God's law will continue to be observed, so no one should trifle with the commandments. That pledge is tested when God's people come into hard places and perplexities, where many fail to stand the proving and instead murmur, complain, and fret against the Lord. When tried they should in simplicity kneel and ask the Lord God of Israel for help, as He gave water to show His great kindness, and that prayer would please Him, for the pledge was given with the expectation that His people would believe in Him forever.

The verse is to be read before congregations together with the creation and Sinai Sabbath words as a plain Thus saith the Lord proving that God set apart the seventh day. There is to be no controversy about it, so the burden of responsibility falls on those who reject it and their controversy is with God and not with men, especially toward those determined to enact Sunday laws. The covenant entered there was to be perpetual, to be held sacred to a thousand generations, with Israel accepted as a peculiar treasure above all people, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, and with Moses carrying their agreement back to the Lord before the Lord came to Moses in a thick cloud so the people would hear and believe Moses forever. The Lord as the only true God demands obedience to His Word given in Exodus 19 together with Exodus 20, instruction of great importance to be often repeated and sacredly observed. When Satan uses every device to draw people away from truth and righteousness, all who would stand on the Lord's side are to fulfill their promise by keeping holy the memorial of creation, the seventh day appointed as rest and blessed and sanctified after six days of creation work.

Broken Pledge and Warning

The unanimous promise to do all that the Lord had spoken was a commitment to obey His directions and follow the way He had marked out, made in response to His promise offered on condition of obedience to His commandments. That promise was broken within the forty days Moses was in the mount, when Israel failed the test and turned to idolatry. When the thunder and trumpet and voice ceased, the people worshiped a golden calf. They demanded gods to lead them, exchanging the living God for idols and turning their hearts back to Egypt.

The pledge did not make them dependable, for they were weak and unstable. They treated the covenant words as grounds for self-importance rather than humble trust in God, though the covenant ordained by God called for faithfulness and perfect obedience. While Moses was away receiving the commandments and laws, they were responsible to keep the covenant through obedience and should have remembered it and taught it to their children; instead they lost faith and failed to keep it.

Their solemn promise together to obey everything spoken, which Moses reported to the Lord, makes their later disobedience a breach of the commitment they had made to God. Remembering that pledge and the law they had promised to obey could have warned them of the danger of turning from God and helped stop their apostasy. Remembering God’s glorious giving of the law and their covenant pledge should have been recalled at Sinai when they asked Aaron to make gods for them, and would have helped stop their apostasy.

The pledge became an empty profession, saying in effect I go, sir, but not going, revealing impenitence and self-sufficiency under a pretense of religion. It is the character of the second son in the parable of the two sons. The Jewish nation did not live by the law it had promised to obey, and its leaders later rejected Christ when He set out the law’s principles. It is the character of the Pharisees and Jewish leaders in Christ’s day, who were convinced by abundant evidence of His authority and divine power yet would not receive it, who continued in disbelief because they lacked the spirit that leads to obedience, who made void the law of God by tradition and worshiped in vain.

As God dealt with ancient Israel at Sinai, He will deal with those today who despise His Word and refuse to humble their proud hearts before His wisdom and righteousness. That warning was set before believers in Colorado.