“’Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my special treasure from among all the nations of the earth; for all the earth belongs to me. And you will be to me a kingdom of priests, my holy nation.’ Give this message to the Israelites.”
- Exodus 19:5-6
To briefly recap the covenants to these points. First, God’s initial plans were for perfect communion with humanity that we might freely choose to always worship and love Him and take up our responsibility to care for creation. Second, we messed up, we chose to rebel and thus the world spun into turmoil and utter wickedness, so then God wiped out the wickedness that was bound to never to turn to Him again, except for Noah who God promised the world would not be destroyed again and there was hope once again. Third, Abraham was chosen and promised at the ripe age of 100 to become the father of nations and kings through the coming of a son, which foreshadows the Son of God who came to restore the nations to God.
Since Abraham, there came Isaac, who continues to live in the land, marries Rebekah, raises Jacob and Esau. Esau gives up his birthright for a bowl of soup, Jacob tricks Isaac into blessing him and then goes on the run. Jacob lives with his uncle Laban and gets the hots for his cousin Rachel, but accidentally marries his other cousin Leah, only to work some more to truly marry Rachel (I know, weird but different times, this is not an endorsement for marrying cousins). Oh, Jacob also marries each of his wives' servants, Bilhah and Zilpah, as the sisters were having a competition over how many kids they reproduced (also not an endorsement for multiple wives and/or partners). From these four women come, 12 sons and 1 daughter. The twelve sons would later become the 12 tribes of Israel (Jacob’s God-given name). Time passes, Joseph the 12th child starts getting dreams from God about his future, and all his siblings are bowing to him, and he boasts about it. Like any sibling rivalry they decide to try to kill him, but then they sell him into slavery instead. Joseph spends some days in Egypt, inadvertently becomes Pharaoh’s right-hand man, and saves his family, his brother bow, and more time passes. New Pharaoh comes to the stage, sees Israel reproducing kids like crazy and feels threatened, then enslaves Israel, God makes plans to save them through Moses. 10 plagues happen, Pharaoh is through with it, lets them leave, the Red Sea splits, and now Israel in the wilderness.
I know that is only a brief summary of everything that has led to this point, but it helps set up where and when this covenant happens. Israel is a liberated people, having been saved by God who remembered His covenant with Abraham. Moses is now the leader, and the people are bemoaning and desiring to return to Egypt. In the midst of all this, God makes His next covenant with these people.
Mosaic Covenant:
Of all the covenants and promises we will look at; this is the only one that has come to an end. But more on that in a little bit. What I do want to emphasize though is that the dynamics of the above verse provide a layout for the Church as God’s new covenant people.
God says that Israel is His special treasure, or possession, amongst all the other nations of the world, God chose the ones that were lowly slaves with no power and probably smaller than most. From that day on, in alignment with God’s promise with Abraham, Israel was one nation (which fulfilled that Abraham was a father of a nation) and they were set apart from all the rest. Now they were not set apart because they were superior in any way, simply because God was being faithful and has plans to redeem the world.
From that day forward Israel was a holy nation. However, holiness here does not necessarily mean sinless, it simply designates them as God’s people and who carry out God’s mission if they obey His commands. They are not sinless for if you keep reading in Exodus and Numbers, they sin numerous times with idolatry, adultery, and revolt. Many would never make it out of the wilderness.
Their purpose, under the Mosaic covenant, was to be a kingdom of priests, implying they were to be a nation that mediates for the other nations with God, while also being faithful and obedient to God themselves. However, they constantly sinned and chose to obey their own desires rather than God’s desires. They chose to worship other gods, to sleep with people who were not their wives, and desired to return to Egypt, which altogether is the great spit in the face of God anyone could ever do (perhaps aside from killing Jesus).
The point I want to make is this: holiness was about a purpose, not a status. The same applies to the Church today. Though the Church is made up of many different ethnicities, they are all set apart to be God’s people with a purpose. It’s not simply about a status update from sinner to saved. It’s about being saved for a purpose. To witness to all those outside of God’s people.
This brings me back to a major point of this. The Mosaic covenant is the only one that has ended, as it’s the only one not called an everlasting covenant. Now, neither party (God and Israel) was going to be permanently bound to it. This covenant saw its end with the Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ. Now, many of those implications will come in a couple of weeks when we look at the New Covenant, but for now, it’s important to note that the Law in which Israel was to obey, came to an end in Christ. However, their purpose as a kingdom of priests, who represent God to the world, has not ended, it merely become the Church’s responsibility.
Final Blessing:
After all that, we land at this… The Church is God’s blessed people, however, that does not grant us some elite earthly status as some treat it, it instead gives us a purpose to represent God to people and mediate for people to God. It’s our God-given purpose as His holy people.
Now may the Lord of Life and Redemption be with you in every step, every breathe, and every heartbeat of your journey.
Comments