Exodus 19:7

Israel has just reached the wilderness of Sinai, in the third month after the departure from Egypt (Exodus 19:1–2). Sinai is also called Horeb, the mountain where God first met Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3:2). Now Moses (Môsheh) goes up the mountain. The verb ʿālāh is the plain word for going up or ascending, and it describes him climbing toward the place where God has shown himself.

Moses goes “up unto God”, and the name used there is ʼĕlôhîym. It is plural in form, and when it names the true God it is read as a plural of majesty, with its verbs usually in the singular. In the same sentence the LORD calls to him out of the mountain (har). “The LORD” stands for Yᵉhôvâh, God’s own covenant name, and the verb qārāʾ is the ordinary word for calling out to someone. The call comes from God’s side. He summons Moses, and he is the one who has chosen to speak to his people and set out the terms on which they will belong to him.

Mountains in Scripture are often places where God makes his presence known, and the voice from this one prepares for everything that follows at Sinai. The rest of Exodus 19 tells of God coming down on the mountain, and Exodus 20 gives the Ten Commandments. Those commandments open with the same order this passage teaches, naming God as the one who brought Israel out of the land of Egypt before he gives a single command (Exodus 20:1–2).

The message is to be passed on with two verbs, “Thus shalt thou say” (ʼâmar, the everyday word for saying) “and tell” (nâgad). Moses is a messenger who carries the LORD’s words to people who cannot come up to hear them.

The first words God sends to Israel are about what he has done. “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians” calls on their own memory. These people had lived through centuries of hard bondage (Exodus 1:11–14). They had watched the plagues fall on Egypt (Exodus 7–12) and seen Pharaoh’s army destroyed in the sea (Exodus 14). The LORD had shown that he rules over Pharaoh and over every power Egypt trusted in, and Israel had seen it happen.

“Now therefore” ties the offer to what God has just said. Because he has done all this, he now sets out what the relationship will be. The verb for obey, shâmaʻ, means to hear or to listen, and it often carries the sense of heeding and obeying. The Hebrew strengthens it, which the KJV gives as “obey my voice indeed”. God asks for the kind of listening that goes on into doing what he says, with the will and the heart engaged.

“And keep my covenant” uses shâmar, which means to keep and also to guard, watch over and preserve. Keeping the covenant means holding to its terms with care, the way one guards something precious.

Covenants were well known in Scripture long before Sinai. Jacob and Laban made one and raised a heap of stones as its witness, and Joshua and the princes of the congregation later swore a league with the Gibeonites. A stronger party would often set the terms for a weaker one. God’s covenant with Israel has the same parts. It begins with a recital of what he has done (“what I did unto the Egyptians”), goes on to his commands, and carries blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience (Deuteronomy 28), with provision for the generations to come. The one who makes these terms is the King of the whole earth.

The heart of God’s promise is one word, çᵉgullâh, “peculiar treasure”. It means a highly valued possession that belongs to someone personally, often royal property or a king’s private store of wealth, carefully guarded. The KJV uses it when Solomon gathers “the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces” (Ecclesiastes 2:8). So “peculiar” here means precious and set apart as God’s own. Israel was to be God’s own treasure “above all people”, chosen out of all nations by his grace, and kept close under his protection.

Scripture returns to this word again and again. Moses tells Israel that they are a holy people whom the LORD has chosen to be special to himself above all the peoples on earth (Deuteronomy 7:6). Through Isaiah God says, “This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise” (Isaiah 43:21). The New Testament gives the same name to those Christ has redeemed, a people he purifies for himself, his own special people, zealous of good works (Titus 2:14).

“For all the earth is mine” gives the ground for the whole offer. The God who chooses Israel owns every nation and the whole world, and he is the Lord of all creation, free to set apart any people he wills. That gives his promises their weight, and it shows why Israel was chosen. Their treasured place was for the sake of the world that also belongs to him, so that they would reflect his character among the nations and draw others to him.

God goes on to say what Israel will be to him. Mamlâkâh means a kingdom, a royal dominion or realm. Kôhên means priest, one consecrated to serve God and stand between him and others. In Scripture priests offered sacrifices and gave instruction. Here the whole nation is called to be priests, before the Levitical priesthood had been set up. Israel together was to represent God’s holiness and truth to the world, and to stand before God on behalf of the world. The nations around them kept their own temples and priests for their many gods. To Israel God says that the whole people will be his priests.

Qâdôwsh, holy, means sacred, set apart and consecrated for God’s purpose. To be an holy nation was to belong to God and to live differently from the nations around them in worship and in conduct, so that God’s own holiness could be seen in his people. That separation was for the sake of their calling. Their laws, their worship and their way of life were to bear witness to who God is and draw others to him. From the beginning God had promised that all the families of the earth would be blessed through Abraham, and the prophets look ahead to the day when many nations come to the mountain of the LORD’s house to learn his ways (Isaiah 2:2–4).

“These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel” closes God’s message. Moses carries God’s own declaration, and it is the foundation for the Ten Commandments and the detailed laws of Exodus 21–23.

Moses comes down and calls for the elders of the people. Zâqên is used of persons, the old and the elders, and the elders were the recognised leaders of Israel’s families and tribes. They were chosen for wisdom and experience as well as age, and they served as the people’s representatives, judges and spokesmen. By calling them Moses brings the LORD’s offer formally to the leaders who could carry it to every family. The elders appear again when the covenant is sealed, and seventy of them go up the mountain with Moses (Exodus 24:1).

“Laid before their faces” is a Hebrew idiom, wayyāśem lifnêhem, built from sûwm, to put or set, and pânîym, face. Moses put the words right in front of them. They heard the whole message directly, and they were in a position to answer it.

“All these words” uses dâbâr, which means word or speech, and also matter or thing. Here it is the whole message of verses 3 to 6, the reminder of what God had done and the offer that followed. Moses passed on all of it, “which the LORD commanded him”, so the authority behind the words was God’s. When Moses later tells the people all the words of the LORD again, the covenant is ratified (Exodus 24:3–8).

The answer comes from all the people together. ʻÂnâh is the verb to answer, and yachad means together, unitedly or alike. “All the people answered together” tells us the whole nation gave the same reply, and Scripture records no one who held back. The covenant was made with the entire people, so every one of them shared in its blessings and its duties, and their witness as a priestly nation was to be a shared one.

Their words were a solemn commitment, “All that the LORD hath spoken we will do.” ʻÂsâh means to do or make in the widest sense. With “all that the LORD hath spoken” they accept the whole of God’s word, with nothing held back, and they promise to carry it out. It is the kind of binding pledge Scripture records elsewhere, as when Abraham and Abimelech swore an oath at Beer-sheba, or when the elders of Israel came to David at Hebron and he made a league with them before the LORD.

“And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.” Shûwb means to turn back or return, and the words here are again dâbâr, the same word as in verse 7. Moses carried God’s words down and now carries the people’s words back up. The mediator works in both directions, and the first step of the covenant is complete: God has made his offer, the people have accepted it, and their acceptance has been brought before him.

Moses going up to God and coming down with his word points to Jesus Christ, the mediator far greater than Moses. Jesus is the Word made flesh (John 1:14), and whoever has seen him has seen the Father (John 14:9). He is “the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises” (Hebrews 8:6), and our great high priest (Hebrews 4:14). Israel had to stay back from the mountain, and through his blood believers now have boldness to enter into the holiest by a new and living way (Hebrews 10:19–22).

The deliverance of verse 4 points to a greater exodus. Christ is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). He frees his people from sin, whose wages is death (Romans 6:23), and God has delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son (Colossians 1:13). God’s care that carried Israel on eagles’ wings is seen in Christ, who ever lives to make intercession for his people (Hebrews 7:25). And the goal, “brought you unto myself”, is reached in him. “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6), and those who were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:13).

Israel promised to do all the LORD had spoken, and Christ did it. He came to fulfil the law (Matthew 5:17), and he redeemed us from its curse by being made a curse for us (Galatians 3:13). On the cross he said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). His blood is the new testament poured out for his people (Luke 22:20), and they are redeemed with that precious blood (1 Peter 1:18–19). As with Abraham, righteousness is counted to those who believe (Romans 4:3), and the work God asks is to believe on the one he has sent (John 6:29). Under the new covenant God works in his people both to will and to do of his good pleasure (Philippians 2:13), so obedience grows from a heart he has changed.

What God offered Israel at Sinai he gives to all who are in Christ. Peter takes up the words of verses 5 and 6: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9). John praises Christ, who “hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father” (Revelation 1:6), and the redeemed sing that they shall reign on the earth (Revelation 5:10).

These verses show a God who acts first. He judged Egypt, carried his people through the desert and brought them to himself before he asked them for anything. When he did speak of obedience, he spoke as the owner of the whole earth who had chosen a people to be his own treasure, and he wanted them as priests who would make him known to the nations.

The passage also shows how gladly God’s people can answer him, and how much they need him even in their answering. Israel’s “we will do” was sincere, and their story shows that the God who calls also has to give the heart to obey. He has done that in Christ, the faithful mediator who brings us to God and makes us his own. If you belong to Christ, the words spoken at Sinai describe you: carried, brought near, treasured and set apart to serve him before the world.