A Call to the Priesthood

Exodus 19:1-8

¹On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. ²They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain, ³while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: ⁴You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. ⁵Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; ⁶and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” ⁷So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. ⁸All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.

Three months (apparently to the day) after the Children of Israel had escaped slavery in Egypt, they arrive at the base of Mt. Sinai. God has set up a divine appointment with His people and it is time for Him to begin instructing them in earnest as to what it means to be His people. They stay in this location for over 10 months. Clearly, there is a great deal to learn, not the least of which is their position of great responsibility to the rest of the world. God is setting them up as a nation of priests.

Priests stand between God and humans to help bring the humans closer to God and to help dispense God’s truth, justice, favor, discipline, and holiness to humans. Israel was called to such a function. How? The answer is not spelled out in the present context, but it surely was to take place in four ways: (1) Israel would be an example to the people of other nations, who would see its holy beliefs and actions and be impressed enough to want to know personally the same God the Israelites knew. (2) Israel would proclaim the truth of God and invite people from other nations to accept him in faith as shown by confession of belief in him and acceptance of his covenant, as Jethro had already done. (3) Israel would intercede for the rest of the world by offering acceptable offerings to God (both sacrifices and right behavior) and thus ameliorate the general distance between God and humankind. (4) Israel would keep the promises of God, preserving his word already spoken and recording his word as it was revealed to them so that once the fullness of time had come, anyone in the whole world could promptly benefit from that great body of divinely revealed truth, that is, the Scriptures.

Stuart, D. K. (2006). Exodus (Vol. 2, p. 423). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

Israel’s assignment from God involved intermediation. They were not to be a people unto themselves, enjoying their special relationship with God and paying no attention to the rest of the world. Rather, they were to represent Him to the rest of the world and attempt to bring the rest of the world to Him. This situation has been set up generations earlier as God chooses Abraham to be the progenitor of His people.

Genesis 12:2-3

²And I will make of you [Abraham] a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

As we look through the Scriptures we are in the enviable position of being able to see (almost) the entire big picture. God plucks Abraham out of what is now Iraq and calls him into a place of obedience and responsibility. Then, a few thousand years later, the Apostle Peter writes in his Epistle the same concept to the burgeoning Christian Church.

1 Peter 2:9-10

⁹But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Clearly, as the Children of Israel were standing at the base of Mt. Sinai they were learning of a plan would stretch into the millennia. We are a part of that plan. As the grafted in children of Father Abraham, we too are a part of that royal priesthood. As such, it is important for us to look back and see the marching orders God gives those people standing at Mt. Sinai. They were being trained to share the message of God with the people around them. We are not given faith by the power of Holy Spirit so that we can sit in our safe churches and horde the truth for ourselves. From the very beginning of God’s plan the sharing of His Gospel has been the goal. The entire world is our target and every person is worthy of hearing the truth. So I guess we have our marching orders. And what a message we have to share; one of hope, joy, love, and salvation through Jesus Christ. Ours job is not to turn people into Christians. That job belongs to the Spirit. But it is our job to faithfully represent God to the world as we work as His holy priesthood.