As we continue our study of what it means to be the covenant people of God, I want to move on from the book of Genesis into the book of Exodus. We have already looked at God’s covenant with Noah in which we saw that to be God’s covenant people meant to be shielded, in Christ, from the wrath of God.
Then last week we looked at the covenant that God made with Abraham and his descendants. In that text I pointed out that being God’s covenant people is beyond simply the fact that we avoid the wrath of God, but it also means that we have the blessing of dwelling with God for an eternity. And our assurance of this falls back on God. The final thing I pointed out about that, however, was that even though the blessing of dwelling with God face to face awaits us, we will suffer in this life as we will be found groaning with all of creation for the redemption of our bodies—even as Paul writes in Romans 8. (Paul could write such a thing because he had eye problems while with the Galatians, the thorn in his flesh—whatever it was—and surely ached waking each day after suffering intense persecution.) The reason I brought attention to that was because God mentioned to Abraham that before His descendants would be blessed, they would be in slavery four hundred years.
This is where our text today comes into play. The Jews had been in slavery for four hundred years, and God has delivered them through the leadership of Moses and the workings of His power. And now, God decides to renew this covenant with His people.
He says to Moses in verses 4 and 5 of chapter 9, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine.”
God renews the fact that He will have a people for Himself, a thought He repeats much in Scripture*1. And He instructs them to obey and keep His covenant, telling them that they will be His own possession if they do. This is very much our glimpse into the law—showing our sin and revealing that there must be perfect righteousness before the Lord. Then in chapter 34, God has given the ten commandments to Moses and has found the people worshipping a golden calf (chapter 20), and now He decides to replace the two tablets that Moses has broken. So, as we come to this time when God will renew His covenant, He is already dealing with people who have turned aside to worship other gods. Yet in spite of that, God renews His covenant and assures us that He will have a people for Him
As we examine this renewal of the covenant, I want to bring to our attention three more aspects of our salvation and what it means to be the covenant people of God. They are: 1) God’s faithfulness to His covenant, 2) What is the end of God’s covenant promise, and 3) How we deal with these conditions of the covenant.
First of all, in connection with last week’s message, let me remind you that God is faithful to His covenant promise.
Let me show this by asking you a question. When God says to Moses in Exodus 3:9-10, “And now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt” was this a decision that God had just come to? No! He had already told Abraham in Genesis 15 what was going to happen and what He would do. Genesis 15:13-14 says, “And God said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve; and afterward they will come out with many possessions.’” God had already planned the events years earlier—even before the foundation of the world.
Though the Israelites had suffered under the oppression of the Egyptians for hundreds of years, they should have had hope because God had assured Abraham hundreds of years earlier that they would be delivered from their oppression. Therefore, they knew that no matter how bad it got, it was only temporary—even if “temporary” meant their lifetime.
In the same way, let us recall often to our minds that God will be faithful to us. Romans 8:29-30 says, “For whom He foreknew, (before the foundation of the world) He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called, and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” And on top of that, Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Therefore, no matter in what situation you may find yourself, no matter how confused you are about what God is doing, no matter how frustrated you are by you current circumstances—you can know what God is doing and you can know how the story ends. First of all, He is conforming you into the image of His Son. Secondly, you can know that there are works that God has planned before the foundation of the world and that you will walk in them. Finally, no matter how bad this life gets, God has planned to glorify (bring to completion) all those whom He has called, and because His plans cannot be thwarted, God can speak of it in past tense—as He does.
Second, let’s look at what is the end of our salvation. What is the end to which we are looking, the hope for which we are longing? Verse 4 tells us. Let’s look at it again. God says, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself.”
God says that He brought His people to Himself. God was the end of their salvation, and God is the end of ours as well. God has saved us for Himself. God saved us that we might behold His glory. God saved us for His glory. He called us out of darkness in order that we might declare His excellencies, Peter says.
God says in Ezekiel 36:22-28, “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. 23“I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. 24“For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. 25“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27“I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. 28“You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.”
For the sake of His name He saved us. He is the end of His covenant blessings.
We might then say, “Well if that is the case, then God must not really care about us.” Calling to mind John 3:16 and the thought of propitiation should put a stop to such a thought. However, let me appeal to our passage in Exodus 19 and then try to reconcile my first thought and this last one.
First, look in our text about what God says of His people in verse 5. “Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine.” Literally this says that they will be God’s “special treasure.” God rejoices over us. We are His treasure.
And, therefore, if you are going to treasure someone and love someone, you try to bring him or her great joy. And what is the greatest joy in all the universe. It is God. Therefore, if God wanted to savor us and bring us our greatest joy, what would He give us? Himself.
Therefore, He has made salvation all about Him. There is no greater joy for us in all the world than God. That is why God is so good as He tells Moses in Exodus 34:14 that He is a jealous God. By being jealous over us glorifying Him, He is jealous over us having our greatest joy.
Finally, let me address the conditions of the covenant. God tells them in 19:5 that they would be His special possession if they obeyed His voice and kept His covenant. But they did not. Shortly thereafter the Israelites are caught up in sexual sin and idolatry. They broke the covenant.
So what does God do? In Exodus 34, He renews His covenant with His people. How? Exodus 34:6-7 says, “Then the LORD passed by in front of him [Moses] and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
God renews the covenant because He is full of grace and forgiving of sin. Therefore, because of His renewal of the covenant despite the sins of His people, we will know the blessing of dwelling with God and knowing our greatest joy—in Him—for an eternity.
But the question is again, how can a holy God who must always, continually remain holy and just, simply forgive sin? The answer is found in Romans 3:25-26 which tells us that God displayed Jesus “as a propitiation in His blood through faith” and adds, “This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
God could pass over their sins because He poured out His wrath for sin on Christ—the propitiation for our sins—and He, therefore, is able to justify His people while Himself remaining just. Jesus Christ, yet again, is the key and the fulfillment to the covenant promises of God. He is the seed of the woman, the ark for the protection of His people, the seed of Abraham, and the propitiation for the fact that God’s people broke the covenant conditions and yet God willed to justify them.
Therefore, now our assurance runs even deeper. We are assured not only because God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants and revealed that his descendants are those who believe in Christ but also because that which covers our falling short of the covenant conditions is the blood of Christ—the new covenant.
Let us recall to mind in thankfulness the blessings we have as God’s covenant people despite our evil in light of the covenant conditions. And let us remember as we come to the table this morning that our covenant assurance is in the body and the blood of Christ. May He receive glory as we delight ourselves in Him. Amen.