And these verses are so, so crucial here. If you have a Bible, I encourage you, highlight it, circle it, block it off. And especially 4 through 6, it is very, very, very important here. So let me read verse 3.
Moses went up to God, and the Lord called him out of the mountain, saying, This, you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the sons of Israel, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples. For all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.
Alright, crucial verses here. So now what happens is they're on the mountain. God is giving instructions to Moses, and God is promising here to make Israel a holy, royal, priestly nation. Now he is fulfilling the promise.
Like if you go back to Genesis chapter 12 and elsewhere, remember that God made a threefold oath to Abraham. And the first is, I'll make of you a great nation. Alright, the first promise. I'll make you a great nation.
You'll have many descendants to have the land. This is the beginning of the fulfillment of that promise. God is making them a nation, his own special nation right here. Okay, so in so doing what I really want to point out here in verse 4, is when God starts off this entire structure of the covenant here.
chapters 19 through chapter 24, all of this begins with this fundamental truth. In verse 4, you see what I did, you've seen what I did in Egyptians, how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to myself. See, this has been the plan all along. God redeemed Israel.
God brought judgment upon Egypt to bring his people to himself. That is really, really beautiful. God loved them first. God moved for active first on their behalf.
It's like 1 John chapter 4, 19, the famous line. We love because God loved us first. We didn't love God and God was like, Okay, you love me. I'll love you back.
That sounds fair. No, the divine creator loved us first. And he's certainly true with Jesus Christ. But it's been true all along in salvation history.
This whole story of redemption in the exit is about how God acts first to bring them to himself at this point at this mountain. It's so beautiful here on eagles wings. Every time I read this verse, I think of the famous song here on eagles wings. That's exactly what he's doing.
It's a beautiful image of protection of care of his people here. All right. So that before we talk about anything else in this particular lesson, as well as part two in the next lesson, is that God acted first on behalf of love for his people. Everything else must be seen in that context.
So he says this, I took care of you. I brought you out to myself. Now, verse 5 here, he says, now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you'll be my special possession. So let's look at this first.
If you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, I highly encourage you to circle the word if that is crucial. You need to obey my voice and you need to keep my covenant. If you do, then you will be greatly blessed. So what God is talking about here obeying my voice and keeping my covenant here, that's going to be the subject matter for chapters 23 to 23.
The 10 commandments in chapter 20, the covenant code is what it's called in 23 to 23. If Israel obeys God and keeps the commandments and keeps the various laws and stipulations that are set forth in chapters 21 to 23, then God will be their God and he and they will be his special possession. We'll talk about that in just three seconds here, almost. Okay, so it is a conditional promise here that all the blessings of the covenant do hinge on the fact that they must obey.
Now, God is faithful. God will never be unfaithful to his people. That is proved over and over and over again in the scriptures, but Israel must obey God. And if they do, they will be his own special possession.
Now, that word possession amongst all peoples, that word is segula. I'm going to have it right here in your notes, S-E-G-U-L-L-A-H, segula. That is a very crucial word here or here, but of course, in all of scripture, I have a footnote for you. I actually like to read it because this word is very significant.
So your commentary, actually, it's on the Deuteronomy commentary, not the Exodus one. It says this, segula means property, often with the connotation of something highly valued and carefully guarded. As a secular term, it can refer to the royal treasures of the king. As a theological term, it describes Israel as a people elected and loved by the Lord.
Israel is God's treasured possession, the people he cherishes, and protects as uniquely his own. Later in the Old Testament, when the time of judgment becomes necessary, the Lord promises to smuggle out a faithful remnant within Israel as his special possession. And the idea of segula carries over into the New Testament as a description of the Messianic people of God and Titus in 1 Peter. Okay?
So you can see here from this quote. It is a very significant word. Israel is not an afterthought for God. Israel is front and center in God's own mind.
You're metaphorically speaking. Israel's cherished and beloved by God. And in fact, Moses will say this later on in Deuteronomy in Deuteronomy is his last will and testament. But he will say in chapter 7 verses 6 and following, commenting on this particular point here.
So really Deuteronomy 7, 6 through 8 is a commentary of this verse here in chapter 19 verse 6. He says, for you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, for his own segula. Out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth, it was not because you were more in number than any other people than any other people that the Lord said his love upon you and shows you for you refused of all peoples.
But it is because the Lord loves you is keeping the oath which he swore to your fathers that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh King of Egypt. End quote there. That's a very beautiful line. Whenever I teach Deuteronomy, I love to emphasize this that God has set his heart upon Israel there to be a holy people consecrated set apart as a special possession.
Why not because they deserve it not because they've earned it, but because of grace the Lord said his love upon them and chose them because he's faithful to the covenant that he swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He's redeemed them from Egypt because of his love. That is so beautiful here. What God wants to do for Israel and by extension to church the new Israel needs to be understood in this light.
How much the Lord loves us? I will say one other thing here. Language like this here in Exodus chapter 19 in Deuteronomy not just chapter 7, but so many other places. It really shows us that the God of the Old Testament is not this caricature of wrath and hatred and vengeance.
A lot of people say the Old Testament God is just so horrible. Thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks heaven that Jesus came along because they have this depiction of Jesus as somebody throwing these around in the field saying, I'm okay. You're okay. It's all caricature.
The God of the Old Testament is so loving and so compassionate. He desires to be with his people. And I really like to emphasize that when reading passages like this, this is not an angry, vengeful, wrathful God here. Absolutely not.
This is a God who deeply loves his people and has called them. Okay. And so the catechism will comment on this as well in 2810 from the covenant of Sinai onwards. This people is his own and it is to be a holy or consecrated is the same word in Hebrew.
It's going to be a holy or consecrated nation because the name of God dwells within it. That's beautiful. They're holy. They're consecrated because God is with his people.
So that is really beautiful. Now at this point, and you explain this to individuals that Israel has called apart. He called Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and self and promised a covenant to them, so we're a covenant to them. Now he's fulfilling that covenant and calling Israel out as a special possession.
That's all beautiful. Absolutely. But a lot of people will say, well, how unfair is this God? Right.
There's always all kinds of objections against God and you're not surprised to hear that. How unfair is this God to love Israel? Like what a wrathful, you know, vengeful, unfair God. He doesn't love all the other nations.
What about those poor Egyptians that just got annihilated in this Theomaki? Remember the divine smackdown we saw at the plagues. What about the poor Egyptians and the Babylonians and the Assyrians and all these other nations? Why does God just love Israel?
Okay. Well, the point is that God loves Israel and calls Israel apart and consecrates them and makes them holy for the sake of all their nations. You know, again, go back to Genesis, the threefold covenant that God made with Abraham. God said to Abraham, I'll make you a great nation.
I'll make you a great name. Right. Kings will come forth from you. But then ultimately it all is going to be looking towards the film to the third blessing, the third covenant, which is worldwide blessing.
All nations will be blessed through Abraham and Abraham's descendants. That's the name of the game. That's the goal all along. All nations will be blessed through Israel.
And this next verse here is going to explain this point very, very clearly, very beautifully here. So if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession, my own segulam, on all peoples, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. That is super significant. I highlight that underline at star at whatever you got to do.
This verse, you shall be a kingdom to a priest and a holy nation or a royal priest who is also translated in the holy nation. That's their identity here. Okay. And this verse needs to be understood clearly with what God said about Israel back in chapter 4 22.
Remember God said, Israel is my firstborn son. Let my son go. That he may serve me of Oudmi. So 4 22 clarifies God that Israel's God's firstborn son and now God is saying you'll be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Together the concept here is that Israel is God's firstborn son and the firstborn son in the Hebrew culture here as well as the other cultures is that firstborn son has the blessing and the birthright. Think back to the story of Jacob and Esau. We talked about that in that other Bible study there. Israel now is going to have the blessing and the birthright in order to serve the rest of the children to serve the siblings here.
That was the responsibility of the firstborn son. It took to be a priest, right, to be a priest and have obligations, responsibilities on behalf of the rest of the family to help lead them to God, to protect them, to care for them. And all of this. That's what Israel must do.
So Israel is God's firstborn son to do precisely that to bless all of God's other children, which would be all the nations. So yes, the Egyptians and the Assyrians and the Babylonians and the Americans and the Italians and all the rest of the nations. All of them are going to be blessed. At least this was the goal here.
We'll talk about how Jesus fulfills us later. They're going to be blessed. All nations will be blessed through Israel. So God's going to consecrate them here in order to serve as a royal priesthood, a holy nation to leave all the other nations to God.
That is beautiful. So God is not being unfair. God has a plan. He's sending a part Israel for this awesome holy responsibility.
Israel has to be holy. That's what chapter 19 verse is all about. I'm going to make you a holy nation. And we're going to see in Leviticus, our next Bible study, Leviticus 19, as well as elsewhere, you must be holy for I am holy.
To be part of God's people is to be transformed into the likeness and image of God. To be holy as he is holy, and therefore to teach all the other nations to be holy as well. This is the name of the game. This is what it's all about.
And again, if we go back to Deuteronomy chapter 4, Moses will say something very similar. He says, quote, behold, I have taught you statues and ordinances as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land which you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them for that will be your wisdom and your understanding and the side of the peoples, who when they hear all these statutes will say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call upon him.
And what great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day. End quote. That is awesome. And that's really sharing or explaining to us Israel's vocation, right?
They're the mission here. They are supposed to keep the law so that way it would be their wisdom and their understanding in the sight of all peoples. So all the nations around about the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Parazites and all these otherites and Babylonians and all the rest of them throughout salvation history. The goal of all of them was these nations will see Israel, see their relationship with God, see their relationship with each other and say, wow, I want that too.
This is a wise and understanding people. They have a God so close to them that we've never seen before. This is Old Testament evangelization. You guys, this is Old Testament evangelization.
And the same thing is true for us today. Right? I don't have that peace. I don't have that joy.
There's something missing in my life. Even if life is going pretty good, there's something missing. There's a hole in my soul that I just can't fill and they should see us and be like, wow, this is a wise and understanding people, these Catholics that I'm getting to know here. So this is the whole point.
They see us and they want what we have. This is a gift of grace. So that to Israel then. Israel is called to accomplish this responsibility as the firstborn son, as this royal priest to it, as this kingdom of priests to bring blessings to other nations.
I can't emphasize this enough. So many people, whenever I teach classes and I've been doing this 15 years now, you teach classes and people do ask this question. They hear it and they hear it around in secular circles and elsewhere that God is unfair, God is cruel, doesn't he love it? All the nations, blah, blah, blah.
Well, he does, but this is his plan. Okay. This is the plan that God has set aside from the beginning of time to call Israel to bring blessings worldwide, blessings to everybody. Okay.
So, yeah, always keep Abraham in mind here. The threefold covenant oath that God made with Abraham that's really at the background to all of this stuff. All right. So this covenant at Mount Sinai then is going to ratify this vocation, this identity, this mission, this relationship that God has with his people.
That's the purpose of all of this. God is swearing. Hey, if you obey me, you'll be my own possession. You're going to be my firstborn son.
You're going to be my bride. You're going to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, all of this stuff. Okay. So now, unfortunately, you go through salvation history as I did in my salvation history course, Israel fails over and over and over again.
Ultimately, it's going to be Jesus Christ, the true firstborn son of God. Now, Israel is called God's firstborn son, but they fail. Like Adam, Adam is the son of God and he failed. Israel is the son of God and they're going to fail.
You know, even the son of David is known as the son of God. Solomon, he fails. But Jesus is the true son of God, all right, by his essence, his nature, all right, not by creation, not by adoption, but by his nature. He's the firstborn.
Only the god son of God and he will fulfill this mission. Okay. Because he really is the means by which all nations will be blessed through the establishment of the new Israel, the new church, the new temple. And this is what Peter has in mind in chapter two verse five.
He says, like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house. That's a new temple, right? To be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. When he says to be a holy priesthood, he has Exodus chapter 19 in the back of his mind here, or even at the forefront of his mind, honestly, because now we are this holy priesthood.
We are the new Israel. We are the new gathering. We are those that Chlesia is those that are called out of, were called out of the world, were consecrated in order to be a holy priesthood, a holy nation, a holy church offering spiritual sacrifices up to God. So that's really beautiful here.
The church is the new Israel and God hasn't abandoned this goal, this oath that he swore that all nations will be blessed. So when Jesus comes as the firstborn son of God, the only begotten son of God, right, he establishes the church through his body and blood on the cross. And that's where the blood and water pours forth from his side. That's all sacramental imagery right there.
And now ever since nations upon nations and peoples upon peoples have been coming into his bride's church, the new Israel. It's so fantastic. So the New Testament is really fulfilling this covenant at Mount Sinai. And there's more to say about that in the next lesson here when we look at chapter 24 specifically.
So these verses, here we are, over 20 minutes into this lesson, and we've only been looking at a few verses, but they're so crucial and so fundamental. If you can only memorize two verses in this whole book, memorize chapter 422 and chapter 19 verses 5 and 6. Those are big, big takeaways.