Exo 19:5, 6 "Now therefore,
if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a
peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom
of priests, and an holy nation..."
We know that God is a God of
covenants. His first covenant was with
the entire world of that time. There
were only two people in the world at that time, Adam and Eve. Later He made a covenant with 1 man,
Noah. Years later He made a covenant
with 1 family, Abraham and his posterity.
In this text He years later made a covenant with 1 nation, Israel.
Here God's covenant with the 1 nation
constituted them a nation. He said to
them that if they would obey Him, He would make them a kingdom of priests, and
a holy nation. He gave to them their own
set of laws, judgments, etc. At the
center of this was the 10 commandments to reveal His righteous will. He gave them judgments covering their social
life 21:1-24:8. He regulated the worship
and sacrifices 20:24, 25. Great care was
taken to maintain His Holiness and theirs 20:25, 26.
How did this new nation respond to
God's covenant? Israel agreed to this
covenant even before the Lord spelled it out.
Exo 19:8 "And all
the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will
do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD." They failed to keep it. Rom 3:19, 20
"Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may
become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall
no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is
the knowledge of sin." Israel
sought in vain to establish their own righteousness by this covenant. Rom. 10:1-4
This covenant became God's school master to bring Israel to Christ Gal. 3:24
"Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to
bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by
faith."
What about Gentiles and this covenant? It never was for
us. See Rom. 2:12-16. Yet we who were and are without that law
(covenant) have a law in our conscience that reveals essentially the same
thing. We too are unable to save
ourselves or work out our own righteousness.
Both Jew and Gentile can only be accepted of God on the basis of our
Lord's sacrificial death on Calvary.
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