Preparing for "the big reveal"

Exodus 19 (selected verses)

19 At the third new moon after the Israelites had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai….Israel camped there in front of the mountain. 3 Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: 4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, 6 but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.’

7 So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. 8 The people all answered as one: ‘Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.’…

When Moses had told the words of the people to the Lord, 10 the Lord said to Moses: ‘Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes 11 and prepare for the third day, because on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.’…14 So Moses went down from the mountain to the people. He consecrated the people.

16 On the morning of the third day…Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently. 19 As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder. 20 When the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. 

Among the theories of revolutionary change, one proposes that there are three stages to the establishment of a new order, a new system, to give a group of people a new identity: the stage of Discontent, the stage of Action, and the stage of Order.

The people of Israel had been through the discontent, they were tired of being slaves in Egypt, and they wanted to be freed. The people had also gone through the stage of action – leaving Egypt, coming through the Red Sea, having the showdown with the Amalekites – they had had action that got them their freedom.

Now as they came to Mount Sinai the question was: how were they to live now that they were free people? What would be the ways they would organize themselves as a people, how were they going to behave as a nation?

God described their new identity – “a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” This was to be their new pattern of life, the three days of preparation, the trumpet blasts, the fire and smoke are all signs that a fundamental shift in identity is about to happen for the people of Israel. No longer slaves, no longer oppressed and downtrodden – now they were to be people who served God in the world. They were becoming inheritors of the promise made to Abraham: that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through the people of Israel.

We have been given a new identity in Jesus Christ. We too have been called to be part of the “priestly kingdom”, part of the “holy nation” that God is calling into being in the world. And through us, through the people of God in the world, the nations of the world, the peoples of the world are to be blessed.

PRAYER:

God who calls, we rejoice that you have called us to be your people – a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. Shape us as your people, that this might be our identity – people through whom you will bless the world. In Jesus’ name. Amen.