covenant season ... week 1

Our Scripture for small group tonight is Exodus 19.1-6:

On 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. They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain, while 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: You yourselves 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 indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured 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 that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

What did the Lord do? He sent the ten plagues, He destroyed the pursuer, and He set His people free. And He made conditional covenant with them. His people were to image His character to the world, i.e., they were to reflect His glory. They do this because of who they are as freed people. Those that were not truly freed in their being would not obey and were not truly His people.

As His people, we are a treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. As treasured possessions we have immense value, we are coveted and prized, we are cared for and sought after when lost, etc... As a kingdom of priests we represent God and He represents us. We mediate between God and the rest of the world and vice versa. As a holy nation we have special purpose. We are unlike any other people and are set apart. We act in a way that images the one who set us apart. This is not a morality that we build but a righteousness that we live out. We live in the light of who we are as opposed to to working to become who we are. We become more Christ-like, not just moral.

The backing Scripture is Deuteronomy 7.6-11:

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.

Why did God choose us? One obvious answer is because He loves us. But there's an and in there. More than He loves us, He is keeping His covenant. And why would He have made this in the first place? For His glory. If was only that He loved us, why isn't each one included? Somehow He is most glorified by choosing who He does. I cannot understand that but it is not for me to understand. He is most glorified in this and that is sufficient. And with that, it is ok that He destroys those that He hasn't set free, those that hate Him. Thank God that He choose us not because of our number, nor for our goodness, etc... He choose us because its His perfect plan.

And our response to that indicates our heart. We are either freed to embrace that and obey Him or we rebel by rejecting His plan and disobeying Him to our eternal destruction.