Sermon Notes: Exodus 19:7-15 – The Justified People of God Consecrate Themselves to Meet with God
The Lord has preached the good news of the kingdom in the Passover. The spotless lamb has been sacrificed and the blood applied to the doorposts and the lintels of all those who want to follow the Lord.
Israel has been set free from Egypt and they plundered the Egyptians by the Lord’s favor.
The Lord has baptized Israel as a people when they passed through the Red Sea while the Lord defeated their enemy.
Next, the Lord started their sanctification as his people with some wilderness tests.
Now they are preparing to meet with the Lord to receive the law that will ratify them into a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, a treasured people to belong to the Lord.
The Lord will bring Israel near to him for this covenant event, and to approach the Lord in this kind of amazing relationship, they need to be consecrated, set apart.
Let’s read about it in Exodus 19:7-15.
Moses preaches the Lord’s message to the people, and they respond that they will do all that the Lord says.
So, the Lord tells Moses how he will reveal himself, and he will do so by coming to them in a thick cloud.
The Lord will speak with Moses in such a way that the people will understand the Lord is truly God and that Moses is his servant so they will believe Moses and follow his instructions. The Lord does this by descending in a cloud to cover the mountain.
NOTE: The Lord reveals himself in the cloud all through Exodus. Therefore, recognize when reading the gospels what Jesus is doing when he takes Peter, James, and John up on Mount Hermon and is transfigured as the cloud descends and envelopes them as the Father speaks to validate Jesus the Son so that they will listen to him and believe him. The Father is showing them, as he speaks to them, that Jesus is the greater and better Moses. What happens on that mountain with Jesus is the fulfillment of what the Lord does with Moses here in Exodus 19:9.
To say it another way, Moses is preparing us to see and receive Jesus in the fullness of time, whether he is fully aware of the salvation history he is participating in or not.
The Father gives us Exodus 19:9, among many glories, as a primer to receive Jesus by faith.
The Lord goes on to tell Moses to prepare the people to meet with him by being consecrated.
The Lord gives instructions on how they are to be consecrated and why they are to be consecrated.
Why do they need to be consecrated since they have received the Passover, and what for?
The Lord is holy. 19:12-13a
1. We are going to spend more time on the holiness of God next week, so we won’t get too far into that today.
2. What is interesting is that this act of consecration is something they do after the Lord’s work of salvation in the Passover.
a. Consecration is not about the Lord saving them again or saving them more.
b. What the Lord is doing is preparing his people to meet with him and receive the law.
i. The Lord is so holy that he requires the people to act like a people who has been saved and not take his salvation for granted.
3. The Lord is so holy, that an unconsecrated approach past set limits to the mountain is to end in the guilty party’s summary execution. 19:12-13a
a. Approaching the Lord unconsecrated is a deadly proposition.
i. The guilty person will be stoned or shot with an arrow.
1. I’ll say more about this later.
ii. This is serious business, and worth our attention.
1. Think about Nadab and Abihu’s foolish and experimental offering of unauthorized fire before the Lord.
a. These two sons of Aaron experienced the Passover, and they passed through the sea. They knew better.
i. Yet, these two decided they’d play around with the holiness of God by toying with, experimenting with worship.
1. They got too comfortable.
ii. Leviticus 10:1-3 (ESV) 1 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’” And Aaron held his peace.
2. Think about Uzzah.
a. 2 Samuel 6:5-7 (ESV) 5 And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the LORD, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. 6 And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. 7 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God.
i. Uzzah and his fellow Levites have ignored the Lord’s instructions on how to carry the ark (with poles through the rings and carried on the shoulders of Levites).
1. They are pulling it on a cart. I suppose because a cart is easier than carrying it.
ii. So, when the ox stumbles and the cart lurches, Uzzah assumes his hand is cleaner than the dirt, and he presumes to keep the ark from falling and is executed for his presumption.
3. Nadab, Abihu, and Uzzah have been in the pipeline of spiritual leadership, and they have taken their salvation for granted and become too casual and ignored God’s instructions and have stopped consecrating their thoughts, themselves personally, and their actions to the Lord.
a. This taking their salvation for granted and becoming lax on their consecration cost them.
b. I don’t think we can judge the status of their salvation, but we can judge the fact that these who knew the Lord and should know better, did not act in a consecrated manner, and they were executed for their irreverence.
c. The Lord’s holiness is not to be played with.
4. What is happening at the mountain that Nadab, Abihu, and Uzzah took for granted?
a. To answer that question, we need to contrast the current reality to what used to be in Eden.
i. God’s image-bearing co-regents used to have access to him without the fear of dying, and now to approach without preparing oneself is deadly.
b. What has happened?
i. Death has been introduced into the very atomic structure of all creation, and God in holiness will not tolerate anything tainted with the curse of death.
1. The day you eat of if you will die, the Lord told Adam and Eve.
c. God is so holy that he rejects anything that violates his righteousness.
i. The only way to enter God’s presence is through being atoned for, as evidenced in the Passover, then once atoned for those who come near must continue to consecrate themselves, set themselves apart dedicated to the holiness of God, that is act like they have been atoned for.
1. It is not sufficient to lean back on the Passover and then do whatever one wants to do in taking the Lord’s holiness for granted.
ii. Let me be super clear: Death that comes from failing to come under the saving atonement of the Lord is a condemning death.
1. And there is a death of discipline that comes to those who come under the atonement who won’t honor God as holy in the sanctifying work of consecrating themselves (1 Corinthians 11; James 5).
a. The Lord’s holiness is not to be ignored and taken for granted by those who believe and refuse to act like it.
iii. The Lord is holy, and his holiness influences everything we do from salvation to living by faith.
Israel must be consecrated to meet with the Lord. 19:13b-15
1. Exodus 19 is setting up Exodus 20:1-2 to help it make sense.
a. The indicative comes before the imperative, and we can never reverse the order.
i. And, we can never have the indicative without the imperative or we have lawlessness.
ii. The imperative without the indicative is worthless legalism.
b. Let me translate that for you.
i. The Lord has made Israel his people through the Passover. The Lord’s treasured possession is their identity.
1. That’s the indicative.
2. The indicative is the statement of fact.
a. They are the Lord’s people through the sacrifice of the innocent in their place for their sin.
ii. Now that they are the Lord’s people, they must act like it.
1. So, the Lord gives them imperatives, commands, that when obeyed cause them to look like who they are.
2. The commands don’t turn them into God’s people. They are already God’s people.
a. Obedience to the commands puts a tangible feel on their identity. They make who they are experiential.
c. To be consecrated is to be set apart to the commands of the Lord that put their identity on display, that show them to be the treasured possession of the Lord.
2. Consecration is the setting aside of normal and good things for holy purposes.
a. The Hebrew expressions of separation from, dedication to, and ordination come from the meaning of consecration.
b. When it comes to consecration, “…there are special occasions of prayerful preparation and worshipful activity that call for avoidance of the usual, non-sinful personal indulgences and demand special, focused, self-denying attention to God.” – Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus, vol. 2, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006), 426.
c. The Lord is calling Israel to lay aside normal and non-sinful indulgences to focus their attention on him.
3. Israel is to set themselves aside by taking three days to clean up, abstain from marital relations, and present themselves to the Lord.
a. The text says that Moses also consecrated the people.
i. There is no elaboration on what Moses did.
1. Most commentators believe Moses likely offered a sacrifice as worship that reminded them of the Passover.
b. Upon their consecration, there would be a long blast from a trumpet, and then they could approach the mountain. Approach, not go up. Just approach.
i. NOTE: I had to translate Exodus 19 as project in Hebrew in graduate school, and there is no indication from the text that the stoning, arrows, or trumpet blast is given from someone designated by Moses.
ii. In fact, the statement “No hand shall touch him…” can be understood to say that it would not be necessary for any citizen to carry out the execution because it was the Lord’s divine counsel who will take care of guarding the mountain.
1. Otherwise, Moses is communicating that by touching the dead person there is some transmission of guilt.
a. I don’t believe that is the case. That requires more assumption than the alternative.
2. Verse 16 actually tells us that on the morning of the third day that thunder, lightning, the cloud, and a “very loud trumpet blast”, the one mentioned in verse 13, comes from the mountain.
a. That trumpet blast can’t come from some servant of Moses since no one was allowed on the mountain.
b. The guarding of the mountain and the call of the trumpet are the work of God through his divine counsel who are unseen and yet doing their work in alignment with the Lord’s purposes.
3. Although some scholars would disagree, I believe it is the Lord working this out not Moses appointing Israelite servants as the means of carrying these tasks out.
a. Some commentators assume it is a person Moses designates for these tasks, and that simply does not come from the text.
i. Rather it comes from a naturalistic bias.
ii. It’s an example of how naturalistic assumptions can affect our interpretation of some texts.
iii. So, it is possible the Lord provides his own protective detail, and it is clear the Lord provides the trumpet blast through his own appointed means.
4. Back to the main point: Consecration as a fruit of salvation is essential in approaching the Lord for Israel.
The good news is clear.
1. Jesus is the greater and better Moses.
a. Hebrews 3:1-14 (ESV) 1 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test
and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
they have not known my ways.’
11 As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest.’”
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
2. Jesus is our Passover lamb, our mediator, and who teaches us how to live consecrated to the life of obedience.
Application
1. Because we have believed the good news, we have the righteousness of Jesus counted to us.
a. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2. Because we have the righteousness of Jesus, we are called to continually consecrate ourselves, or as the New Testament says it, present ourselves to the Lord just like Israel did.
a. There are multiple examples all over the New Testament, so I wanted to give you a couple to help you spot them.
i. Romans 6:12-14 (ESV) 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
ii. Romans 12:1-2 (ESV) 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
3. Do not regard the Lord’s holiness lightly when we approach worship and life together.
a. An example of worship and fellowship not being consecrated is 1 Corinthians 11:17-32.
i. Paul makes this clear: If we do not consecrate ourselves appropriately, that is judge ourselves rightly and make sure our behavior lines up with the justifying work of the cross, then we eat and drink judgment on ourselves.
1. This is not judgment as condemnation, but judgment that is discipline from the Lord so that he won’t have to condemn us with the rest of the world that are not justified.
b. 1 Corinthians 11:17-32 (ESV) 17 But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. 18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, 19 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. 20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. 21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. 23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
i. Therefore, TRC be careful about each other and about worship.
1. Don’t take it for granted by being overly familiar or overly casual in our hearts and actions.
a. Be careful with each other.
b. Be careful to consecrate time when we are gathered for worship for RL group.
i. Be on time.
ii. Be prepared by having your mind’s attention and heart’s affection tuned into the Spirit.
iii. Repent of sin.
iv. Remember, Sunday worship is a Saturday night decision and preparation. – Dean Inserra
4. The cross has taken down any barrier that keeps us from coming to the Lord to worship, so come do that with Hebrews:12:28-29 in mind.
a. Hebrews 12:28-29 (ESV) 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.