Meeting the Lord

I want to begin this morning, as you are turning with me in your bibles to Exodus 19, with a little bit of housekeeping. After we finish up this chapter, we will be taking an extended break from the book of Exodus. As you know, we have homecoming next week and then there will be several stand alone sermons, time spent in the book of Philemon, and then in December we will spend time looking at the coming of Christ.

This morning’s message is interesting because it anticipates the 10 sayings or the 10 commandments as we have come to know them. While we will learn a significant amount about the Lord, I want for us to keep in mind that what is shared in this chapter is setting the stage for what comes in Chapter 20.

We often speak about heaven and what will take place when we meet the Lord. The meeting will certainly be different from what is described in these verses but what I want to focus on today is not just the meeting, but includes the invitation and preparation as well.

Read Exodus 19

Three months following Israel’s exit from Egypt, they find themselves in the wilderness around Mount Sinai. We often think of the wilderness as being a desert land but the wilderness by definition here is an area that would not have been inhabited or known as a place to camp. This arrival fulfills the promise of the Lord in Exodus 3:12 that the people of God would serve Him on the mountain.

Exodus 3:12 ESV

He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

It is here in the wilderness that the Lord calls out to Moses. What he says first is

The Invitation (v. 4-8)

There are three aspects of the invitation here that I want to look at. While this is an invitation that is specific to the Israel in the wilderness, I think that this is also a model for how God calls people to Himself today to be in a covenant relationship with him. The first aspect of the invitation can be summarized in just three words that the Lord uses: “you have seen”. The Lord reveals His glory to mankind by working. As the people of Israel reflect on what had taken place in Egypt and the days since, they understand what God had done to Egypt was both for their good as well as for the Egyptian people to see that Yahweh was greater than the Egyptian Gods.

As they saw what God had done to the Egyptian people, they realize that it was as if the Lord had placed them on the back of a large bird and flew them out of their enslavement. Because of that, He had now brought them to Himself.

The invitation for you and I can certainly be seen in the majesty of creation or the preservation of the Holy Scriptures. But much more than that, we are able to look and see what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross. We see this first through God’s word. Then we see it in the lives of others who have believed in the saving power of the cross. And finally, we see it in ourselves. It is because of the atoning sacrifice of God that He has brought us to Himself. The seeing is the beginning of the invitation.

Because the people had seen what the Lord had done, he calls them to obedience; “you will obey”. The idea here is that because the Lord had rescued them, it is logical that they then move from just observing to actually doing. They see the commands of God and what it means to be in covenant with Him and do those things.

As we understand what God has done and believe it to be true, we have no other choice but to understand how God has commanded us to live and apply that to our lives. We search the scriptures over and compare our lives to them, praying that the Lord would help us to live in a way that is pleasing to Him. The language here is beautiful: “you shall be my treasured possession among all people” which is the reminder that all of the earth is the Lord’s but only those who are in covenant with Him hold the special title of belonging to Him. What, then, is included in belonging to the Lord?

The final aspect of the invitation is the promise of what God’s people will be. Specifically, the Lord says that Israel has seen the works of the Lord, they will now do what He has commanded, and now will be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” In other words, now Israel was to be a representation for the world of who God is.

The call to holy living here is for all of those who lay claim to being a child of God. It is not simply that they belong to Him now and there is nothing more to do. Instead, the command as well as prophecy for the people that they will, by the help of the power of God, will be Holy as He is holy.

I hope that the correlations between the invitation to Israel can be seen for the life of a Christian today, as we are His chosen people. My hope even more, though, is that every person who is here today has seen, is obeying, and is being what God has called us to be.

Moses goes to the people and tells them what He has heard from the Lord. Their response is that they will do what God has told them to. They have accepted the invitation and now we move from the invitation to the

The Preparation (v. 9-15)

The people first need to prepare for meeting the Lord by knowing what to expect. They are told that the Lord is going to come to them in the form of a thick cloud. The purpose of this meeting was so that the people might hear His voice and know that Moses was indeed speaking with authority from the Lord and not just creating things out of thin air can calling them divine.

While there are several things that need to take place before the people are present with the Lord, I want to be clear that all of this is so that the people know how to interact with the Lord in a proper way: with awe and respect. So, how are the people to prepare to meet with the Lord?

Verse 10 says that the people should take the next two days to be consecrated. The word “consecrate” means to prepare or to set apart. The idea here is that they should work to make themselves acceptable to be before a holy God, which aligns with what God has already told them they will be, a holy nation. The main aspect of the consecration that is included in verse 10 is that the people should wash their clothes.

You see, this preparation was quite an ordeal. This was more than just doing a little bit of work in order to look nice before a date or something. For the entire nation to have washed their clothes, this would have taken all of the two days that were allotted for this task.

There are two more things that the people are told to do in preparation for meeting the Lord. First, they were to set limits around the mountain so that no one got too close to it. The punishment for the one who touched the mountain would be that they would be put to death. This was to emphasize the purity of the holiness of the Lord. You and I have been called to be holy but we still have impurities that remind us that we are not truly pure. Yet, the Lord is.

The second thing that the people were commanded to do was to abstain from sex. This seems a little extreme at first glance but the Lord desired for the people to feel the full magnitude of what was about to take place. In denying themselves physical indulgences, they would be free to consider what was going to happen on the third day.

As you and I consider the day when we might meet the Lord in the fullness of His presence, we should understand that there is much work for us to do each and every day. The washing of ourselves for the sake of holiness is intense work. We should take time to consider regularly whether or not we are prepared for the return of Christ. Have we shared with others? Do we fully feel the weight of what that will be like when we see our Savior face to face? Finally, in verse 16, we read what this experience was like for the people of Israel. We witness

The Meeting (v. 16-25)

I simply want to share with you what we learn about the Lord in this passage from the meeting of God with Israel. It’s just two things but those two things here in these verses are still true today about the Lord.

First, the Lord is mighty. The thunder, lightning, and sound of the trumpet all represent the power of God. This is made clear simply by the description of the scene. The people would have been in awe of the smoke that they saw. The voice of the Lord was booming. And it would have been a day they would never forget.

The second thing is that the Lord is holy. He is far too glorious and holy for our eyes to be placed on directly on Him as long as we are on this side of heaven.

From here, the Lord gives more instruction for Moses to bring up Aaron with Him.