Down For The Cause

Introduction

Exodus 19:1–8 ESV

1 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. 2 They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain, 3 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: 4 ‘You yourselves 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 will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 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.” 7 So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. 8 All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.

EX19.1-8

I don’t know if many of us would take a job without knowing what our job actually was. That’s precisely what Kevin Lynch did in early 2013. Back in 2015, Wired magazine wrote an article about Lynch and the job offer he accepted from Apple. Apple’s secrecy is so intense that all Lynch had was a vague description of his job title, vice president of technology. Prior to working for Apple, Lynch spent eight years as the chief technology officer for Adobe. He was best known as the only person dumb enough to publicly fight Steve Jobs over the iPhone’s lack of support for Flash videos. So, it was a double shock that they were willing to hire a man who had been publicly critical of the company’s founder, and that he accepted the job without knowing what he’d be doing.

His first day on the job, he found out that the project he’d been hired to run was already behind schedule. He was told that there was a design review in two days with the Apple brass, and he’d better be ready. How’s that for pressure? To add to the pressure, there was no working prototypes of the design, there was no software, there were only experiments. In spite of the schedule issues and the lack of a prototype, management’s expectations were clear. Lynch was to oversee the creation of a revolutionary device that could be worn on the wrist. That’s right. He was hired to bring the idea of the Apple watch to fruition. Wired’s article points out that Apple decided to make a watch, and then set out to discover what it might be good for besides telling time. The title of Wired’s article is, The Secret History of the Apple Watch. Along the way, Lynch and his team came up Apple Watch’s reason for being. It came down to this, “Your phone is ruining your life. We’re all subject to the tyranny of the buzz―the constant checking, the long list of nagging notifications.” Lynch said, “People want that level of engagement, but how do we provide it in a way that’s a little more human, a little more in the moment when you’re with somebody?”

The fact that some of us in here have the watch on our wrist is proof that Lynch got the job done. Either that, or you’re a part of the experiment to see whether or not they’ve achieved their goal. It’s all well and good that they found a purpose for their product, but Lynch knew none of this going in. The responsibilities were immense. The requirements to be a part of this process were serious. How many of us would be willing to take the risk of committing to a new responsibility like this with high demands but no description of it ahead of time? Or, to put it another way, what made Apple so worthy of trust that Kevin Lynch said, “I’m down with the cause even though I don’t know what I’m supposed be doing? I don’t really know what I’m committing myself to?” Maybe for Kevin Lynch there was excitement in not knowing. Maybe dollar signs were flashed in front of him to make it worth his while. Maybe he was ready to leave his old job and move on. The article doesn’t really give us that answer. What would it be for you? What would make you say, “I don’t know what the requirements are, but I’ll do it?” What does someone have to do to be worthy of that kind of trust?

For at least this moment in time in our text, the children of Israel are willing to make that leap. In v. 5 the Lord tells Moses to say to the people, “If you will surely listen to my voice, and keep my covenant, you will be my treasured possession among all the peoples. For the whole earth belongs to me.” Then, the people say to Moses in v. 8, “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.” They don’t even know what it means to keep his covenant yet. They say, “we’re down with the cause,” but they don’t know the details yet. In fact, the details of what it means to keep the covenant are going to start to be laid out in ch. 20. And those details will continue not only through the rest of Exodus, but all the way through the book of Leviticus. Right now they’re saying, “My God, in you we trust.” “You can give us the details later, but we’re down for the cause.” This chapter is a transition in the book of Exodus to the section that is focused on the law. And it gives us some insight into what it means to be down with Jesus Christ and his cause.

Being down for the cause means being down with the Poet, and understanding what it means to be the People.

The Poet

Ch. 19 marks a decisive shift in the book of Exodus. If we were reading the Hebrew text, that would be clear to us in the first verse. Up to this point every chapter begins in a way that clearly links it to the previous section. That literary marker is absent here. Its absence lets us know that the writer is making an intentional break with what’s been written to this point. So when v. 1 tells us that, “In the third month after the children of Israel went out from the land of Egypt, on this day they came to the wilderness of Sinai,” we’re basically being given a heading for the rest of the book. Things slow way way down. In fact, they’ll be right here at Mount Sinai not only for the rest of Exodus, but also for the entire book of Leviticus. They don’t leave Sinai until .

I’ve mentioned to you before that Exodus can be divided into three main headings, salvation, law, and worship―the Lord delivering his people from slavery, the Lord giving them his law, and instructing them about worship. All three of those elements of the book are contained here in Ch. 19. The Lord brings the children of Israel here to Sinai, and he calls Moses up to the mountain in order to reestablish his covenant with them. The first part of being down with the cause is understanding the covenant. Here’s how covenants would work in the ancient world. A king would make a treaty with a nation, typically after defeating them in battle. The treaty would declare who the king is, what he’s done for the people, what he requires of the people, and what he promises to do for the people in the future as long as they keep the covenant. All of that is literally here in the first six verses of this chapter. The Lord declares what he’s done for the people in v. 4, “You’ve seen what I did to the Egyptians.” He declares what’s required of them in v. 5, “obey my voice and keep my covenant.” Then he makes a promise, “you shall be my treasured possession, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

Here they are, encamped in the wilderness of Sinai before the mountain, and Moses climbs the mountain. You may remember that isn’t the first time that Moses has been up this mountain. This is where he was tending his father-in-law, Jethro’s, flock when the Lord met him in the burning bush back in Ch. 3, and told Moses that he was sending him back to Egypt to deliver the people from slavery. If you remember what happened, Moses wasn’t all too excited about the idea of going back to Egypt to deliver anybody, especially since he had fled from Egypt. But the Lord said to him in 3:12, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign for you that I have sent you. When you bring the people out from Egypt, you all will worship God on this mountain.” Now, the sign has been fulfilled. The Lord did what he said he was going to do.

Here’s the deal. God is a poet. He could say to them, “I did what I said I was going to do. So here’s how things are going to work between us.” But what we have here is more like a marriage than a business contract. You all have been to weddings. A lot of times the groom and the bride write their own vows. They want to express their hearts. No groom makes up his own vow saying something like, “I’m glad we have the opportunity to formalize the relationship and make it permanent. Let’s get this thing done.” No. He’s going to wax poetic. He’s going to talk about the stars and the sky and the ocean and the flowers and his love. He’s going to get all descriptive and beautiful. Why are your vows more poetic than matter-of-fact? Because you’re pouring out your heart. Poetry as a means of communication is more fitting when I want to express the depth of my love.

That’s exactly what the Lord does when he speaks to Moses in vv. 3-4. He calls to Moses out of the mountain, and says, “This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob, and declare to the children of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I lifted you on the wings of eagles and brought you to myself.’” The Lord is talking about how he saved them, and he doesn’t use dry, matter-of-fact language. He waxes poetic. He gets metaphorical.

When I hear those words, the image that comes to mind is from the movie, The Return of the King. Towards the end of the movie Frodo and Sam have done what they set out to do, they’ve destroyed the ring in the fires of Mordor. Mount Doom erupts, and the lava starts to flow. Frodo and Sam run out and find a spot on the mountain safe from the lava, but they think that they’re going to die, and so does the audience. Then Gandalf, the white wizard, flies in on these giant eagles. The eagles pick up Frodo and Sam and bring them to safety.

The Lord says to the people, this is what my salvation is like, this is how my deliverance works. In the OT, eagles are depicted as birds that care for the weak. Moses’ song in Deut 32:

Deuteronomy 32:10–12 ESV

10 “He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. 11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, 12 the Lord alone guided him, no foreign god was with him.

DEUT32.

Eagles are depicted as fierce birds of prey (; ; ).

Jeremiah 48:40–41 ESV

40 For thus says the Lord: “Behold, one shall fly swiftly like an eagle and spread his wings against Moab; 41 the cities shall be taken and the strongholds seized. The heart of the warriors of Moab shall be in that day like the heart of a woman in her birth pains;

JER48.

, and as fierce birds of prey (; ; ; ). “You saw what I did to the Egyptians. You were weak, and unable to help yourselves. I swooped down, and hovered over you to protect you. Then, I lifted you up and carried you out of there.” This is how salvation works. This is the foundation for any relationship with God. There is no saying, “I’m down with God,” without first knowing the beauty of his salvation. The underlying reason he can use this metaphoric language to describe how he saved them is because he’s motivated by love. They’re going to say, “Everything the Lord has spoken we will do,” because at that moment they realize that the Lord has set his love on them.

The Lord is emphasizing their weakness and his fierceness. “You saw what I did to the Egyptians. You were weak, and unable to help yourselves. But I stepped in with my strength. I swooped down, and hovered over you to protect you. Then, I lifted you up and carried you out of there.” This is how salvation works. This is the foundation for any relationship with God. There is no saying, “I’m down with God,” without first knowing the beauty of his salvation. And there’s no knowing the beauty of his salvation without knowing our weakness and his fierceness. And the underlying reason he can use this metaphoric language to describe how he saved them is because he’s motivated by love. They’re going to say, “Everything the Lord has spoken we will do,” because at that moment they realize that the Lord has set his love on them.

You don’t get down with the cause unless you’re with the Poet. We don’t get down with the Poet unless we realize the beauty of what he has done for us. This is exactly what Jesus came to do! He came to meet us in our helpless condition. He swooped down into this world to grab us, set us on his wings, and carry us to God. Let me ask you a question? How do you know that God is love? You would be hard-pressed to find anyone, regardless of their religious commitment, who would disagree with those three words. God is love. But how do you know? You know that he is love really and truly if you’ve experienced his deliverance! If you’ve come to know your own weakness, your own neediness because you’re captive to your own sin and brokenness, and God has swooped in to declare his love over you in Jesus.

1 John 4:14–16 ESV

14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

1JN4.

The People

You see, when the people of Israel in our text agree to do what the Lord says, they’re not quite like Mr. Lynch, who committed to his relationship with Apple without knowing what the job required. Apple had never done anything for him to demonstrate that they were worthy of his trust. But Israel has got proof. They don’t know all the requirements yet, but they’re not going into this thing blindly. They’ve received God’s salvation already. They’ve been redeemed by the Lord. They’ve seen him work. Notice again how it works with God. He does all the saving. “I carried you. I brought you to myself. You didn’t reach up to me. I did it all.” This entire scene, as Peter Enns says in his commentary, is predicated on what God has done. They are about to be given the law in great detail. The requirements of the covenant are about to be laid out. But they’re not given the law in order to be saved. They’re already saved. The law describes for them what is expected of people who have already been redeemed. That’s always been the case. In fact, it’s still the case, even in the NT. Being down for the cause means being down with the poet, but it also means understanding what it looks like to be the people who’ve received his salvation.

Many of us are familiar with what the apostle Paul says in , “By grace you have been saved, through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast.” In the OT, we see here in that their salvation wasn’t because of their works. It was the work of God. So, it was for them by grace through faith. It was the gift of God. In the NT, what do we find? We find the same thing. This makes sense because God doesn’t change.

The other thing we find is that salvation is free, but it’s not cheap. For those who have received God’s gift of salvation there is an expectation for how you are to live. Paul says in , salvation is by grace through faith, not of works. Then he says in , “I urge you to live in a manner worthy of the calling to which you all have been called.” Grace isn’t cheap. Grace transforms. There is an expectation for how the people who are connected to the Poet will live their lives.

Look at what the Lord says about his people in vv. 5-6, “Now if you will truly listen to my voice and keep my covenant, then you will be to me a treasured possession out of all the peoples. For, the whole earth belongs to me. And you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Hear what the Lord is declaring. He says, “the whole earth belongs to me.” Everything is mine. I own it all. I order it all. It might look to you like things are out of control, but I haven’t stepped down off of my throne. The demonstration of my control and my power is that I saved you exactly how I wanted to do it, at exactly the time I wanted to do it, and I brought you to myself. I have selected you out of all the peoples to be my special possession. I didn’t do it so that you could be a group of people who brag and boast about yourself. I did it because I intend to make you a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Ok. So, the Poet wants to make the people into a kingdom. Notice the emphasis here. When we hear the word “kingdom” we naturally think rule and authority. But he doesn’t say to them, “I’m making you a kingdom of kings.” He doesn’t say to them, “I’m making you a kingdom of rulers to exercise authority and dominion over the rest of the nations.” He said, “You’re to become a kingdom of priests and holy nation.” To be a holy nation means to be set apart for God’s purpose. What about being a kingdom of priests? This is the only time in the OT that this phrase is used. Remember where we are in the Exodus story. The priesthood hasn’t been established yet. Moses’ brother, Aaron, is going to be the first high priest. The law is going to require that the priests come from his line. But that hasn’t been laid down. So what are they supposed to make of the Lord saying they’re supposed to be a kingdom of priests before he gives them laws about the priests?

Implied in this declaration is that the entire nation of Israel was to function as a priesthood. They were chosen by God to have an exalted spiritual task. Understand that priests don’t live for themselves first and foremost. Priests stand between people and God in order to help bring people closer to God. And, as Douglas Stuart says in his commentary, “to help dispense God’s truth, justice, favor, discipline, and holiness to humans.” They were not to exist solely for their own self-interest. They were to be a light to the nations. Their life as a people was supposed to point others to the true and living God, the one who specializes in saving people.

This term, a kingdom of priests, doesn’t show up again in the OT, but does show up in the NT. The apostle Peter, in his first letter, starts the letter off praising God for salvation. He says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (). What does Peter say to the people who have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead? He says in Ch. 2:9-10,

1 Peter 2:9–10 ESV

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

I wonder where Peter got that from? What does it mean to be down with the cause? In order to be down with the cause we have understand what it means to be God’s people. Being God’s people isn’t about amassing power for ourselves. Being God’s people isn’t about domination. Being God’s people is about intercession. It’s about dedicating ourselves to God in a way that demonstrates the goodness of God, the grace of God, the truth of God, the justice of God, the mercy of God, the glory of God. When the Lord said these words to Israel in , his intention was for them to live in such a way that the nations around them would be more attracted to the true God. Their life as a people was to demonstrate his excellence. I’ll say it again. Salvation is free, but it ain’t cheap!

Please not miss the significance of what it means to be a kingdom of priests. It meant that God was with them, that he dwelt among them. It meant that they were set apart for him; that they were to be dedicated to him above everything and everyone else. But it also meant that their lives were to be formed by his presence, by his power, by his word.

This is all for a purpose. Are we down for the cause? What’s the cause? It’s to be a kingdom priests who dispense God’s truth to people, but not in a way that forces people into submission. Jesus makes us dispensers of his truth, motivated by love, not by domination. When you are engaging with someone about what the Bible says about sexuality, what the Bible says about gender, what the Bible says about any contentious topic in our day and age, what’s your motivation? Are you able to say that you’re motivated by love for your neighbor with whom you disagree? Are you trying to win arguments or hearts?

As a kingdom of priests, Jesus makes us dispensers of justice. Both and say that God’s people are a holy nation. The difference between and , is that God’s people are no longer a nation state. We don’t wield the power of the sword to dispense justice. We are dispensers of justice in the way that we promote the cause of the oppressed. We’re dispensers of justice in the way that we speak out against injustice in all its forms. This might look like the way the Black church has spoken out against oppression and injustice throughout American history. It might look like you supporting a co-worker who’s being treated unfairly.

As a kingdom of priests, the church finds ways to elevate the cause of those in need. As a kingdom of priests we know that well-wishing is not enough. “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warm and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (). James here is asking a rhetorical question. What good is it? It’s no good.

Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (). Jesus knew that our faith would involve seeking our Father in heaven for our daily physical needs. We find out that, as a kingdom of priests, the Lord delights to provide “the things needed for the body, (material and non-material)” through his church.

So, in all of it, Jesus makes us a kingdom of priests to be dispensers of grace. We come each week, feasting at this table, receiving grace anew to grow as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation for the cause of dispensing the same grace that we’ve received that others might know the depth of the Poet’s love.