And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;
Moses went up unto God - the Shechinah, within the cloud (Exodus 33:20; John 1:18). From the encampment in Er Rehab, the point of his departure, Moses would probably go through the Wady Lejah or Wady Shuweib; then climbing the side of the mount by a winding ascent, perhaps the route usually taken in the present day in scaling it, he would arrive at the broad platform in front of the highest Peak of Sinai. It is a wide, open space, entirely secluded from view; and while in that elevated solitude, he was summoned by the voice of Yahweh to receive the pattern of that theocracy which was now to be established in Israel. It appears that in communicating the basis of the new constitution to the people, and reporting their acceptance of it to the Lord, he had to ascend the mount more than once (Exodus 19:3; Exodus 19:6; Exodus 19:8; Exodus 19:10) in one day-three days before the promulgation of the law. But he was a hale old man, in full and vigorous activity both of body and mind, and he was equal to such an exertion.
Thus shalt thou say ... The object for which Moses went up was to receive and convey to the people the message contained in these verses, and the purport of which was a general announcement of the terms on which God was to take the Israelites into a close and special relation to Himself. In thus negotiating between God and His people-the highest post of duty which any mortal man was ever called to occupy-Moses was still but a servant. The only Mediator is Jesus Christ.
Verse 4. Ye have seen ... how I bare you on eagles' wings - a beautifully expressive metaphor, used to describe the entireness of their deliverance from the scenes of danger, and the rapidity with which they were carried in unassailable security to a distant eyrie among the mountains (cf. Deuteronomy 32:11-12). This is the prototype of the image employed in Revelation 12:14, to symbolize the Christian Church as a woman borne away into the wilderness on the wings of a great eagle.
And brought you unto myself - i:e., to a place where they might be devoted to God's service.
Verse 5. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice ... and keep my covenant. God had entered into a special covenant With Abraham, guaranteeing the promise of spiritual blessings; and if a large portion of his posterity did not secure an interest in that promise, the fault was their own. God, notwithstanding, for His love to their fathers, and for many wise and important reasons, saw fit to allow them the benefit of an external covenant.
This new covenant entered into at Sinai did not make void the former covenant;-it was intermediate, temporary, and national; and as God can have no contact with sinners without sacrifices and without a Mediator, so this Sinai covenant was founded on sacrifices (Hebrews 9:5; Hebrews 9:18), and had a Mediator, Moses (Galatians 3:19). And in an outward, typical covenant, securing temporal prosperity, so great a display of the divine holiness was not necessary as in a covenant securing an interest in God's special lovingkindness. Therefore, as s Mediator of less value sufficed for the former, a typical Mediator was most suitable to a typical covenant.
Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me, х cªgulaah (H5459), property, wealth, from caagal, to get, to acquire, what is carefully stored up (1 Chronicles 29:3) and highly prized (Ecclesiastes 2:8)]. So the Israelites were chosen as the objects of divine favour, redeemed from bondage, and trained under the divine care for high ends (Deuteronomy 7:6; Deuteronomy 14:2; Deuteronomy 26:18; Psalms 135:4), [The Septuagint has: laos periousios apo pantoon toon ethnoon-a people peculiar (separate) from all the nations (cf. Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 2:9, in which Christians are represented as the full inheritors of the spiritual blessings typically held forth to the Jews).] for all the earth is mine. The Lord added this immediately after declaring that in the event of their 'obeying His voice and keeping His covenant,' they would be 'a peculiar treasure unto Him,' to show that if He chose them from among the nations, to confer upon them special privileges and tokens of His favour, it was not because He stood in need of them, or could derive any advantage from their services; for as 'all the earth was His,' in any other place He might have established His worship-to some other people He might have communicated the knowledge of His will and His worship. Hence, His doing so to them was an act of pure grace. But the phrase, "for all the earth is mine," was undoubtedly used also to intimate that the import of the covenant now being made with the Israelites was not the introduction of a national religion, or for the worship of a local deity, but was designed for the ultimate benefit of the whole world.
Kingdom of priests. Since the priestly order was set apart from the common mass, so the Israelites, compared with other people, were to sustain the same near relation to God-a community of spiritual sovereigns.
A holy nation - set apart to preserve the knowledge and worship of God. That this phrase directed the minds of the people to the sacerdotal order in Egypt as a privileged and consecrated body, especially as the tribe of Levi had not yet been set apart to the service of God, has been suggested by Michaelis and others. But from the sacred functions which, among other privileges, belonged to the oldest sons in families, they must have been perfectly able to form an idea of the meaning of the declaration that they were to be a kingdom of priests; which implied, that, as contrasted with Gentile nations, they were to be taught by direct revelation a knowledge of the character and worship of the true God, and to stand to Him in a relation peculiarly near.
Since God had purposed to save mankind by a Redeemer, the body of the redeemed was, until the advent of Christ, represented by the chosen people, who might collectively be regarded as a kind of mediator, and justly described as "a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation." Men are said to be sanctified or made holy in very different senses.
Sanctification (for the distinction, though an old, is not a bad one) is either real or relative. Real sanctification is either inward, consisting of holiness of heart and life, or outward, consisting in external purifications, and a conduct free from the pollution of gross sins. Relative sanctification consists in separation from common use and a special relation to God and spiritual things.
Though the Israelites were not generalist at this time characterized by that holiness which results from moral excellence or from the graces of the spirit, and in every subsequent period of their history there was a great amount of corruption infecting their society, yet they were destined to be "a holy nation," inasmuch as they were distinguished by a holiness consisting in separation from other nations (Ezra 9:2), in external dedication to God and his service, in their possessing the outward symbols of His presence among them (Exodus 29:43-44), and in their typifying Messiah and his kingdom, and preparing things for his birth and appearance (cf. Leviticus 11:44; Deuteronomy 7:6). That separation from other nations in which the holiness of the Jewish nation chiefly consisted (Exodus 19:5-6; Numbers 23:9; Deuteronomy 26:18-19) was not spiritual, resulting from rectitude of heart and a correspondent deportment, but merely external, derived from the institution of certain sacred rites and ceremonies, different from, or opposite to, those of other nations.
The glory of divine wisdom, no less than of divine goodness and grace, was manifested in the choice of the Israelites for the important purposes contemplated by their separation. In the simplicity as well as in the power of their character, the fitness of the Jews for illustrating the divine government is now clearly seen. 'Neither the Egyptians, with all their wisdom,' says Tholuck (On the Old Testament, 'Biblical Cabinet,' vol. 1:,
p. 22), 'nor the imaginative Indians, nor the vain and speculative Greeks, nor the haughty Romans, could have received a revelation, or have been employed in this work, without marring it.'