Exodus 19:2-8a

This is the sign!

This! This is *the sign*!

This is *the sign* Moses had long expected. The LORD, on this mountain, with redeemed slaves who will now serve a new lord, the LORD!

Many people think the signs and wonders of Exodus – 7:3; too often called just “plagues” – are “the signs” of God’s primary action in the story of the Exodus. While frogs, darkness, hail and the Nile turned to blood are not insignificant, and while they serve the purpose of God with Pharaoh, these signs are not *the sign* of God’s primary activity.

The LORD first engaged Moses in order to bring a people out of Egypt so that this redeemed people would now become servants to a new lord, the LORD. The sign is given in Exodus 3 and it points all the way forward to Exodus 19. The story of Exodus 1 to 18 in many ways is about getting finally to Exodus 19.

Many people teach the Exodus as though it is the story of the LORD who frees a people. In fact, it seems to me that story of the Bible is that the LORD does not free a people to be free to do what they want. Rather, the LORD frees a people from the dominant reign of Pharaoh in order that these redeemed person would submit to the Sovereign Reign of the LORD.

We know that God does not simply free a people to do whatever it is they want, as the LORD clearly gives these newly redeemed people clear laws that will govern their lives. They are not free to do as they wish, they are free to become God’s people, a people of worship who serve the LORD. They are free to become a new kind of people, a new kind of kingdom, a new kingdom of nation – a Priestly Kingdom and a Holy Nation (Ex. 19:6).

I have written here that Exodus 19 is *the sign* so I need to qualify how this is *the* sign.

This is *the sign* because this episode in Chapter 19, at Mt. Sinai directly ties back to the theophany of the “Burning Bush” of Exodus 3. There are numerous important claims made about God in Exodus 3 with a particularly important question and response from Moses and the LORD in Exodus 3 which sets the stage for Exodus 19.

After the LORD announces the LORD’s holiness (Exodus 3:5) and declares that the LORD has “seen, heard and knows” (3:7) the suffering of “my people,” the LORD announces that in coming down the people will be “brought out” (3:8) to a good and flourishing land. The means by which the LORD will bring about this extraordinary freedom is by sending Moses (3:10). Moses seems a bit taken back by the claim that he should redeem these people who have oppressed by Pharaoh’s servitude and asks, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11).

In Exodus 3:12, LORD’s reply points forward to *the sign* of Exodus 19!

This sign will not be staff that turns into a snake (Exodus 4).

This sign will not be the hand of Moses concealed in his cloak and brought forth leprous (Exodus 4)

This sign will not be frogs, gnats, darkness, death of the firstborn nor even parting the waters of the Sea. (Exodus 8-16)

The first and initial claim of *the sign* that God is “with” Moses and these people these people “will serve/worship on this mountain (Sinai).”

After Moses asks “Who am I?” the LORD answers:

“I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain” (Exodus 3:12).

The claim here to “worship” is important. It comes from the Hebrew word abad (aleph-bet-dalet). Here, the NRSV and most translations render it as “worship” though it is the same word used 2x in Exodus 1 to describe how pharaoh force the servitude of these Israelites.

In Exodus 1:13-14 the Bible reads: “The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service . . . “ The word for “tasks” and “hard service” here is the *same* word used by the LORD in Exodus 3:12, translated as “worship” though it really is a new kind of service. It is service to a new lord, not Pharoah who lorded over them, but service to the lord who is the LORD, YHWH.

*The sign* is that these people get out of Egypt, get to this mountain and prepare to enter into service as worship to this new lord. And this happens, finally, in Exodus 19!

Exodus 19 is what Exodus 3 points toward.

Exodus 19 begins to set in place the opportunity for these people, now saved from the lordship of an oppressive ruler, to become the people of the LORD. And, this new lord, the LORD, will rule over them as One who “has brought them out on eagle’s wings” (Exodus 19:3), not as an oppressor.

*The sign* the LORD announced is about a community of people gathered as a people of service and obedience willing to serve this new lord revealed at this mountain!

The people in Exodus 19 are free from the oppressive rule of Pharaoh and yet they are not free to do as they wish. Exodus 19:5 and the whole of the Ten Commandments given in Exodus 20 and the whole of the instructions given in the Torah make evident that the LORD intends for these people to be people of obedience in service to this new community formation project the LORD is achieving. Exodus 19:5 states that the LORD expects “obeying me fully” and “keeping my covenant.”

In return for this allegiance of obedience to the LORD and service as worship to YHWH, the LORD announces “then” (and only in line with obedience): “then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6).

Treasured possession!

Priestly Kingdom!

Holy Nation!

The notion of the “treasured” or “peculiar” or “special” status of these people is found in only eight passages in the TaNaK. “Treasured” comes from the Hebrew segullah (samek-gimel-lamed-he). Here, and also in Deuteronomy 7:6,14:2 and 26:8 it is used in an expression similar to how it is found here in Exodus 19:5. It has similar usage as well, in Psalm 135:4. The same word is used in 1 Chronicles 29:3, Ecclesiastes 2:8 and Malachi 3:7 for an actual treasure, jewels or treasure of kings. These people as *the sign* are “treasured.”

The labels “priestly” and “holy” capture the Sovereign, holy, temple, priestly, sanctified aspect of life that the LORD intends. And these are each set in juxtaposition to words that characterize social, economic and political forms of life in the “nation” and “kingdom.” These people as *the sign* are “holy” and “priestly.”

*The sign* is that a people of covenantal obedience, now gathered on this mountain, have been brought out in order that God can bring about the reality of an utterly new reality on the earth, a kingdom that is priestly, a nation that is holy, treasured among all nations to be God’s community of service.

This sign will point forward yet further to the work of Jesus who announces a “Kingdom” that is of “heaven” and with “God.” “From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17).

This sign will point forward into the eschaton when “the saints . . . They sing a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation; you have made them to be a kingdom and priests . . . “ (Revelation 5:8-10, italics added).

When *the sign* comes to these redeemed slaves in Exodus 19, gathered on the mountain, “The people all responded together, “We will do everything the Lord has said” (Exodus 19:8). They become a community of action. They become a community of obedience. They become a community who have a role to play and work “to do” in the world and in transforming it to become according to God’s intention.

We who read all of Scripture in the Canon of the Bible far removed from Egypt millennia ago, we know that these redeemed slaves from Pharaoh will struggle with being fully obedient to the LORD and faithful to covenantal obligation. And yet here, in Exodus 19, we don’t yet know that. In Exodus 19 we only know that the LORD had fulfilled the LORD’s word – stretching back to Moses in Exodus 3. The LORD had brought these people out and now, they will be the LORD’s treasured possession, who will manifest God’s order in a unique kingdom and a new nation – a priestly kingdom and holy nation.

Starting here, and for the rest of the story of the Scripture, the LORD will seek to transform all nations of the earth and the rule of the world to become on earth, like it is in heaven, by means of the in-breaking activity of the LORD’s Kingdom work, started first with this fulfilled “sign” – a worshipping community, a community of service.

When a people serve with obedience in an embodied worship that transforms the world, the Kingdom of the LORD will be made manifest for all. This passage with *the sign* continues to be a call for believers in our world today as we continue partner with God to make the world embody the prayer of Jesus, that “it might become on earth, as it is in heaven.”