Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine;
Parallel Translations
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Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine;
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Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
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Now therefore, if ye will hearken unto My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be Mine own treasure from among all peoples; for all the earth is Mine;
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Cross-references (38)
Passages linked to Exodus 19:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 14:2 For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God, and Yahweh has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.
- Deuteronomy 7:6 For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.
- Deuteronomy 26:18 Yahweh has declared today that you are a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you should keep all his commandments.
- Malachi 3:17 They shall be mine,” says Yahweh of Armies, “my own possession in the day that I make, and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.
- Exodus 15:26 He said, “If you will diligently listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, and will do that which is right in his eyes, and will pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you, which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am Yahweh who heals you.”
- Deuteronomy 10:14 Behold, to Yahweh your God belongs heaven, the heaven of heavens, and the earth, with all that is therein.
- Psalms 135:4 For Yah has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel for his own possession.
- Exodus 23:22 But if you indeed listen to his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and an adversary to your adversaries.
- Deuteronomy 4:20 But Yahweh has taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as it is today.
- Exodus 9:29 Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands to Yahweh. The thunders shall cease, and there will not be any more hail; that you may know that the earth is Yahweh’s.
- Titus 2:14 who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.
- Psalms 24:1 The earth is Yahweh’s, with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell in it.
- Deuteronomy 5:2 Yahweh our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.
- Job 41:11 Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heavens is mine.
- 1 Corinthians 10:26 for “the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness.”
- Deuteronomy 32:8-9 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. For Yahweh’s portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
- Jeremiah 31:31-33 “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which covenant of mine they broke, although I was a husband to them,” says Yahweh. “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says Yahweh: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
- Joshua 24:24 The people said to Joshua, “We will serve Yahweh our God, and we will listen to his voice.”
- 1 Samuel 15:22 Samuel said, “Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying Yahweh’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
- 1 Kings 8:53 For you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth, to be your inheritance, as you spoke by Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, Lord Yahweh.”
- Psalms 25:10 All the paths of Yahweh are loving kindness and truth to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
- Psalms 103:17-18 But Yahweh’s loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant, to those who remember to obey his precepts.
- Isaiah 41:8 “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham my friend,
- Isaiah 43:1 But now Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel, says: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.
- Daniel 4:34-35 At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him who lives forever; for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and no one can stop his hand, or ask him, “What are you doing?”
- Hebrews 11:8 By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went.
- Exodus 24:7 He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “We will do all that Yahweh has said, and be obedient.”
- Deuteronomy 28:1 It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you today, that Yahweh your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
- Isaiah 1:19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land;
- Jeremiah 11:4-7 which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace,’ saying, ‘Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you; so you shall be my people, and I will be your God; that I may establish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey,’ as it is today.” Then I answered, and said, “Amen, Yahweh.” Yahweh said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Hear the words of this covenant, and do them. For I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, rising early and protesting, saying, “Obey my voice.”
- Deuteronomy 11:27 the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you today;
- Deuteronomy 14:21 You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the foreigner living among you who is within your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
- Psalms 50:11-12 I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
- Isaiah 56:4 For Yahweh says, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, choose the things that please me, and hold fast to my covenant,
- Jeremiah 7:23 but this thing I commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. Walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’
- 1 Corinthians 10:28 But if anyone says to you, “This was offered to idols,” don’t eat it for the sake of the one who told you, and for the sake of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, with all its fullness.”
- Song of Solomon 8:12 My own vineyard is before me. The thousand are for you, Solomon, two hundred for those who tend its fruit.
- Jeremiah 10:16 The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the maker of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of Armies is his name.
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Exo 19:5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my…
Exo 19:5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth [is] mine:
Ver. 5. If ye will obey my voice indeed.] As I am good to you in deed, and not in pretence or profession only. Nathanael was "an Israelite indeed." {Joh 1:47} And Caleb fulfilled after God, or fully followed him; so did not Solomon. {1Ki 11:6}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain If ye will obey my voice indeed; Heb. obeying…
If ye will obey my voice indeed; Heb. obeying ye will obey; i.e. if ye will obey me sincerely, diligently, and constantly.
A peculiar treasure, highly prized and loved, and carefully kept by me, as men’s treasures generally are. For all people upon earth are mine by creation and dominion, and I can dispose of them all as I please, and either choose or refuse any of them as I think fit; and therefore though I might refuse you, as well as any others, yet it is my pleasure to single you out of all the world, upon whom to confer my chiefest and peculiar blessings. Or, though all the earth be mine, by general right, yet you only are mine by special title and privilege.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Now therefore,.... Since they had received such marks of…
Now therefore,.... Since they had received such marks of his favour, and were laid under great obligations to him:
if ye will obey my voice indeed; truly, sincerely, and heartily; or "in hearkening hearken", or "in obeying obey" (g); that is, closely and attentively hearken to what he should say to them, and thoroughly and constantly yield a cheerful obedience to his commands:
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and keep my covenant; now about to be made with them, which would consist of promises of good things to be done to them on his part, and of duties to be performed by them on their part, and so would constitute a formal covenant by stipulation and restipulation:
then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; be as highly valued by him, and as carefully preserved as the richest treasure among men; even as the treasure of princes, consisting of gold and silver, precious stones, pearls and jewels, and everything that is valuable; and of this he would give such proof and demonstration, as would make it appear that they were esteemed by him above all people upon the face of the earth; being chosen for his peculiar treasure, and redeemed out of the house of bondage and slavery to be his peculiar people, and distinguished from all others by particular favours and blessings:
for all the earth is mine; as it is, and the inhabitants of it, by creation, sustentation, preservation, and dominion, all being made, upheld, preserved, and governed by him; and therefore, as he had a right to all, could choose what part he pleased for his special use and service; or "though all the earth is mine" (h), as Marinus in Aben Ezra, which yet the latter does not seem to approve of; and then the sense is, though the whole world was his, and all that is in it, yet such was his special affection, and peculiar regard to Israel, as to choose them, and esteem them as his portion and inheritance, his jewel, and peculiar treasure.
(g) "obediendo obedieritis", Pagninus, Montanus; "audiendo audiveritis", Drusius; "auscultando auscultabitis", Piscator; so Ainsworth. (h) "tametsi", Vatablus; "quamvis", Piscator, Drusius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure to me…
Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure to me - He doth not instance in any one particular favour, but expresseth it in that which was inclusive of all happiness, that he would be to them a God in covenant, and they should be to him a people. Nay you shall be a peculiar treasure: not that God was enriched by them, as a man is by his treasure, but he was pleased to value and esteem them as a man doth his treasure; they were precious in his sight. He took them under his special care and protection, as a treasure that is kept under lock and key. He distinguished them from, and dignified them above all people, as a people devoted to him, and to his service.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Exo 19:5. Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure…
Exo 19:5. Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure to me — He doth not instance in any one particular favour, but expresseth it in that which was inclusive of all happiness, that he would be to them a God in covenant, and they should be to him a people. Nay, you shall be a peculiar treasure: not that God was enriched by them, as a man is by his treasure, but he was pleased to value and esteem them as a man doth his treasure; they were precious in his sight. He took them under his special care and protection, as a treasure that is kept under lock and key. He distinguished them from, and dignified them above all people, as a people devoted to him and to his service.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain A peculiar treasure - A costly possession acquired with…
A peculiar treasure - A costly possession acquired with exertion, and carefully guarded. The special relation in which Israel stands, taken out of the pagan world and consecrated to God, as His slaves, subjects, and children, determines their privileges, and is the foundation of their duties. The same principle applies even in a stronger sense to the Church. See Act 20:28; 1Co 6:20; 1Pe 2:9.
All the earth is mine - It was a point of great practical importance, to impress upon the Jews that their God was no mere national Deity. Compare Deu 10:14; Psa 24:1.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Possession, (peculium). Hebrew segula, "a chosen portion or treasure."…
Possession, (peculium). Hebrew segula, "a chosen portion or treasure." (Menochius) --- Mine. I could have made choice of others. We cannot but admire the goodness of God, who asks for the free consent of the people. Hence they can have no pretence for breaking this solemn covenant. (Calmet) (Theodoret, 9. 35.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 5. Obey my voice… keep my covenant — These…
5. Obey my voice… keep my covenant — These two expressions denote the twofold idea of giving obedient attention to each new word that Jehovah speaks, and at the same time guard sacredly the terms of the covenant as already established, or about to be established in fuller form.
A peculiar treasure unto me — The Hebrew word סגלה is happily rendered by peculiar treasure, for it denotes more than the mere word property or possessions. In Mal_3:17, it is translated jewels, and in 1Ch_29:3, it means a special private quantity of gold and silver which Solomon amassed for himself, and so, also, probably, in Ecc_2:8, where mention is made of “the peculiar treasure of kings.” In all other places (Deu_7:6; Deu_14:2; Deu_26:18; Psa_135:4) the word represents Israel as a peculiarly precious possession of Jehovah. Comp. Tit_2:14; 1Pe_2:9.
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Above all people — Or, from all the peoples, as being chosen out from all the peoples of the earth. Being thus selected out of the nations, Israel would be esteemed above the other peoples, who, nevertheless, were all possessions of God, for it is added, as if to offset the idea that Israel’s God was merely a national deity, all the earth is mine, for Jehovah God is its creator and ruler.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 5. obey] lit. hearken to. So always. Cf. Exo_15:26;…
5. obey] lit. hearken to. So always. Cf. Exo_15:26; Deu_13:4; Deu_13:18; Deu_27:10, &c.; and especially Deu_11:13, Deu_15:5, Deu_28:1 (in these three passages hearken diligently unto is in the Heb. the same as obey indeed here), Exo Exo_30:10.
my covenant] the covenant of Exo_24:7-8, described there as concluded on the basis of the ‘Book of the Covenant’ (i.e. the injunctions in Exo_20:23 to Exo_23:19): if Israel observes the terms of this covenant, Jehovah promises that He will bring it into a relation of special nearness to Himself.
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This is a point on which the representation of both J and E differs from that of P. Both J and E speak of a covenant concluded between Jehovah and Israel at Sinai: P says nothing of such a covenant; the only covenant mentioned by him in this connexion is the covenant with the patriarchs, to which Jehovah gives effect by delivering their descendants from Egypt, and settling them in Canaan (see Exo_6:4-8).
a peculiar treasure] Heb. segullâh, i.e. a special possession; see 1Ch_29:3, Ecc_2:8, where the word is used of a private treasure (of gold, silver, &c.) belonging to kings. The rend. ‘peculiar’ we owe to Jerome, who states that Symmachus had used peculiaris in one place: it means ‘specially one’s own,’ being used in its old etymological sense, derived from the Lat. peculium, the private property of a child or slave. With the addition of ‘people,’ ‘a people of special possession,’ the word occurs, borrowed from here, in Deu_7:6; Deu_14:2; Deu_26:18; and alone also in Psa_135:4 : in Mal_3:17 (RV.) it is transferred to the faithful Israelites of the future. The LXX. here, Exo_23:22 (in an addition to the Heb.), Deu_7:6; Deu_14:2; Deu_26:18, render by λαὸς περιούσιος; and in Psa_135:4, Ecc_2:8 by περιουσιασμός: hence λαὸς περιούσιος in Tit_2:14. Λαὸς εἰς περιποίησιν in 1Pe_2:9 (cf. Eph_1:14) is also based upon the same expression: cf. εἰς περιποίησιν for segullâh in Mal_3:17 LXX., and ὃ περιπεποίημαι in 1Ch_29:3. (Περιούσιος means apparently being over and above, and so exceptional, special; see Lightfoot, On a Fresh Revision of the Engl. N. T., p. 234 ff.)
from among] lit. out of; but as what is taken specially out of a number is preferred to the rest (cf. ἐξαίρετος, eximius, egregius), the meaning above (marg.) is also implied. So Deu_7:6; Deu_14:2.
for all the earth is mine] and so I can choose which I will of the nations upon it. Cf. Exo_9:29, Deu_10:14.
On the ‘covenants’ mentioned in the Pentateuch
A ‘covenant’ is a compact or agreement, concluded—at least on important occasions—under solemn religious sanctions, and implying mutual undertakings and obligations. For instances of covenants between men, see Gen_26:26-31; Gen_31:44-54, 1Ki_15:19 (‘league’), 1Ki_20:34. In a religious sense, a ‘covenant’ is the most formal, and, so to say, official expression of the gracious relation subsisting between God and men: God promises that, if man observes the conditions laid down by Him, He will bestow upon him certain specified blessings. In references to a covenant of this kind, the stress may rest, according to the context and purpose of the writer, either on the Divine promise (e.g. Deu_4:31), or on the human obligation (e.g. Deu_4:23). The following are the ‘covenants’ referred to in the Pentateuch:—
In J:—1. The covenant with Abraham, Gen_15:18.
5, 6. The promise. The high privileges in store for Israel, if it but listens to Jehovah’s voice, and observes His covenant. The verses, in style and thought, approximate to Dt. (cf. on Deu_12:25-27 a), and may have been expanded by the compiler of JE.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (5) A peculiar treasure.—The Hebrew sĕgullah is from a…
(5) A peculiar treasure.—The Hebrew sĕgullah is from a root, found in Chaldee, signifying “to earn,” or “acquire,” and means primarily some valuable possession, which the owner has got by his own exertions. (Comp. 1Ch_29:3, where the English Version translates it by “mine own proper good.”) God views the Israelites as made His own by the long series of mighty works done for their deliverance, whereby He is sometimes said to have “redeemed” (Exo_6:6; Exo_15:13), or “purchased” them (Exo_15:16). The word sĕgullah is here used for the first time. Later it be comes an epitheton usitatum of Israel. (See Deu_7:6; Deu_14:2; Deu_26:18; Psa_135:4; Mal_3:17; and comp. also Tit_2:14; 1Pe_2:9.)
Above all people: for all the earth is mine.—While claiming a peculiar right in Israel, God does not mean to separate Himself from the other nations, to cease to care for them, or give them up to their own devices. He is always “the Most High over all the earth” (Psa_83:18), “a light to lighten the Gentiles,” one who “judges the people righteously, and governs all the nations upon earth” (Psa_67:4). Israel’s prerogative does not rob them of their birthright. He is the favoured son; but they, too, “are, all of them, children of the Most High” (Psa_82:6).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Now therefore. Instead of asking the simple question ye…
Now therefore. Instead of asking the simple question ye promise to obey me and keep my covenant. God graciously entices the Israelites to their own advantage by a most loving promise. If they will agree to obey his voice, and accept and keep his covenant, then they shall be to him a peculiar treasure (segullah) a precious possession to be esteemed highly and carefully guarded from all that might injure it. (Compare Psa_135:4; and see also and Isa_43:1-4) This preciousness they shall not share with others on equal terms, but enjoy exclusively it shall be theirs above all people. No other nation on the earth shall hold the position which they shall hold, or be equally precious in God"s sight. All the earth is his: and so all nations are his in a certain sense. But this shall not interfere with the special Israelite prerogative they alone shall be his "peculiar people". (Deu_14:2)
Vers. 5, 6. God"s promises to such as keep his covenant.
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Three things are here specially worthy of consideration:
1. The nature of the promises;
2. The grounds onwhich they may be believed and trusted; and
3. The conditions attached to them.
I THE NATURE OF THE PROMISES. God"s promises to Israel are threefold they shall be kings; they shall be priests; they shall be his peculiar treasure.
(a) Kings. Most men are slaves servants of Satan, servants of sin, slaves to their evil passions, slaves to opinion, abject slaves to those among their fellow-men on whom they depend for daily bread, or for favour and advancement. The glorious liberty of the children of God shakes off all these yokes. Man, awakened to his true relations with God, at once asserts himself, realises his dignity, feels that he need "call no man, master." He himself is supreme over himself; his conscience is his law, not the will of another. His life, his acts, his words, are under his own control. Within this sphere he is "king," directing and ruling his conduct according to his own views of what is right and fitting; and this kingship is mostly followed by another. Let a man once show himself a true, brave, upright, independent person, and he will soon have subjects enough. The weak place themselves under his protection, the timid under his guidance. He will have a clientele, which will continually grow so long as he remains on earth, and in Heaven he will be a "king" too. The" faithful and true servant" has "authority over ten cities." he "reigns with Christ for ever and ever". (Rev_20:6 Rev_22:5)
(b) Priests. A priest is one who is consecrated to God, who has free and ready access to him without an intermediary at all times and seasons, and who acts as an intermediary between God and others. As circumcision consecrated the Israelite, so baptism consecrates the Christian. lie receives "an unction from the Holy One", (1Jo 1:20) and is thenceforth a "priest to God," bound to his service, brought near to him, entitled to "go boldly to the throne of grace," to offer up his own prayers and intercessions, nay even to "enter into the holiest". (Heb_10:19) He is further not only entitled, but bound to act as intermediary between God and those who do not know God; to teach them; convert them, if he can; intercede for them; under certain circumstances, to baptise them.
(c) His peculiar treasure. The world despises God"s servants, sets little store by them, regards them as poor weak creatures, whom it may ill-use at its pleasure. But God holds each servant dear, sets a high value on him, regards him as precious. "They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels". (Mal_3:17) Each saint is a jewel in the crown of the Lord Christ, and is estimated accordingly. A king would as soon lose one of his crown jewels as Christ one of those for whom he shed his precious blood. He has "bought them at a price;" they are his; and the value which he sets on them no man can know. They are to him "more precious than rubies.
II THE GROUNDS ON WHICH THE PROMISES MAY BE BELIEVED AND TRUSTED. As we have found of men in the past, so we look to find of them in the future. God bade the Israelites look back, and consider what he had already done for them whether in the past he had proved himself faithful and true whether he had supported and sustained them, "borne them up on eagle"s wings," protected them, delivered them from dangers. If this were so, could they not trust him for the future? Would they not believe the promises which he now held out to them? Would they not regard them as certain of accomplishment? The Israelites appear to have believed; and shall not Christians do the like? Have not above three thousand years tested God"s faithfulness, since he thus spoke to Israel? In the whole long course of these millennia has he ever been proved unfaithful? Assuredly not. All that he promises, and more than all he promises, does he perform for the sons of men. Never does he disappoint them; never does he fail to make good his word. Each promise of God therefore may be trusted implicitly. "God is not a man that he should lie, or the son of man that he should repent." He is true, and therefore must will to do as he has said; he is omnipotent, and therefore must be able to do as he wills.
III THE CONDITIONS ON WHICH THE PROMISES ARE GIVEN. "If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant." The precious promises of God to man are conditional upon
(a) his general obedience;
(b) his observance of a certain formal covenant.
The obedience must be "an obedience indeedi.e. , an obedience from the heart, sincere, loving, complete, so far as human frailty permits not partial, not grudging, not outward only. The covenant must be kept in all its essentials. To the Jew, circumcision was necessary, after which he had to make offerings, to attend certain festivals year by year, to pay tithes, and to observe numerous minute regulations with regard to "cleanness" and "uncleanness." The Christian covenant has but two essential rites, Baptism and the Lord"s Supper. Even these are only generally necessary to salvation." Still, if we look for covenanted mercies and claim them, we must take care to be within the covenant. We must inquire dispassionately, what the terms are upon which Christ receives us into covenant with him, and not take upon ourselves a dispensing power, absolving us from all such obligations. Christ rejected from the marriage-feast the man who had not on a wedding-garment. No one who neglects either of the two solemn and simple ordinances which alone Christ has ordained in his Church can be sure that he will not in the last day be rejected.
My covenant.
It may be proper at this stage to indicate briefly the nature of the constitution under which Israel was placed at Sinai, directing attention to some of the resemblances and contrasts between it and the new and better covenant which has since superseded it. The nature of the old covenant, though set in a very clear light in the writings of St. Paul, does not seem to be well understood. Sometimes it is too much assimilated to the New Testament covenant: sometimes it is viewed as totally diverse from it. The truth is, the covenant may be looked at from a number of very different points of view, and according as it is thus regarded, it will present itself under very different aspects. It was a covenant of law; yet under it Israel enjoyed many privileges which more properly belong to a state of grace. We should, e.g. , greatly misconceive its nature, if, looking only to the tender, almost caressing words of this text, we did not also take into account the manifestations of terror amidst which the law was given from Sinai (verses 16-20), with such other facts as the planting of the stones on Mount Ebal (Deu_27:1-9; Jos_8:30-35) and the recital of the blessings and curses. (Deu_27:11-26) But we should do the covenant equal injustice if we looked only to the latter class of facts, and did not observe the former. That Israel"s standing under the law was modified by grace is shown:
1. From the fact of grace preceding law;
2. From the employment of a mediator;
3. From the "blood of sprinkling" at the ratification of the covenant (ch.24.);
4. From the propitiatory arrangements subsequently introduced;
5. From the revealed scope and design of the economy;
6. From the actual facts of Israel"s history. Keeping in view this doubleaspect of the covenant of Sinai that on its inner side it was one of grace, on its outer side one of law we have to consider its relations to the covenant of the Gospel.
I THE COVENANTS ARE, IN CERTAIN OBVIOUS RESPECTS, STRIKINGLY CONTRASTED. The contrasts in question arise from the particularistic character, the defective spirituality, and the paedagogic design, of the older covenant. That which has succeeded it is more inward and spiritual in its nature; is universal in its scope; and is made primarily with individuals. Special contrasts are these:
1. The older covenant is more preceptive in its character than the later one. "Tutors and governors". (Gal_4:2)
2. It is more concerned with outward rites and ceremonies. (Heb_9:10)
3. It relies more on penalty and reward as motives.
4. The blessings promised are largely temporal. In the new covenant, temporal promises hold a very subordinate place. They are overshadowed by spiritual ones.
II THERE ARE ELEMENTS OF CONTRAST EVEN IN THE RESEMBLANCES BETWEEN THE TWO COVENANTS. The covenants of the law and of the Gospel are alike
1. In requiring that the people of God shall be "a holy people. But the holiness of Israel was made to consist largely in the observance of outward distinctions. It was largely ceremonial. The holiness of the new covenant is purely spiritual.
2. In requiring obedience as the condition of fulfilment of promise. But
(1) under the law, life and blessing were attached to obedience in the way of legal reward. The rubric was: "Do this, and thou shalt live". (Rom_10:5) Under the Gospel, this element is wholly eliminated. The law having done its work in showing that "by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in (God"s) sight", (Rom_3:20) the bestowal of reward is taken from this ground, and placed explicitly on that of grace. All we receive is for the sake of Christ a fruit of his righteousness.
(2) The law, while requiring obedience, did not raise the point of man"s ability to render that obedience. But power to render obedience is itself one of the blessings of the new covenant, which thus goes deeper, and includes vastly more than the older one.
(3) In general, the Gospel, while agreeing with the law in aiming at forming a people unto righteousness, takes up the individual at a riper stage in his religious development. It assumes that the taw has done.its work in him has convinced him of sin, and of his inability to attain to life through legal efforts. It supposes him to he aware of his guilt and danger as a sinner. In this condition broken and humbled by the action of the law upon his conscience it meets him with the tidings of redemption, and of life and blessing (including spiritual renewal) coming to him on the ground of "the righteousness of faith"; (cf. Act_13:38, Act_13:39)
3. The privileges of the older covenant foreshadowed those of the new (1Pe_2:9) But the contrast is great here also. See above.
III THESE CONTRASTS ALL DEPEND UPON A FUNDAMENTAL CONTRAST. The deepest contrast between the two covenants is to be sought for in the view which each takes of the direction in which the individual (formerly the nation) is to look for acceptance and happiness for "life.
1. The law. The law appears in the covenant with Sinai in its original, unqualified severity, as, on the one hand, awarding life to the obedient, and on the other, denouncing penalties against the breakers of even the least of its commandments. (Gal_3:10-13) Doubtless, but for daily pardon of daily offences, the Israelite, under so strict a constitution, would have been totally unable to maintain his footing. These offences, however, appear as so many breaches of the covenant bond, which, in strictness, was the keeping of the whole law. A right apprehension of God"s design in placing Israel under this constitution will do away with any appearance of harshness in the arrangement, as if God were purposely mocking the weakness of the people by setting them to work out a problem the attainment of righteousness in that way incapable of solution. The moral task given to Israel among the nations was, indeed, to aim at the realisation of righteousness, of righteousness as prescribed by the law. But God"s design in this was not, certainly, to make the salvation of any Israelite depend on the fulfilment of impossible conditions, but, primarily, to conduct the seeker after righteousness by the path of honest moral endeavour, to a consciousness of his inability to keep the law, and so to awaken in him the feeling of the need of a better righteousness than the law could give him to drive him back, in short, from law to faith, from a state of satisfaction with himself to a feeling of his need of redemption of redemption at once from the guilt of past transgressions, and from the discord in his own nature. The law had thus an end beyond itself. It was a schoolmaster to lead to Christ. The later Jews totally misconceived its nature when they clung to it with unbending tenacity as the sole instrument of justification. (Rom_10:1-4)
2. The Gospel. In this is revealed "the righteousness of faith the righteousness which is "unto all and upon all them that believe." This is the only righteousness which can make the sinner truly just before God". (Rom_3:21-27) But the law is not thereby made void. It remains, as before, the standard of duty the norm of holy practice. The design of the Gospel is not to abolish it, but to establish it more firmly than ever. (Rom_3:31) Faith includes the obedient will. The end of redemption is holiness.
IV THE ISRAELITE, WHILE BOUND TO GOD BY A COVENANT OF LAW, YET ENJOYED MANY BENEFITS OF THE STATE OF GRACE. The better part of the Israelites were perfectly aware that had God been strict to mark iniquities, they could not stand before him; (Psa_130:3) that their own law would have condemned them. But they knew, too, that there was forgiveness with God, that he might be feared (ver. 4). Piously availing himself of the expiatory rites provided for the covering of his sin, the godly Jew had confidence towards God. Many in the nation grasped the truth that an obedient will is, in God"s sight, the matter of chief importance, and that, where this is found, much else will be forgiven that he that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him, (Act_10:35) notwithstanding the special imperfections which may mark his daily life. This was practically to rise from the standpoint of the law, to that of the righteousness of faith. It enabled those who had attained to it, though under the law, to cherish a delight in spiritual righteousness, and even to find joy in the law itself, as the outward expression of that righteousness. It was not, however, the complete joy of salvation. The law still hovered above the consciousness of the Israelite with its unfulfilled demand; and he had not the means of perfectly pacifying his conscience in relation to it. While in those in whom the law had wrought its work most effectually, there was a deep feeling of sin, a painful conscious-hess of frustration in efforts after the highest goodness, which day by day wrung from them such cries as that of St. Paul wretched man," etc.. (Rom_7:24) Here, again, the Gospel reveals itself as the termination of the law of Moses. J.O. (Rom_10:4)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain A peculiar treasure unto Me.
Exo_19:5-6
A peculiar treasure unto Me.
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Gods people His treasure
1. A treasure is something searched for. The Holy Spirit is ever diligently seeking after Christians.
2. A treasure when found is carefully guarded. As the apple of His eye God protects those who trust Him.
3. The finding of a treasure is the occasion of rejoicing. There is joy in heaven, etc.
4. To obtain a treasure we will make great sacrifices. God gave His only begotten Son, etc. (Homiletic Review.)
National ideals
The problem was: How to convert a horde of demoralized slaves into a nation of virtuous freemen, paying a free obedience to law, as they had before paid a forced obedience to the lash of the taskmaster? The practical solution of the problem involved the application of three spiritual forces or living principles. We may describe them thus:--
1. The revelation of the new name of God, Jehovah, the Eternal, the unchangeable, the self-same.
2. The revelation of the ideal or standard, which the nation is to keep steadily before mind and conscience, as the thing to be aimed at and striven after. This revelation is given most explicitly and clearly in the words of our text: A kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.
3. The actual legislation which is founded upon these two revelations:--of which legislation the law of the Ten Commandments is the eternal and indestructible substructure--as strong and durable now as when it was first uttered by the voice of God to Israel--as much the foundation of all legislation now as of the distinctively Mosaic legislation then. It was under the operation of these three forces that Israel became and continued to be a nation. It is under the operation of the same or analogous forces that any nation becomes and continues to be a nation. When such forces cease to operate upon a nation, it dies.
To prove and illustrate this point must form the remainder of our subject.
1. It is impossible for any of us to overlook the importance of the words which introduce the Ten Commandments. I am the Lord.--that is, the Eternal--thy God. They are not an ornamental flourish or accidental prefix. They are the living root of all that follows. Again and again, in the course of the subsequent legislation, the words recur; even in those parts of the legislation which are most minute and temporary, sanitary or ceremonial. The new name, upon which the nation is to be built, is the name Jehovah, the Eternal; to which is added the old name, thy God, as a name to be cherished and dear as ever. Now, in this name Jehovah is involved the notion of permanence, unchangeableness; and this notion lies at the root of law, whether laws of man, or laws of nature, or laws of God. But to this tremendous, this oppressive, notion of unchangeableness, there is added the tender grace of the old name, Thy God--One with whom every Israelite and every human being may plead, as the Psalmist does, O God, Thou art my God. It is the blending of the two together; it is the intertwining of the two subtle and mighty spiritual forces, implied in the two names, that made the revelation so potent for its great purpose--the creation of a nation, that should be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. And just in proportion as the hold of those names upon heart and conscience relaxed, the nation decayed and died. For, indeed, it is everlastingly true, as one of our own poets has said, that by the soul only the nations can be great and free. Any one can see, that a really free people must be a loyal or law-abiding people; and that laws, which are to receive the willing obedience of such a people, must be founded on the immutable principles of truth and justice and morality. Nor can any one doubt that the Mosaic legislation is founded on such principles.
2. But now I wish to speak to you about the second of those three spiritual forces, in the strength of which Israel was to be moulded into a nation. I have already described it as the revelation of the ideal which the nation was to keep steadily before mind and conscience, as the thing to be aimed at and striven after. Our text words it thus: Now, therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant. The destiny--the calling and election--of the nation of Israel was higher and holier than the destiny of any other nation. It was chosen to bear witness to the kingdom of God and His righteousness, before all the nations of the earth; a kingdom of priests, a royal and priestly race, each member of it uniting in his own person the attributes of a king and a priest: a king, to rule right loyally over his own lower and baser nature; a priest, to offer himself up in willing sacrifice to God. This pattern of righteousness the most choice and elect members of the nation did exhibit. You have only to think over the long list of truly kingly and priestly characters--from Moses to John the Baptist--to be satisfied of this. The fact that the election of Israel was what it was, does not deprive all other nations of an election of their own. On the contrary, tile very words of our text, which affirm most strongly the election of Israel, do at least suggest the thought of a corresponding, though inferior, election of all other nations. At this distance of time we have not the data for determining the special calling of Egypt, for example, or of Assyria. But we can discern with very tolerable clearness the election, the manifest destiny, of Greece and of Rome; the call of Greece to catch the inspiration of beauty, and to be the nurse of freedom; the call of Rome to be the schoolmaster of the nations, with its iron rod of law and order. We can discern, also, with perfect clearness, the vast inferiority, even of such a calling and election as this, to the calling of Israel; and can therefore fully justify the language of our text: Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people. But if this principle of a calling and election of nations holds true of the whole ancient world, why should it not hold true of the whole modern world also? So long as national distinctions and national characteristics exist at all, there must exist along with them corresponding national duties and national responsibilities. What is it, then, for England and for us? It may be said, that it is the manifest destiny of England to colonize and subdue the earth--to girdle it with rails of iron and steel, and lines of telegraph wire. It is in words like these, Duty and Justice-in the response which they awaken in our hearts--that we English people find the revelation of our national calling and election of God. As a nation, we are called, in a special sense, to be just and dutiful. And if our children are to go out into distant lands, and among subject peoples, to be models of duty and justice there, they must be nursed and trained in those principles first at home. A kingdom of priests:--yes--and that title belongs also to us, as well as to Israel; though to us, not as Englishmen, but as Christians. For is it not written: Unto Him who loveth us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father: to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. I need not say that there is no discrepancy whatever between our special calling as Englishmen, and our more general calling as disciples of Christ. On the contrary, the latter must and does sustain and verify the former. Just in proportion as we learn to rule, as kings, over our lower, baser, selfish nature; and to offer ourselves up as priests, living, reasonable, and spiritual sacrifices, in the power and virtue of the one perfect Sacrifice, to God; just in this proportion shall we be enabled to do justice and judgment, and to walk dutifully and uprightly, and so to uphold the true glory of the English name, in whatever circumstances we may be placed--whether at home, or amongst strangers and foreigners in some far distant land. It was so with the heroes of England in the past. (D. J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Lessons
1. In covenant-making or lawgiving from God there is need of some mediator to be with God.
2. Gods call alone can qualify or authorize a mediator between Him and sinners.
3. It is incumbent on the mediator to declare fully Gods mind unto His people.
4. A due recognition of Gods gracious acts for souls against enemies is a good preparation to receive His law.
5. Gods securing providence as well as selecting a people to Himself prepare them to hear His covenant (Exo_19:4).
6. Gods covenanted people are His peculiar treasure in the world.
7. It is Gods free grace who owneth all nations on earth to make one His peculiar above another (Exo_19:5).
8. Royalty, near communion with God, and sanctity are the privileges of Gods peculiar ones. Kings, priests, and saints.
9. The words of duty and privilege must be spoken and made known unto the Church (Exo_19:6). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Gods promise to the Jews
I. The recital of His works.
II. The proposes of His love.
III. The promises of His grace. (T. Mortimer.)
All the earth is Mine
I. Gods assertion of universal possession in the earth
1. Nations.
2. Lands.
3. The animal and vegetable kingdoms.
II. Gods assertion excludes every other being from universal possession.
1. It is not mans earth.
2. It is not the devils.
3. It does not belong to any created intelligence.
III. Gods assertion should awaken confidence in His saints and terror in sinners.
1. All forces are under His control.
2. Everything that is not of Him must fail.
3. His possession of the earth will be fully manifest in the end. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Explanation of the Divine preferences
Here is the explanation of the Divine preferences which have distressed so many hearts under the cruel name of sovereignty and election. There need be no torture in using those words. II we feel distressed by them, it is because we have come upon them along the wrong path. They are beautiful and noble words when set in their places according to the Divine intent. Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people. Is that partiality in any exclusive sense? Not at all; it is really meant to be inclusive. God elects humanity. And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom. In what sense? In the ordinary sense--namely, a great aggregate of subjects ruled by one arbitrary and despotic king? In no such sense. The literal meaning is, ye shall all be kings. Now ye see the meaning of that great name, King of kings--not king of an individual monarch here and there, as in Britain, or Russia, or China, but of all believers. All obedient souls are lifted up unto kinghood. We are royal equals if we obey Heavens will, and God is King of kings--King of all. We are a royal generation. All this language is typical. Beautiful is the historical line when seized and wisely applied. Let us attempt such seizure and application. The firstborn were chosen, and the firstborn were to be priests. In what sense are the firstborn chosen? Not as relegating the afterborn to positions subordinate and inferior; but in the sense of being their pledge and seal. God has the eldest Son, and therefore--that is the sacred logic--He has all the other children. Then the laws regarding the priesthood underwent a change, and the family of Aaron was called. We proceed from an individual, namely, the firstborn, to a family, namely, the Aaronic stock. But why were they chosen? That all the children of Aaron might also be priests, in the truly spiritual and eternal sense, though not in official and formal name and status. Then the family was deposed and a tribe is chosen--the tribe of Levi. Mark how the history accumulates and grows up into a prophecy and an argument! First the individual, then the family, then the tribe, then the Son of Man--absorbing all the past, gathering up into its true and official meaning all priesthood, aH intercession. There is one Advocate with the Father, the Man Christ Jesus. A new light thus begins to dawn upon the cloud. There is nothing arbitrary in the movement of God when we can penetrate its infinite philosophy. Will God have the first-fruits of the harvest field? He claims all such. Why will He claim the first-fruits? That in having the first-fruits He might have all the field. He will not take the whole wheat acreage of the world into His heavens and devour our poor loaf of bread; but He will take the first ear of corn that we can find in all the fields, and, having taken that, He says: In giving Me this you have given Me all. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Gods peculiar treasure
Exotic flowers or foreign plants, if seeded on the mountain side, or inserted in the meadow amongst the promiscuous herbage growing there, soon become choked and disappear. Those who wish to preserve the flaming glories of the Cape, or the rich fruits of the tropic, must provide a garden enclosed--must keep out the weeds and rough weather. And so God, anxious to preserve His Holy Law, fenced in the Hebrew nationality. He secluded them, and wailed them in, and made them, as it were, His own conservatory--a conservatory where Divine truth should survive uninjured until Messiah should come.
Gods covenant uniform
What covenant could this be, containing such promises, and by which a people should be a peculiar treasure to God, and above all others upon the earth; yea, a royal priesthood, a holy nation? This could be no other than the covenant of redemption by Christ, to the blessings of which man has no claim but in grace. The covenant of God, as the Church of God itself, under every diversity of dispensation has been the same. Whatever of a national character was peculiar to Israel, and that ceased under a better economy, was extraneous to this, and not an essential constituent or feature thereof. Uniformity of design is discoverable through the whole progress of Divine revelation, and under every form of religious ceremony. God has not at any period contradicted Himself, or set before man a covenant of grace at one time, and a covenant of works at another, for the hope of life. It would have been contrary to all that God had done, and to all that He yet promised to do, as also a break of an awful character, and the introduction of confusion into the whole system of redemption, to have here brought the nation under a covenant of works, by which they had virtually perished. True it is, that Sinai and Zion are, by the apostle, placed in contradistinction: the one as gendering to bondage; the other as free: the one as characterized by the law of condemnation; the other by the law of righteousness: but it is in certain respects only that that contrast holds good, not in the essential intention of things. The whole fabric of their ecclesiastical polity, conjoined in all its parts with exquisite wisdom, was the workmanship of mercy. By redemption it was that God claimed Israel as His own, a treasure, His best and greatest treasure, a treasure containing a treasure, His grace, His glory, the promised seed His Son. All the earth was His; yet in all the earth was nothing He so valued, nothing He held so dear. Still this treasure so great had been lost but for the security and grace of the covenant. The intrinsic value of His people was enhanced beyond all price by what this covenant embraced and required. It cost much to make them His people, and to secure them to Himself--a treasure for ever. (W. Seaton.)
The spirituality of the old covenant
The characteristic feature of the Sinai revelation is the law; but it is important to observe that it is not law as a means of salvation, but law as a sequel of salvation. If this simple and evident fact were only borne in mind in the reading of the Old Testament, endless perplexities and confusions of thought would be avoided. Observe, also, the kind of blessings which are promised. How many are there who will persist in maintaining that the old covenant offered mere temporal blessings, while it is the distinctive feature of the new to promise spiritual blessing. It is true that temporal blessings were included under the old covenant, just as they are under the new; and though they do hold a more prominent place in the old, as was indeed to be expected, yet it is a slander upon that covenant to say that these were the blessings it offered. The great blessings of the old covenant were undoubtedly spiritual, as is manifest here: If ye will obey My voice and keep My covenant, then ye shall be to Me a peculiar treasure above all people; and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. Nearness to God, dearness to God, holiness--these were the characteristic blessings of the old covenant. These promises are among the richest and most deeply spiritual in the whole Bible; and it is with great reluctance that, yielding to the exigency of our plan, we refrain from entering into the wealth of meaning which each separate word conveys. Let me only notice in leaving it, that when the apostle Peter wishes to express in the very strongest terms the highest privileges of the children of God under the new dispensation, he can do nothing better than quote these old but exceeding great and precious promises (1Pe_2:9). (J. M. Gibson, D. D.)
Holiness ensured
A writer tells of going down with a party into a coal mine. On the side of the gangway grew a plant which was perfectly white. The visitors were astonished that there, where the coal-dust was continually flying, this little plant should be so clean. A miner who was with them took a handful of black dust and threw it on the plant, but not a particle of it adhered. There was a wonderful enamel on the plant to which no finest speck could cling. Living there, amid clouds of dust, nothing could stain its snowy whiteness. This is a picture of what every Christian life should be. Unholy influences breathe incessantly about us and upon us. But it is our mission to be pure amid all this vileness, undefiled, unspotted from the world. If God can make a little plant so wondrously that no dust can stain its whiteness, surely He can, by His grace, so transform our heart and life that sin shall not cling to us. He who can keep the plant stainless and white as snow amid clouds of dust, can guard us in purity in this world of sin.
A kingdom of priests.--
Priests to the world
They were to be the trustees, for humanity at large, of the revelations, promises, and ordinances which God communicated, and they were to keep them for the benefit of all mankind. For a time, indeed, these heavenly communications were to be reserved to themselves; only, however, that they might be the more securely preserved; but at length all restrictions would be broken down, and that which, in its ritual exclusivism, had been confined to them would, in its spiritual persuasiveness, become the heritage of every true believer who should, like them, enter into covenant with the Lord, not over a merely typical sacrifice, but over the true and real atonement which Christ would make for the sins of men. Thus, in this peculiar promise, which looks at first as if it conferred a patent of protected privilege, we see that the present protection is in order to the future diffusion; and we have an echo of the Abrahamic blessing, In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. What the Levitical tribe ultimately was among the Israelites themselves, that the Israelites were to be among the nations; and the more faithfully they performed their duties, the richer would be the ultimate blessing to the Gentiles. Reading these words in the light of the history to which they form the introduction, it needs no keenness of insight to perceive the bearing of these principles upon ourselves; for we Christians are now the worlds priests, custodians of those spiritual blessings by which our fellow-men are to be benefited; and only in proportion as we maintain holiness of character shall we discharge our duties to mankind at large. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain if ye will obey
if ye will obey
(Cf) 1Pe 2:9; Rev 1:6; Rev 5:10. What, under law, was condition, is under grace, freely given to every believer. The "if" of Exo 19:5 is the essence of law as a method of divine dealing, and the fundamental reason why "the law made nothing perfect"; Rom 8:3; Heb 7:18; Heb 7:19.
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The Abrahamic: (See Scofield "Gen 15:18") and
New (See Scofield "Heb 8:8")
covenants minister salvation and assurance because they impose but one condition, faith.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 19:5-6 God, to whom all the earth belongs, promised…
19:5-6 God, to whom all the earth belongs, promised to make Israel his own special treasure. This promise was contingent upon their accepting a covenant with God and keeping it faithfully. • my kingdom of priests, my holy nation: The nation was to become intermediaries between a holy God and a lost world. Through them God would reveal himself (see 1 Pet 2:9-10).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.