A kingdom of priests and a holy nation: Exodus 19

Exodus is traditionally the work of Moses, though many scholars hold that it reached its present form through editing over a long period. The date of the exodus is disputed. An early date, about 1446 BC, rests on 1 Kings 6:1. Many scholars argue for a date in the thirteenth century BC, linked with the building of store cities in the Nile delta (Exodus 1:11). The exact place of Mount Sinai is also uncertain. Church tradition points to the southern Sinai peninsula, and some scholars look to northwest Arabia or the land of Midian. The book was written for Israel, as the account of how a rescued people became a covenant people.

Chapter 19 opens a new part of the book. The first eighteen chapters record the plagues, the Passover, the crossing of the sea, and the journey to Sinai. From chapter 19 to Numbers 10 the people stay at Sinai, and they receive the Ten Commandments, the book of the covenant (Exodus 20-23), the plans for the tabernacle (25-31), and the laws of Leviticus. The arrival fulfils the sign God gave Moses at the bush: 'you will serve God on this mountain' (3:12). The people reach Sinai in the third month after leaving Egypt (19:1).

Many scholars note that the covenant that follows resembles the treaties between great kings and their subject peoples in the ancient Near East, which named the king, recalled what he had done for them, and then set the terms. Exodus 19:3-6 follows this order, and the Ten Commandments (20:1-2) do the same.

Exodus 19 is narrative that contains a divine speech. Verses 4 to 6 are the speech, and verses 7 to 25 show what the speech means in the way God makes himself known. The chapter must be read before the Ten Commandments and not after them, because the commandments (20:1-17) come out of this relationship and are given to a people God has already rescued. The grammar of verse 5 matters, since 'if you will indeed obey' is a condition set inside a relationship that began with the rescue in verse 4.

Verse 6 is a poetic parallel: 'a kingdom of priests and a holy nation'. The two phrases explain each other, and the first is the harder. The Hebrew can be read as a kingdom whose members are all priests, as a priestly kingdom, or, less naturally, as a kingdom served by priests. The wider context favors the first two: the nation as a whole has a priestly role in relation to 'all the earth' in verse 5. Later Scripture, including 1 Peter 2:9, takes this sense.

The Old Testament refers back to this chapter again and again, and the New Testament quotes it. The class reads it first as it was heard at Sinai, then follows the line to the church.

Verses 1 and 2

Israel comes into the wilderness of Sinai and camps in front of the mountain. The verb for camping is singular in the Hebrew, as if the whole people were one. This is the region where Moses met God at the bush (3:1-12).

Verses 3 and 4

Moses goes up, and God speaks. The speech begins with a name, 'house of Jacob' and 'sons of Israel', and then with what God has done: 'You have seen for yourselves what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself' (19:4). The image of the eagle carrying its young is used again in Deuteronomy 32:11 for God's care. The goal of the exodus was not only liberation from Egypt but 'to Myself': God brought them to himself. The offer in the next verse rests on this act.

Verses 5 and 6

The offer has a condition and three promises. The condition is to 'obey My voice and keep My covenant'.

• The first promise is that Israel will be God's 'treasured possession' (segullah), a word used elsewhere of a king's own private treasure (1 Chronicles 29:3) and of Israel in Deuteronomy 7:6 and Malachi 3:17. It is followed by 'for the whole earth is Mine', which shows that Israel's election is not because the other nations are outside God's rule.
• The second promise is that Israel will be 'a kingdom of priests'. A priest was one who was set apart, who came near to God, and who served the people before God and God before the people. Israel as a whole is given that role among the nations. Isaiah later draws out the meaning: the nations will come to the LORD's house (Isaiah 2:2-3), and Israel will be called 'priests of the LORD' (Isaiah 61:6).
• The third promise is that Israel will be 'a holy nation' (goy qadosh), a people set apart for God and, as Leviticus 19:2 says, called to reflect his character.

Verses 7 and 8

Moses summons the elders and sets the words before them, and 'all the people answered together, We will do everything that the LORD has spoken' (19:8). They accept before they have heard the Ten Commandments. The promise is repeated and sealed in 24:3 and 24:7. The golden calf, only a few chapters later (32), shows how quickly it was broken.

Verses 9 to 15. God says he will come in a dense cloud so that the people will hear him speak with Moses and 'always put their trust in you' (19:9). The cloud and the voice confirm Moses as mediator. The people are to be consecrated (qadash) for two days. They wash their clothes and prepare for the third day, and Moses sets a boundary around the mountain. Anyone, human or animal, who touches it is to be put to death without a hand laid on them (19:12-13). The command about abstaining from sexual relations (19:15) means that ordinary life is paused in order to stand before God. Scholars note that Sinai is laid out in three zones that foreshadow the tabernacle: the people at the foot, the elders partway up (24:1-2, 9-11), and Moses alone at the top. The tabernacle's courtyard, Holy Place and Most Holy Place follow the same logic of nearer and more restricted access.

Verses 16 to 19. On the third day there is thunder, lightning, a thick cloud, and a ram's horn so loud that all the people tremble. The mountain is enveloped in smoke 'because the LORD had descended on it in fire' and shakes violently. The people are brought out of the camp 'to meet with God' (19:17). As the horn grows louder, 'Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder' (19:19).

Verses 20 to 25. God calls Moses up and sends him down to warn the people not to break through to see the LORD. Then comes a surprise: 'Even the priests who approach the LORD must consecrate themselves' (19:22). No priests have yet been appointed. Interpreters have proposed three answers. Some say the priests are the household heads or firstborn sons who offered sacrifices in the patriarchal period, as in Exodus 24:5 where young men of Israel offer burnt offerings. Others say the text refers ahead to Aaron's family, named in Exodus 28. All agree on the point: even those nearest to God do not approach on their own terms. God tells Moses to bring Aaron with him (19:24). It is the first time Aaron is brought to the mountain, and he is not yet called a priest. The 'kingdom of priests' therefore stands beside an order in which one family has charge of the sanctuary.

Exodus 19 states the purpose of Israel's election. God had called Abram so that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him (Genesis 12:3), and here he calls Abram's descendants to be priests for 'all the earth' (Exodus 19:5). The priest stands between God and others. So Israel is to be near to God and to mediate his light to the nations. The prophets keep the promise alive: the nations will stream to Zion (Isaiah 2:2-3), they will see Israel's God (Zechariah 8:20-23), and, on one reading, some from the nations will be taken as priests (Isaiah 66:21).

The chapter also shows the limits. The mountain is fenced, and even the priests must prepare. Access to God is by consecration and by a mediator, and Israel's own words show they know it: the people ask Moses to speak for them (Exodus 20:18-21; Deuteronomy 5:23-27). The Old Testament holds both truths together. The whole nation is a kingdom of priests, and Aaron's family alone serves at the altar. Korah's rebellion shows the tension. He and his followers said the whole congregation is holy (Numbers 16:3), and Moses answered that the LORD would show whom he had chosen (16:5, 40). The nation's priestly calling did not erase the order God had set within it.

The New Testament applies the promise to the church. Peter writes to believers, many of them Gentiles, and calls them 'a royal priesthood, a holy nation', a people for God's own possession (1 Peter 2:9). Their task is to offer spiritual sacrifices (2:5) and to proclaim God's excellencies (2:9). Revelation says Christ has made his people a kingdom and priests to his God and Father (1:5-6; 5:10). Paul describes his own ministry of the gospel in priestly language, so that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable (Romans 15:16), and Hebrews names the sacrifices of the new covenant: praise, doing good and sharing (13:15-16). In none of these is a particular officer called a priest.

Exodus 19 points to Christ in three ways. First, Moses is a type of the mediator. He goes up and down the mountain between a holy God and a trembling people. Hebrews 3:1-6 sets Moses as a faithful servant in God's house beside Jesus as the Son over it. Galatians 3:19-20 calls Moses a mediator, and 1 Timothy 2:5 speaks of one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus (fulfillment). Moses himself promised a prophet like him (Deuteronomy 18:15), and Peter and Stephen say Jesus is that prophet (Acts 3:22-23; 7:37).

• Second, God's words 'brought you to Myself' (19:4) find their answer in the work of Christ, who suffered to bring you to God (1 Peter 3:18) and through whom believers have access to the Father in one Spirit (Ephesians 2:18). Hebrews 12:18-24 sets the terrifying mountain of Exodus 19, with fire, darkness, a trumpet and a voice that made the people beg not to hear more, beside Mount Zion, where believers come to Jesus, 'the mediator of a new covenant'.
• Third, the calling of Israel is fulfilled in the people gathered around Christ. He is the true Israel, the Son called out of Egypt (Matthew 2:15, quoting Hosea 11:1), and those joined to him share the titles. Revelation 1:5-6 says the one who freed his people from their sins by his blood has made them a kingdom and priests. That fulfills Exodus 19:6, and the church shares in Christ's priesthood because he first bore its sins.

The fire, wind and sound at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4) have often been read as an echo of Sinai, since both occur when a people is constituted. Some later Jewish tradition links the feast of Weeks with the giving of the law, but the New Testament does not state the link, so the class treats it as an echo only.