Exodus 18:24

The Bible says in Exodus 18:24-27, “So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said. And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves. And Moses let his father in law depart; and he went his way into his own land.” Moses listened to his father in law, Jethro, and Moses followed Jethro’s advice. Because of it, the affairs of the children of Israel ran much more smoothly, and Moses had time to do the things that he really needed to do. It is a good thing that Moses respected his elders. One of the Ten Commandments that Moses would receive from God referred directly to this situation. It says in Exodus 20:12, “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.” If you honor them, then certainly you will listen carefully to their counsel and advice. The Bible says in Proverbs 1:5-8, “A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.”

The Bible says in Exodus 19:1-8, “In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount. 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; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. 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: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.” The Lord gave a very interesting description in Exodus 19:4 to what He did for the children of Israel when He defeated the Egyptian army and Pharaoh in the waters of the Red Sea. He said, “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.” The phrase “I bare you on eagles’ wings” is a wonderful description of how powerfully and mightily the Lord took care of His children. There was hatred and opposition and seemingly impending death, but God carried them through unscathed. And they did not have to even fight the Egyptians. God fought the Egyptians for the Israelites. God made a way when there was no way: God bare them on eagles’ wings. An eagle is mighty and powerful and majestic, and flies effortlessly above it all.

God delivered the Israelites. He saved them. And God said, “I brought you unto myself.” It was not so much that God was bringing the Israelites to a land, but He was bringing the Israelites to Himself. God loves having fellowship with human beings. He loves conversing with human beings and having a relationship with each person that He can. That is one of the desires that motivates Jesus to seek out each soul and bring them to Himself. Jesus said in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”

It is interesting to notice what God said about His plans for the children of Israel. God said in Exodus 19:5, “ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine.” How many of the peoples of the earth belong to Jesus? All of them belong to Him. He said, “all the earth is mine.” He is the Creator and the Sustainer of all things and of all people. Jesus is the life-giver. Everyone belongs to Him. But not everyone is in the same condition of spiritual knowledge nor in the same condition of spiritual relationship with Christ. God’s plan has always been to take some people and make them His instruments and His witnesses to reach the rest of the people of the earth. That was God’s plan for the children of Israel. That is why the Lord said that He wanted the children of Israel to “be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people.” The Apostle Peter seemed to be referring to this passage in Exodus when Peter wrote in First Peter 2:9, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you into his marvelous light.”

In Exodus 19:6 God said also that He wanted the children of Israel to be “a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” A priest was a person who had the closest access to God. Later in the book of Exodus God will establish Aaron and his sons as the “priests.” But as we see from Exodus 19:6 God had always meant for every believer to be a priest from a spiritual standpoint. What the Aaronic priests did by going into the holy of holies and offering up sweet-smelling sacrifices to God was only symbolic of the true spiritual activities that should have been taking place in the hearts and lives of each believer. God never did establish a Christian clergy who were to be closer to God than anyone else. God establishes a personal relationship to every believer, giving every believer in Jesus the opportunity to have the closest of all relationships with Him. We are told in Hebrews 4:16, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

With this special access to the very presence of Christ, and with this special relationship as God’s peculiar people set aside to be His instruments in this life, is there anything required on our part? Yes, there is. We are given freely these privileges by faith in Christ, but there are certain requirements and certain expectations made of us. That is why we are called “an holy nation” in First Peter 2:9, and the children of Israel were called “an holy nation” in Exodus 19:6. He wants us to live holy lives. We cannot be witnesses for Him unless we live lives that are above reproach. That is one of the things that attracts unbelievers to the gospel of Jesus Christ: seeing lives that have been changed by Jesus. Jesus said in Matthew 5:13-16, “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

The children of Israel made a great promise to God in Exodus 19:8. They said, “All that the LORD hath spoken we will do.” Of course, these turned out to be vain and empty words. This was the reason that the law did not work: man’s weakness and inability to obey and keep his promises. God gave a perfect law that could have made men holy if they had obeyed the law. They wanted to obey. They said they would obey. But they did not obey. In the moments of stress and temptation they turned away from God, just like the rest of us. That is why God brought the age of grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus obeyed, and now we obtain freely the righteousness of Christ through faith without works. It says in Romans 6:14-15, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” It is a good thing that we are not under law, because if we promised to obey the law, we would fail just like the children of Israel. We would not keep our promises to God. But Jesus did not fail. Jesus never fails. What a great blessing to have Jesus as Savior. The Bible also says in Romans 7:4-6, “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”

The Bible says in Exodus 19:9-15, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the LORD. And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes, And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai. And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount. And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes. And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives.” God was giving His Word through Moses, and so God wanted the people to be well aware of that fact, so that the people would listen to and reverence the Word of God that came through Moses. The way that the truth of God comes to the world is through those men that God has chosen to write the scriptures. As it says in Second Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” It also says in Second Peter 1:21, “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

God wanted to get the attention of the children of Israel so that they would grasp the importance of what He was going to do in giving His Word to Moses. They would all be gathered together by the sound of the trumpet. They would see the thick cloud above Moses. They would fear even touching the mountain. It is interesting to notice two of the things that the people were commanded to do to be prepared for this event. In Exodus 19:14 they “washed their clothes.” This is symbolic of the necessity to be cleansed form sin in order to appear before God who is holy. In Exodus 19:15 the men were told, “come not at your wives.” This is referring to sexual intimacy with their wives. The physical sexual union of husband and wife is the most intimate of all human relationships. It is symbolic of the most intimate of all spiritual relationships: that relationship between a human being and the Lord Jesus Christ. Believers are told in Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.” The lesson given to the Israelites is this: the most important relationship that anyone will ever have is their relationship with the Lord. All other relationships are secondary.

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