Monday, July 6, 2015
Exodus 19:19-20
Monday, July 06, 2015 |
And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.
The passage of Scripture for our reading today is an illustration of the next main event in God's calendar of activities for the last days. I will get back to that but first let's learn from that which God was revealing to Moses and the Jewish people some 3,500 years ago.
The scene is at the foot of Mt. Sinai with all of Israel encamped awaiting word from the Lord. It is three months since the Exodus out of Egypt and the bondage that the Jews had been under for more than 400 years. It is just before the Lord would meet with Moses and give him the Ten Commandments. It was a significant time in the total history of the Jewish people.
Before the Lord gave His law to the Jews, He met with Moses to explain what He had planned for the Israelites, among the peoples of the world. In verse 5, God reminds Moses that “obedience” is essential for a right relationship with Him. If the Jews will obey Him then He will make them “a peculiar treasure, a people above all people, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”.
When Moses returned to the Jewish people, he told them of his conversation with the Lord and they responded with, "all that the Lord hath spoken, we will do." The rest of the Old Testament and the Gospels will record the history of the Jewish people and reveal that the Jews spoke too quickly at Sinai.
The truth is that they did not keep their commitment to the Lord. The Jewish people, as a whole, have not been obedient.
However, there has been a remnant, those who have been faithful and obedient. God has a plan for the Jewish people that included giving them the Scripture to preserve and transmit to the world, Romans 3:1-2. And of course, the Messiah was born of a young Jewish woman, Mary. God will use the Jews in the future, because He still has a plan for them.
Now, back to that thought I left you with at the beginning of this devotional. The next event on God's calendar of events for the end times is the “Rapture”. That is when Jesus will descend from the Third Heaven where He is seated on the right of God the Father.
Somewhere, "in the air, " He will shout, the archangel will shout and the trump of God will sound to call all Christians on earth to be with the Lord for evermore, I Thessalonians 4:13-17.
In our reading for today, the Rapture is depicted in how the Lord meets with Moses, verses 16-20. This event in the life of Moses is a foretaste of things to come. Remember, the Rapture could happen today, so keep looking up...until!
PRAYER THOT: Thank you for making me a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nations, a peculiar people (I Peter 2:9) so that I can show forth the praises of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.