God's Preparing of a People

You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you

on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now if you obey Me fully

and keep My covenant, 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 19:4-6).

Background music attribution: The O’Neill Brothers Group, The Holly & The Ivy from Joyous Christmas Carols on Piano

The descendants of Abraham had grown into a numerous people. By the hand of God, they would become the nation Israel . . . after He rescued them from bondage.

God would have to deliver the chosen recipients of covenant promise. Then they would need some preparing to walk with Him in the land promised.

The sacred text tells us that God heard their groanings and responded in faithfulness to His covenant (Exodus 2:24). He would bring them out of their Egyptian slavery with a mighty hand, to free them from the grip of a tyrannical Pharaoh.

His chosen servant, Moses, led the delivered out across the land. Then God provided a miraculous escape route, across the dry bed of the Red Sea, and quashed the enemy that pursued them.

Camped at the base of Mt. Sinai, God prepared a people. Over the course of the following year, He readied them to live set apart as His people.

God created a new people, a nation. By His presiding power, they would then conquer and possess the land He gave them.

It was there that God legislated their communal, civic, and religious systems. It was there that He first spoke the words that would govern them relationally, spiritually, morally, and socially. The 10 Words, inscribed by the finger of God, was to be their method for worship and ethical code. Their obedience to the entire law would provide a means of fellowship with God. And made them distinct . . . as His.

The law provided their standard for living a blessed life in the presence of God.

God would bless the nation that chose to obey. He would be their God and they would be His people and possess the land—a land flowing with milk and honey. They would multiply in that land until the fullness of time came for God’s Messiah.

God would provide all they needed to live in the land as a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. He provided all they needed to live the prepared life. In the shadow of that great mountain, and before the splendor of God’s voice from the cloud, He prepared the law . . . the people . . . a nation . . . and set before them a choice.

Contained within His words blazed a holy but if. They wrongly chose but if. They failed to trust and obey. Consequently, the travel that should have taken 11 days turned into 40 years of desert wandering. So God went about preparing the next generation to be led by the Lord and Joshua into the land of covenant.

That choice God extended was the same as the one from the beginning—choose God’s wisdom . . . or humans. Choose obedience or disobedience. Blessing or curse . . . life or death.

The Lord Jesus is now preparing for Himself a people—as His holy priesthood. Citizens of His kingdom. With the same choice.

Will we follow our own way? The way of the world? Or the prepared way of the Lord?

#APreparedChristmas