KNOW YOUR HOLY SCRIPTURE Exodus 19:7-9 (ESV) Israel Accepts God’s Covenant So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.” Notes on the Scripture This is a short passage, but with many implications. Throughout Exodus, God represents Himself visibly in two forms: fire and cloud (or fire within cloud). These are not God. There is not a human-looking being, no old man with a grey beard, standing inside the cloud; the cloud is not there to hide God. It is, rather, a visible metaphor for our inability to see God with human eyes. God is there, but we cannot see Him. The metaphor represents not only a spiritual truth, but also, a physical truth about our universe. The universe appears to astrophysicists like a great sphere, and this is how they conceive and describe it. But they cannot see outside it; in fact, they cannot see anything even close to the edge, because the limits of reality are obscured by energy that hides whatever is on the other side. But God can make Himself known to us. He chooses the most elemental form with which to make his covenant with the Hebrews, for He wants them to separate their knowledge of Him from their previous religious training, where a god was a statue or a physical phenomenon. He wants them to understand He is irreducible; He cannot be made into a package (and we will see more of this in the Second Commandment). That said, the first paragraph in the passage contains the direct significance: the Hebrews sign the contract. Of course, this is an oral contract, but they give their formal and binding assent. We think of the major covenants of the Bible as one-sided — God tells us what it is and we obey — but the Hebrews assent to this great covenant adds a dimension of free will. Every human being can deny God; the consequences might be frightful, but we have the option. Of course, God is holding all the cards here, for the Hebrews are stuck in the middle of a desert, with hostile bandits at large; but they still have the option to leave, and perhaps they could live. Remember, Moses had left Egypt and found a life among the Midianites (and actually, came to Sinai while grazing livestock). SOURCE>dailyprayer.us
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 06:54:16 +0000