First Mennonite Church
February 22, 2026
Israel at Mount Sinai: The Covenant
It was exactly three months since Israel left Egypt and the people arrived in the wilderness of Sinai. There they camp in front of the mountain. This place is referred to in the Bible by at least three names: Horeb, The Mountain of God, and Mount Sinai.
This is the very same place where Moses received his calling from God to go deliver his people from the Egyptian Pharaoh. Moses must have remembered what the Lord told him when the Lord called him.
God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” (Exodus 3:12). Thus, true to God’s promise, Moses and the people of Israel arrived to Mount Sinai.
Once there, Moses goes up on the mountain and the Lord appears and gives him a message to communicate to the children of Israel.
‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.
Before God said or required anything from his people, he reminded them not only of his powerful and decisive deliverance, but also of his judgements upon Pharaoh and the land of Egypt. God’s deliverance is described as how a mother eagle encourages and protects its young on it first flight.
Deuteronomy 32 is the song Moses recited to the second generation of the people of Israel. This song describes the mighty works of God on behalf of Israel. In verses 10 and 11, it says:
10 In a desert land he found him,
in a barren and howling waste.
He shielded him and cared for him;
he guarded him as the apple of his eye,
11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest
and hovers over its young,
that spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them aloft. The Lord alone led him; (Deuteronomy 32:10-12a)
As when the eaglet exhausted on its first flight begins to go on a free fall and the mother eagle swoops below and catches it, was how Yahweh had always come to the rescue of his people along their journey. But on the third month of their deliverance, God wanted to establish a condition for his continuing rescue of Israel. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. The covenant God wanted to establish with the children of Israel is a conditional covenant. He would take them as his people in exchange of obedience. They will be his treasured possession among the nations of the world if they keep the covenant.
In Genesis God established a covenant with Abraham which later God reiterated to Isaac and Jacob. This is the covenant God remember when he came to the rescue of the Israelites. But now it is time for the people themselves to make a proper covenant with the God who had delivered them.
The word “covenant” is the Hebrew noun berit. Between nations it is a “treaty or alliance of friendship.” Between individuals it is “a pledge or agreement, with obligation between the parties. Here in Exodus, God is making a covenant with his people as a nation. God offers to protect, provide, and make them his own in return for obedience and faithfulness to God. Therefore, this is clearly a conditional covenant.
“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant,
then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.” (Exodus 19:5)
“Treasured possession” (NIV, NRSV), “peculiar treasure” (KJV), “personal possession” (New Jerusalem Bible) is a single word: segullâ. The basic meaning of this noun is “personal property.” While other nations had their own gods, such as Baal of the Canaanites, o Ra, the foremost Egyptian sun god, Israel was being given the privilege of having Yahweh as its God. The God who even Ra could not overcome when darkness covered the land of Egypt for three days (Ex. 10:21). God was offering himself to his people in exchange of obedience.
Imagine being considered by God as his own very personal and dear possession!
But God continued to add more to his offer and says to the people: Although the whole earth is mine,you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:5b-6)
This phrase “kingdom of priests” or “priestly kingdom,” depending on the version you read, is very interesting. First, a kingdom assumes a king, which was the only form of government known in the Ancient Near East. So here, Yahweh is the King and Israel would become that royal priesthood. As we might recall, other gods had priest, but the only priest who worshiped the true God so far in the Bible are Melekizedek (Genesis 14:18) and Jethro (Exodus 3:1; 18:1-2). But here, God was offering to make of the entire people of Israel his priests, which would set them apart for his service and to have free access to His presence. God was offering Israel his protection and to be exclusively his people if they would commit to serve him alone. They would become God’s representative to the other nations, which would fulfill God’s promise and call to Abraham. In you all nations shall be blessed (Genesis 12)
The covenant offered Israel to become (1) a kingdom consisting of priests, set apart to God (that is to be a “holy people”). Israel was given a position of great privilege and access. But God’s offer begins, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant. . ..”
The testimony of Scripture indicate Israel was not always in compliance with the covenant. Idolatry, violence, corruption, injustices all indicate that Israel did not fully obey the Lord nor keep the covenant. For that reason, God set a new plan in his ever-going effort to save his people. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God announce his new plan: “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah (Jeremiah 31:31).
As we know, when Jesus was eating his last supper with his disciples, he proclaimed: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you (Luke 22:20).
Those who believe in Jesus enter the into the new covenant in his blood. As the apostle Peter writes: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9)
In Christ Jesus, we have entered into God’s new covenant. And to us has been granted the privileges Israel was offered at Mount Sinai. We are God’s chosen people; we are God’s royal priesthood, and holy nation. The Hebrew concept of being “holy” defines that which is sacred or has been particularly separated for the service of God. To be set holy is to make the distinction between things or people with higher standing or purpose from the common or profane. The bread on the altar of the temple for instance, once it is set there, its purpose and identity change. It is the sacred bread, the holy bread. Although similar to those set on the tables of the Israelites, the holy bread is not the same.
Those who are holy have been set apart from the common or ordinary to be sacred, devoted to, and belonging exclusively to the holy God. In other words, my dear brothers and sisters, although we look, we live and sometime, even struggle just as any other person living in Paso Robles, we are not just any person. You are holy because you belong to Christ. You are different; your purpose in this town is different. Because we are a holy people, we cannot and should not have the same practices, the language used, or the habits and way of living of those who have not yet heard and believed the gospel. We cannot be as those who have not yet received Jesus as Lord and Savior because God has chosen us to be his holy people here and now.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can live according the new covenant in Jesus Christ. God has given us the means by which we can live according to the new covenant in the Lord. Amen!
Pastor Romero