Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 19-21.
As I started to read today’s passage, this jumped out at me as my focus for the day:
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
This seemed to me to parallel 1 Peter 2:9 which says,
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
That parallel is not an accident. God had called the Israelites out to be a holy people who worshipped Him. That call has not been rescinded, even though He has issued a new call to those who will put their faith in Jesus Christ. All of the earth, and all of its people belong to God, but He has chosen some to be His special people. Priests intercede with God for others. The Israelites were intended to fulfill that role, and the followers of Jesus are similarly called. When the Israelites heard Moses tell them this they responded by saying that they would do everything the Lord has said. The Israelites were a people because God forged them into a people. In the same way, God has forged the people who follow Jesus into a people. Throughout history, time and again the Israelites have become people who do not belong anywhere on this earth. Yet God has maintained them as a people, because they are His people. In the same way, God calls people who do not belong anywhere on this earth to put their trust in His Son. He makes those who do so His people. Some of those whom God calls were made outcasts and losers by the world around them, others chose to become outsiders and losers (as the world around them see things) because they were called by God. Whichever is the case, God will make those who answer His call into a people through whom He will transform the world.
I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.