Exodus 19 – Eagles Wings and a Kingdom of Priests
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When God says we shall be kings and priests in His Kingdom
He is not lying to us.
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When God freed Israel from their slavery in Egypt, He had them journey to Mount Horeb in Sini. Reading through Exodus, we can trace the 50-day process of Israel leaving Egypt through to God speaking His law to the nation gathered at the foot of Mount Horeb. Exodus chapter 19 is intriguing. We have probably all read these verses before, but have we looked at them in detail and seen in them the power of God?
These verses describe Moses first interaction with God on Mount Horeb and what God said to Moses. This was before God spoke His Law to the nation of Israel.
Exodus 19V3 And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;
V4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.
V5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
V6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
V7 And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him.
Moses went up to God, and God told Moses to tell the people that it was He, God, who had brought them out of Egypt. God said; “I bare you on eagles’ wings”. What did God mean by that?
It must be important because God repeats this is Deuteronomy, this time to the source of the nation Israel, to Jacob the father of all Israel; let’s read it.
Deuteronomy 32V7 Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.
V8 When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
V9 For the LORD’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
V10 He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
V11 As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:
V12 So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.
The eagle is use throughout God’s word as a metaphor for swiftness, strength, power and tenderness.
Some scholars ridicule the idea of the nation of Israel traveling from Goshen in Egypt to Mount Horeb in Sini in such a short time. It took them somewhere between 20 and 30 days. Remember that God had them stop on the sabbaths, and for one whole week when He first gave them manna to eat so that they would learn to keep the sabbath day. They also fought Amalek and there is evidence that at times they camped for many days before moving on again. They arrived at Mount Horeb a few days before the day of Pentecost, so they were only actually traveling for at most 30 days, yet they covered about 700 kilometres or more of rough terrain.
This was not a band of fighting men used to marking long distance marches. The great multitude who left Egypt consisted of women, children, old people with wonky knee such as me, mothers with babies in arms and a toddler in hand. How did they travel this distance? Of course, God performed a miracle. It wasn’t just a miracle for them to go through the waters of the Red Sea, the whole journey was a miracle.
Isaiah 40V27 Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?
V28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
V29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
V30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
V31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
God is able to perform it. He has a plan, Israel was part of that plan and He performed miracles with them so that His plan would be executed on time, exactly as He planned, so that the physical event would rightly depict the spiritual events; past, present and future.
Isaiah 46V3 Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb:
V4 And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.
V5 To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?
V6 They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall down, yea, they worship.
V7 They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth; from his place shall he not remove: yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.
V8 Remember this, and shew yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors.
V9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
V10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
What about us? Are we left to fend for ourselves? Will God do the same for us? We are a part of God’s plan, so the answer is a resounding yes! I can’t tell you how He will perform miracles with us, but I can read many scriptures that says will and does.
Revelation 12V13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
V14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
V15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
V16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
I don’t know when or how this will occur, but God will lift us up, He will accomplish his plan of salvation in us and through us. We need not fear, we just need to trust Him.
Luke 12V8 Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God:
V9 But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.
V10 And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven.
V11 And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say:
V12 For the Holy Spirit shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.
So to quote another scripture; “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
Romans 8V30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
V31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
V32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
This brings us back to Exodus chapter 19. Let’s read verses 5 to 7 again.
Exodus 19V5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
V6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
V7 And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him.
Here God says that Israel will become a Holy nation and priests; men, women and children, not just the tribe of Levi. They would be over all the nations on earth. All they had to do was keep God’s covenant with them. God said; “for all the earth is mine”. He would make them “a peculiar treasure unto me above all people”.
Of course, God knew that they couldn’t keep the covenant that they had agreed to. They did not have the spirit of understand, the spirit that has opened our eyes and changed our heart and our life. They only had the physical law without the means to keep it.
So why did God promise them something that was unattainable?
Because it was a physical type of the spiritual. Israel could have become the physical leaders and teachers of the whole world if they had kept God’s law. But every physical type in God’s plan points to a spiritual fulfilment. Sometimes the spiritual seems too impossible, so awesome, so unworthy of us that we discount it. We think it can’t apply to us, but it does.
1 Peter 2V9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
Revelation 1V5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
V6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 5V9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
V10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
Revelation 20V6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
This is the Physical Covenant versus the Spiritual Covenant.
God knew that Israel could not keep the law, they did not have God’s spirit of understanding and guidance.
But we now have God’s spirit of understanding and guidance, and furthermore we have access to the forgiveness of sin.
When God says we shall be kings and priests in His Kingdom He is not lying to us. If God made that promise to ancient Israel, then His promise to us is real.
God told Israel that they would be a kingdom of priests over the earth, above all people; “for all the earth is mine,” God says. God had the authority to make a physical nation of priests over all other nations, and He has authority over His Kingdom. We shall be Kings and Priest in His spiritual kingdom. God has told us, He will perform it, we should not doubt it.
But what of God physical promise to Israel?
Isaiah 14V1 For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
V2 And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
V3 And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,
V4 That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
V5 The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.
V6 He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.
V7 The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.
These verses are talking about a future time when the whole of Israel shall be gathered from around the world, not just the tribe of Judah, but all the tribes of the sons of Israel. They shall be at peace, and God shall reign over them, and all nations shall come up to them. This is the prophesied millennium when God shall set up His Kingdom on earth.
Zechariah 14V16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
V17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
V18 And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
V19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
V20 In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD’S house shall be like the bowls before the altar.
V21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.
This will be the physical remnant of the tribes of Israel and the physical remnant of all humanity. They will live under God’s rulership. God’s promise to physical Israel is sure, and His spiritual promise to us is equally sure.
How great is God, He has planned it, He has stated His plan to us, He will perform it.
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God is not random, He has a plan that He is working to. 