Prepared

DEVOTION

EXODUS

PREPARED

Ex 19:14-19

14 After Moses had gone down the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes. 15 Then he said to the people, "Prepare yourselves for the third day. Abstain from sexual relations." 16 On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, 19 and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.  

NIV

The people needed to consecrate themselves before meeting with the LORD, although they were not actually going to meet him, just hear him speaking to Moses. They could not even come close enough to the foot of the mountain, much less touch it or they would be stuck dead by the LORD. Yet even at this distance from him they needed to be consecrated, or sanctified or set apart. Their preparation was to wash their clothes and abstain of any sexual relations. It seems clear about the engaging in a physical union with another person would impede their setting themselves apart to meet with God. The washing of their clothes could only be of a symbolic nature, a point of the need to be cleansed before the LORD. It must have taken the three days just to dry out their clothes, and what did they wear in the meantime, how many outfits did they have? That would have used up a lot of water as well, washing over two million outfits. Things like this are not explicitly detailed for us because they have no real significance in showing either the character of God or our relationship with him. We cannot be sure why all this pomp and ceremony about God speaking to Moses when he has spoken to him on more than one occasion before unless it was simply the angel of the LORD, except looking at the Hebrew when God spoke to him from the burning bush the word Yahweh was used, denoting the LORD himself was speaking to Moses, even though it was said an angel appeared to him in the burning bush. Here Yahweh is actually going to come down and be upon the mountain. We do not know the form in which he came down as the mountain was covered with billowing smoke. It does say he descended upon the mountain in fire. Yet even though the people were not allowed to touch the mountain upon which the LORD had descended upon, they were still in need of being consecrated just to stand and observe from a distance the presence of God, however they were going to be able to hear his voice. Perhaps that is our lesson. If we ever expect to be in the presence of the LORD should we not be consecrated? Should we not be set apart? What makes us set apart? How do we set ourselves apart? How do we consecrate ourselves today? Is abstaining from sexual relations and washing our clothes enough? Surely that is not the case. Jesus talked about the Pharisees being like white washed tombs, clean on the outside, but dead and stinky on the inside.

Matt 23:27-28

27 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs , which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

NIV

Surely our consecration cannot be in our good deeds, or for that matter in our apparent good behavior. Our consecration in preparing to be in the presence of the LORD has everything to do with be clean on the inside, cleansed in the blood of the Lamb. We cannot even cleanse ourselves sufficiently to stand at a distance of his presence. We are in desperate need being washed in the blood of the Lamb. This is the only way we can be consecrated, set apart to God. There could be a lesson in the abstaining from sexual relations, when it comes to our relationship with the world. We should abstain from having any union with the world. No partnership with it. We cannot even embrace it. How can we be set apart to God if we are having an affair with the world? Maybe in some sense certain sects of Quakers or Amish might have the right idea about being separate. Yet we have been called to be ambassadors to this land. As aliens here, being citizens of the kingdom of God, we must serve our Sovereign, speaking for him to the people of this world. We cannot do that if we physically separate ourselves from them, however that does not preclude us spiritually or mentally separating ourselves. We cannot conform to the ideologies of this world. But we are to be in it enough in order to speak the truth about God. Being consecrated, we take our stand prepared to be in his presence.