While our next station in the wilderness wanderings is Sinai, there is an incident, whose interposition at this point of Divine Writ, warrants some thought, ere we proceed with the consideration of the Israelitish experiences at Sinai. It will be recalled, that Moses while yet in the house of Pharaoh in Egypt, had presented himself to his brethren as a deliverer. We read:

Exod. 2:11, 12 – “And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren, and he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.”

One might very reasonably have expected that after this the Israelites would have sought more and more to avail themselves of any further grace or favor Moses had to bestow, even should this involve the judgment of their unrighteousness. Apparently this was not so with them, for we read:

Exod. 2:13, 14 – “And when he went out on the second day, behold two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? Intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian?”

A thousand Israelites, blessed by the benevolences of Moses, might easily have kept their secret from Pharaoh; yet only one Israelite offended in his unrighteous pride was able to put Moses’ life in jeopardy so that he had to flee. And Pharaoh when he heard of it, sought to slay Moses, and thus we read:

Exod. 2:15 – “…but Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian…”

It was during the period of this rejection, while he was in Midian, that Moses took unto himself a wife, Zipporah, and she was not an Israelites! Just so, when Jesus came “to his own” (John 1:11) at his first advent, they received him not. They rejected him, not because of his benevolences, but because of his judgment of their unrighteousness. During the period of Israel’s rejection of Messiah, he too, has taken unto himself a bride, and she, from among the Gentiles. But even as the Israelites upon Moses’ second presentation unto them, accepted him as their deliverer, so also shall the Israel which rejected Christ at his first advent, accept him at his second as their Messiah, their deliverer. This brings us to that grand Millennial scene depicted in Exod. 18, where in Israel, Moses and his bride are all brought together under a single focus.

“This is a deeply interesting scene. The whole congregation assembled, in triumph before the Lord, the Gentile presenting sacrifice, and in addition, to complete the picture, the bride of the deliverer, together with the children whom God has given him, are all introduced. It is, in short, a singularly striking foreshadowing of the coming kingdom…”

Exod. 19:1, 2 – “In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day, came they into the wilder- ness of Sinai, for they were departed from Rephidim, and were come into the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness, and there Israel camped before the mount.”

Two months had elapsed since their departure from Egypt, and they had come to the “mount of God,” where he would manifest unto them his will concerning them, even their consecration, “obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people…and ye shall be unto me, a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” (Exod. 19:5, 6)

In Egypt, they were virtually a dead nation. There was nothing they could do to bring about their redemption. Then God stepped in, and he delivered them out from under the despotic rule of Pharaoh. True he did not deliver them immediately into the Canaan he had promised Abraham and his seed, yet in all their wilderness experiences thus far, he had dealt with them as his own, a redeemed people, the children of his faithful friend, Abraham. Said Pastor Russell in R5285:

“…All of God’s dealings with the Israelites were in accordance with his great covenant made with Abraham, and certified with the divine oath; ‘In thee and in thy seed, shall all the families of the earth be blessed’.”

But Israel failed to appreciate this fact. They were swiftly losing that spiritual tie by which they were bound to Abraham. Nor can it yet, truthfully be said that anyone is of the seed of Abraham, unless he evidences also his faith. (John 8:37-40) It is quite evident that the Abrahamic Covenant no longer served to inspire them with zeal and faithfulness to God. Familiarity had bred contempt, in fact, it was their secret fault, yea, it had already gained the proportions of presumptuous sin. It was only a question of time when this presumptuous sin would have so great dominion over them that none of the natural seed might ever have been found worthy of membership in the “seed of blessing.” This is exactly what we find reflected at Sinai, where the law was “added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.” (Gal. 3:19)

Now the Law was not given to make the Israelites perfect, but to bring them unto a consciousness of sin, wherein they would not only see their utter need of the grace of God, but would appreciate also, all his benefits toward them. Such an appreciation, being in the nature of faith, would inspire the cry, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people.” (Psa. 116:12, 14) Accordingly, we see that the Law was to serve, first to reveal sin, and then to awaken in the sinner the desire for God’s grace and favor. It is important that we note that while the Law reveals sin, it neither creates nor removes it. Hear the Apostle Paul when he says:

Rom. 7:7-13 – “I had not known sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. But sin taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the Law, sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and just and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid! But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good: that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.”

And as the Apostle had previously declared, “the law entered, that the offence might abound.” (Rom. 5:20) One has most ably said:

“It came in by the way in order to set forth the exceeding sinfulness of sin. (Rom. 7:13) It was, in a certain sense, like a mirror let down from heaven to reveal to man his derangement. If I present myself, with deranged habit before a mirror, it shows me the derangement, but does not set it right. If I measure a crooked wall, with a perfect plumbline, it reveals the crookedness, but does not remove it. If I take out a lamp on a dark night, it reveals to me all the hindrances and disagreeableness in the way, but it does not remove them. Moreover the mirror, the plumb-line, and the lamp, do not create the evils which they severally point out: they neither create nor remove, but simply reveal. Thus is it with the law: it does not create the evil in man’s heart, neither does it remove it, but with unerring accuracy, it reveals it!”

But while the Law was thus to serve as a revealer of sin, it was also to inspire a desire for righteousness and life. It could not, however, give to any fallen man, the life he sought. That which the Law promised in the end – life, to the man that would keep it, was the very thing that we would need at the beginning, in order to keep it. We read in Heb. 7:19, “The law made nothing perfect.” But it did point to the man, who because of his perfection and righteousness, his separateness from sin, both kept its letter, and fulfilled its spirit. By it, therefore, he had the right to continue in life. That man was Christ Jesus. To reveal the Father’s great love for the world, he laid that life down in sacrifice, so that others might live. Praise his holy name!

Note now, the longsuffering kindness of God in dealing with the Israelites. What patience, what forbearance he manifested toward them! To save them from the fate of other nations who had passed into oblivion, he offered them the inspiration of the Law Covenant. At least, it would serve to keep alive the hope, which though embodied in the Abrahamic Covenant, they had steadily been relinquishing. God even found it necessary to remind them of himself, for they so readily forgot him. He said: “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles wings and brought you unto myself.” (Exod. 19:4) So important was it for them, if they were to continue in God’s favor, not to forget God, he himself incorporated it in the preamble to the Decalogue thus: “I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage…” (Exod. 20:2; Deut. 5:6)

Ah, dear friends, if we are to continue in God’s favor, we too, must not forget God. We must ever keep the Lord before us. How else can we “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind”? (See Matt. 22:37)

Observe how eagerly Israel of old, desired God’s favor: “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.” (Exod. 19:8) Of course, they wanted to be God’s peculiar treasure, above all people and to be, as it were, unto him a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. This desire for the ultimates, rather than the doing of God’s will prompted them to enter into a covenant of works. A moment’s reflection upon their past opportunities and privileges, and their utter failure to live up to these, would have enabled them to see the futility of it all. But they did not stop to “count the cost.” What was the result? A double curse, for not only did the original Adamic condemnation then still stand against them, but the Law which promised release from this merely placed them under a further condemnation for failure to keep it. And so says the Apostle Paul, “the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.” (Rom. 7:10) Entering into such a covenant as Israel did at Mt. Sinai, implied the full surrender to do God’s will implicitly, and failure to do so, involved the curse – death.

We wonder, dear friends, if there is not in this, a most important lesson for us. Time was when we, having exercised ourselves by faith in the accomplished redemption of Calvary, found ourselves tentatively justified. But like many others who accept (?) Christ as their Saviour, we failed fully to appreciate God’s grace and favor to usward. We took it, more or less, as a matter of fact and lived our lives not so much different from other peoples of the world. Did not God then, through varied and diversified experiences, separate us further and further from the Egypt of this world? Yet with all of this, we seemed not to appreciate it, nor did we recognize that God himself was thus striving with us, to make of us his “peculiar treasure, above all people,” and “unto himself, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.” We seemed only to murmur against these providences of God, until one day in our experiences he brought us to “the mount of God” there to rehearse in our hearts and before our minds, all of his mighty works and wonders on our behalf – “how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.” (Exod. 19:4) It was then and there that God made known unto us, his will concerning us, even our sanctification – a full and complete surrender to “obey my voice” and to “keep my covenant.” Israel in the type, did not sit down, first to count the cost. We wonder if many of spiritual Israel have not likewise failed and have as they of old, consecrated rather to satisfy the desire for the ultimates than for the sheer privilege and pleasure of doing God’s will. To our minds, the first and chief concern should ever be the doing of that perfect will of God, so, at least, was it with Jesus. While the joy set before him (Heb. 12:2) undoubtedly involved the glories of the Divine nature, yet his chief concern, and therefore, his greatest joy, was not in the contemplation of these, but in the doing of his Father’s will. When he consecrated himself unto God, he made no mention of the ultimates, but in spirit declared, “Lo, I come, to do thy will.” (Heb. 10:7,9) thus did Jesus enter into covenant relationship with God, having first of all, “counted the cost.” His admonition to all Israelites contemplating entering into this selfsame great covenant of sacrifice with God was to first sit down and count the cost. (Luke 14:26-33) For entering in upon this covenant places us also under double jeopardy, the danger of the second death.

Had typical Israel first sat down and counted the cost, they would immediately have recognized their utter inability to keep such a perfect Law as that of God’s inviolate. Rather than promise the obedience of works, they would have sought to yield unto their God a faith like unto that of Abraham – a faith which justified him, was “accounted to him for righteousness.” (Gal. 3:6) In this regard, Israel had thus far miserably failed. They were ever transgressing through unbelief and disobedience. It was because of this that it became necessary for God to impose the Law. However, had they been rightly exercised under the tutelage of this “school-master,” they would first have become conscious of the exceeding sinfulness of their sins and then sought for deliverance from them. There the search would have led them to Jesus the Messiah, whom instead of rejecting they would have received and accepted.

Nevertheless, this covenant and its law served to separate Israel from all the other nations of the world, despite their inability to keep the law. So too, our covenant of sacrifice serves to keep us separate from all the families of the earth, and this despite our inability to keep that most perfect law of love which is implied in this covenant. There were some, an infinitesimally few, of typical Israel who, though born under the covenant and its law, transcended it, not by the works which that covenant demanded, but by faith which God accounted as the fulfillment thereof. These are the Ancient Worthies whom the Apostle Paul brings to our attention in the 11th Chapter of Hebrews, saying, “these all… obtained a good report through faith.” (Heb. 11:39) Lest we become discouraged with our inability to meet all the terms of our covenant through impatience or otherwise, the Holy Spirit through the inspired Apostle Paul directs us to keep these very Ancient Worthies in mind. We are admonished to note their faith, their trials, their lives, their fortitude. They were witnesses (martyrs) of faith, “of whom the world was not worthy.” (Heb. 11:38) Their hope, inspired by faith in God, kept them in the face of their many trials and failures, ever looking forward to that great deliverer, the Abrahamic Seed, the promised Messiah. This Messiah, thus being the very substance of their faith – its beginning and its end – became also the basis of their justification to life, when at Calvary, he died. Said Pastor Russell in R4320:1:

“…Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and others before the Law Covenant were not bound by it, yet were not in the fullest sense justified to life until the Abrahamic Covenant had been established at Calvary. Their faith then, entitled them to a share in the merits of that sacrifice. Likewise throughout the period of the Law Covenant, before it was annulled at the cross, there were Ancient Worthies, who lived above the masses of the time, and who although bound by the Law, had above it a living faith in the original oath-bound Covenant of Grace. These in the Divine records were entitled to their share of the grace, as soon as the merit of Calvary’s sacrifice had been presented on behalf of believers…Although they lived while the Law Covenant was alive, they foresaw its death and trusted not in it, but in the superior Covenant of Grace…”

No wonder then that the Apostle Paul says in:

Heb. 12:1, 2 – “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author (margin–beginner) and finisher of our faith…”

It may thus be noted that faith will justify, in the face of our failures to keep our covenant inviolate! But this, only so long as in recognition of our own unworthiness of God’s grace, and inability to do God’s perfect will (obey his voice and keep his covenant), we retain Jesus as the bulwark of our faith. The Ancient Worthies, though unable to keep the law, were because of their faith, accounted as having it fulfilled in them. That is, they were justified by their faith. We too, though unable to keep our covenant, inviolate, are accounted as having its righteousness fulfilled in us. (Rom. 8:4) God’s law is Love, and no matter how it be expressed, whether negatively as in the “thou shalt nots” or positively in the “thou shalts” we cannot keep it, but bless his Holy Name, we can fulfill it (Rom. 13:10) through that grace of God, manifested toward us, in Christ Jesus.

Anent this, Pastor Russell wrote in R4442:5:

“To Christ the original Covenant came with the Law ‘added,’ and he inherited by obedience to the law. He is now accepting us separate and apart from the law on condition of faith and obedience to the extent of our ability. To us the righteousness of the Law is counted as fulfilled when we walk, not after the flesh, but after the spirit of the law, because we thus give evidence that if we had perfect ability we would keep the divine law perfectly. And we who have been accepted as members of the body of Christ have entered into a covenant of sacrifice as respects the earthly nature, and to be copies of our Redeemer to the extent of our ability, in heart, in will, and so far as possible, in deed.

“After testing us thus, if found faithful, God will accept us fully and grant us spirit bodies like unto our Redeemer’s. It is thus, as new creatures in Christ, that we may be the spiritual seed of Abraham, and members of the body of the great Mediator, the great Prophet, Priest, King and Judge, who during the Millennial Age, under the New (Law) Covenant sealed with his blood, shall establish righteousness in the earth, and lift up the willing and obedient of humanity out of sin, degradation and death to harmony with God and everlasting life.

“It is asked, under what Covenant is the royal priesthood, the church of the first-born, justified? We answer, under no Covenant. Our justification, like that of Abraham, is by faith. As it is written, ‘Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it (righteousness) was imputed to him, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him who raised up Jesus, our Lord, from the dead: who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification’.” (Rom. 4:3, 23-25)