22nd September 2025

22nd September 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 19:1-25 focus v1-9a)


Message (Alan Burke) 


In ‘The Hobbit’ by J. R. R. Tolkien there is a part of the story where it looks hopeless and the Eagles come and save Bilbo and his companions from almost certain death and they carry them on their backs, they ride on eagles wings. Initially what I had in my mind was that scene in The Hobbit with Bilbo and his companions being carried to safety by the Eagles and it is a wonderful image even thought we know that LORD did not carry his people on Eagles wings. Eagles do not carry their young on their wings, but the imagery used by the LORD is striking. The point is being made that unlike the gods of the nations who need to be carried by their people it is the LORD God who carries his people, who redeems them from their slavery (See Isaiah 46:1, 4). 


Here we are told how it’s been three months since the LORD redeemed his people from Egypt (third new moon) and they would remain there at Sinai for almost a year (Num 10:12). This is the same mountain where the Lord had appeared to Moses in the burning bush (Ex 3) and the Lord speaks to him, he has a message for the people, the house of Jacob, the people of Israel. He reminds them what he has done, how they had seen wha the did in Egypt and how he had carried his people as on eagles’ wings.


The LORD has carried his people out from Egypt, he has brought them to Mount Sinai and he tells Moses that if they obey him fully, keep his covenant, then they will be a treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation (v6). The LORD redeemed his people sot they would be his treasured possession. Think of the wonder of what is said here. Even though the whole earth is the LORD’s it is this congregation that would be his treasured possession. Not only that they were a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (v6). The people were to be a kingdom of priests for they were to serve the Lord, like the Levitical priesthood. Their lives were lived as an offering in the service of the LORD God. They had intimate access to him unlike the rest of the people. But for Israel they were to be a kingdom of priests, serving the LORD God, they had intimate access to him unlike the rest of the nations. This includes those who were nursing mothers, or the shepherds, those who were weak and infirm who had to be led or carried as they travelled from Egypt. The people of God were to live in their lives in the entirety in the service of God as an offering to him for they were his treasured possession and a holy nation. Holy meaning set apart, consecrated to God, the people of God, Israel were to be those who lived for God, set apart by him for him, they were those who would live in his service and for his glory. 


Today we who are in Christ are a treasured possession, a kingdom of priests a holy nation. The apostle Peter in 1 Peter 2 tells us that we; are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light (1 Pe 2:9). 


Now the people of God is no longer the nation of Israel but the true Israel, through Christ Jesus; and with his blood he purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation (Rev 5:9). Just as those gathered at Mount Sinai were the LORD’s treasured possession a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, that is who we are that today through faith, for we are the true Israel of God (Gal 6:6). Just as the congregation in the wilderness, we are his, a treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation not because we are deserving of it but because in his mercy, in his covenant of grace he has by his unmerited favour chosen us to be his people.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q80 What is required in the tenth commandment?
A. The tenth commandment requireth full contentment with our own condition, with a right and charitable frame of spirit toward our neighbor, and all that is his.
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