Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
Exodus 19:1-6 (ESV)
Israel at Mount Sinai
19 On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. 2 They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain, 3 while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: 4 You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
It is easy to look at the Israelites’ sin, and be judgmental about them. But the truth is, we are all just like them, in a thousand ways. But the good news is that God didn’t choose the perfect people, God chose broken people to be his own. In spite of all they have done, God still wants to make them a holy nation. And God will not give up, but will do whatever it takes, even to dying on a cross, to make us holy!