The stage is set. The people have arrived at the base of Mount Sinai, where they will “meet God” and receive the Law that will govern the next 2000 years of their history.
There’s just one problem: The people are impure. Before the mortal is able to interact with the Divine, God dictates in Exodus 19:10 that all of them must be consecrated, or “set apart” to God for spiritual purposes.
On one hand, this is pretty much a given. God brought the people out of Egypt by His mighty hand, then annihilated the Egyptian army in the Red Sea. They’ve crossed a literal border of water, which turns into a metaphorical border between their new life and their old life.
But just because they have come to meet God doesn’t mean they’re ready to meet Him. This attitude is prevalent in our world today. A lot of churches will preach a “come as you are” mentality towards their community, where no matter who you are or where you come from, you’re welcome at their services.
Let me make one thing very plain here: I have zero problem with this stance. At Hillside, we do outreach too. We ask everyone and everyone to attend with us so that we can talk to them about the Bible. It would be anti-Gospel to argue otherwise.
The difference is that the way you come to God can’t be the way you stay with God. In order to be a Christian, everything about your life has to change. The way you talk, the way you walk, your value system, but especially your devotion—it all has to be pointed towards God and not self.
That’s what God demanded of His people. Every single person that came out of Egypt had their own baggage with them. To consecrate them at the base of Mt. Sinai was to cleanse them, dedicate them, and make them His people.
The transformation didn’t look that different on the outside. According to Exodus 19:10-15, they were to wash their garments and abstain from relations with women.
As you know, the real transformation was on the inside. It wasn’t just about the clothes, it was about the cleansing of the heart. They needed to be ready to receive the Law and to follow the Law.
Isn’t this what baptism is about? To the observer, baptism looks like a bath. Peter makes that blunt assessment in 1 Peter 3:21 when talking about the mechanics of baptism. But he goes on in that same passage to talk about what baptism really is—an appeal to God for a good conscience. The external and the internal work together for salvation.
Both were required for the Israelites to draw near the mountain. If they didn’t wash their clothes but simply changed their attitude, they disobeyed God’s command. If they didn’t cleanse their heart but cleansed their clothes, their devotion was superficial. Obedience to God was demonstrated by their adherence to His commands.
As we ascend the mountain to meet God, we should take the same attitude with us. Not to only manage the inside OR the outside (to the exclusion of the other), but to do both. That’s the only way we can draw near to His mountain.
