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God’s Law Important for All Time, February 18
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then
you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is
Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Exodus 19:5, 6
, NKJV.
This covenant [
Exodus 19:1-6
] is a revelation of God’s goodness. The people
had not sought for it. They were not reaching out their hands after God; but He
Himself graciously extended His almighty arm, inviting them to link their arm with
His, that He might be their defense. He voluntarily chose as His heritage a nation
that had just come from Egyptian slavery, a people who must be educated and
trained at every step. What an expression of omnipotent goodness and love! ...
Over and over again, the Lord permitted His people to be brought into strait
places, that in their deliverance, He might reveal His mercy and His goodness.
If they now chose to disbelieve Him, they must doubt the evidence of their own
eyes. They had had unmistakable proof that He was a living God, “merciful and
gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (
Exodus 34:6
). He
had honored Israel in the sight of all the heavenly intelligences. He brought them
unto Himself—into covenant relation and communion with Him.
The children of Israel had been three months on their journey from Egypt, and
were now camped before Mount Sinai, where in awful grandeur, the Lord spoke
His law. He did not manifest Himself in grand buildings made with human hands,
the structures of human device. He revealed His glory in a high mountain, a temple
of His own creation. The top of Mount Sinai rose above all others, in a range of
mountains in the barren desert. This mountain God chose as the place where He
would make Himself known to His people.
He appeared to them in awful grandeur, and spoke in audible voice. He there
revealed Himself to His people, as He never has at any other time, thereby showing
the importance of the law for all ages. God is particular today that we keep His
commandments.—
Manuscript Releases 1:105, 106
.
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