Song of Sinai, Part 2: We Will Obey

The previous song ends “to be continued…” The earth is shaking and sky ignited as God extends His Covenant out like a ring before His people. How will Israel respond?

Exodus 24:4-7 provides the answer:

Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. The people responded with one voice: “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”

The audacious grandiosity of God’s proposal–complete with lightning, thunder, earthquakes–is met and matched by the audacious simplicity of Israel’s response. Reading their words centuries later, we can laugh to ourselves. We know what they, in that moment, did not. They will most certainly NOT do everything the Lord said. They will go on to prove anything but obedient to God.

So, what do we do with such ridiculous naivety?

I actually think there is a lot to learn from it. I think we should maybe even embrace it. We certainly do at weddings. No couple standing before friends and family to proclaim the fateful words “I do” has any real clue what they are getting themselves into. Such simple words, with no caveats or couching to soften their blow, are celebrated at weddings. Similarly, Israel, who had taken great lengths to prepare themselves to stand before their God in a ceremony confirming their covenant, in effect says, “I do.” Of course, they had no way of knowing the complexity and difficulty of such a commitment.

Is it naive? Sure. It is also necessary.

We, as Christians, do the same thing Sunday after Sunday as we lift our voices to make equally audacious statements in song like, “I surrender all” or “take my life.” We are no more capable to carry out those proclamations than Israel. So, how can we make such statements? Like Israel, our faith is in God’s fidelity not our own.

In verse 6 above, it says, “Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar.” This, by the way, is the blood of the first covenant, a foreshadowing of the blood of New Covenant (cf. Mark 14:24), God’s own blood shed on the cross to cover over all the myriad of ways we fail to live up to our naive claims of full commitment.

Because of the blood of the covenant, we too can sing, “We will do everything You’ve said. We will obey.” And we can mean it. Because the audacity of our claims is met and outdone by the audacity of God’s grace. Every time. It was true for Israel. And it remains true for all who are in Christ.

Credits

Words & Music: Bill Wolf
Backing Vocals & Electric Guitar: Brad Campbell