A Call To The Remnant

God tells Moses to tell the children of Israel this ….”You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all the nations of the earth, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

You just read an insight into the very heart of God. He bore you up on eagles wings and carried you from captivity. He destroyed that which sought to destroy you and He was looking for His own special treasure. He was looking for a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And the qualifier for that? Obedience. It is obedience to the Word of God and to the still small voice of the Spirit that draws us near to Him. Obedience, without that we can do nothing. Who will obey the voice of God? Who will be a priest of the most High God? Who would be holy as He is holy?

You will know them by their love for one another. You will know them by their love for God. You will know them by their reverence and fear of the living God. You will know them by their obedience and their longing to live an obedient life. God saw that the children of Israel would not be that. They wanted an intermediary. They wanted nothing of the fire that fell upon the mountain. They wanted nothing of the thick clouds and the thunderings and the lightening.

It is interesting that God bore the children of Israel on eagles wings and carried them to where He was. Where was He? He was in the wilderness. He was in a place where only total reliance upon Him would bring life. Without Him there would be no water, without Him there would be no food. In the wilderness, water had to gush forth from rock. Manna had to fall from heaven. To get to Him Moses had to walk through thick darkness, probably a place where you could not even see your hand in front of your face. Would you like to ascend a mountain in thick darkness? A place where at any moment you could walk right of the edge?

The royal priests of God learn how to dwell in the wilderness. They come there for they are looking for where God is. He is not in Egypt and He is not in Babylon. He is not in the places of ease and comfort. He is well beyond our comfort zones. Thunderings and lightenings and thick clouds and the earth trembles and the mountain shakes and the trumpet of the Lord reverberates and touches every part of who we are. Could there be a greater contrast than between the place of seeming barrenness and this mountain of His presence? Total reliance and obedience to God in the wilderness brings us to the mountain of His presence.

Now the question has to be for us, shall we live at ease? The prophet cries out “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!” (Amos 6:1) We in Christendom feel safe within the cherished walls of our traditions and our heritage. Zion was considered all but impregnable. Who in their right minds would come out of Zion and go dwell in the wilderness? Those who seek God with all of their hearts. God is calling forth such a people today. Shall we be obedient to the call?