A Kingdom of Priests — The Mission Statement, Preparing to Meet God, and the New Covenant

The Mission Statement That Came Before the Law

Most Christians don't realize that before God gave the Law at Mount Sinai, He gave Israel a mission. Not commandments — a mission. The giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai is not only one of the most important events in the history of Israel but also in the history of the world. There is no code of laws that has influenced the whole world as much as the Bible. The influence of that event that took place sometime around 1300–1200 B.C. is still powerfully changing people's lives and even international affairs of human existence.

But before Moses goes up the mountain, before the tablets of stone are carved, God says this:

This is the mission statement of the children of Israel, given at the foot of Mount Sinai. God says, I am giving you a mission. And your mission is to be a kingdom of priests, My choice possession, My treasure, in order to serve all the other nations. That is what priests do.

You Cannot Meet God Casually

Before Israel can receive the Law, there is a requirement. It is a great danger to think that you can have an encounter with, or fellowship with the Almighty God, the creator of the world, casually:

I think that it is wise to re-teach the disciples of Yeshua in Israel that worshiping God is a holy event every time. If we want to have an encounter with God or with the Holy Spirit for real, we need to learn the following basic etiquette. Get ready for such an encounter with God. Take time to consecrate yourselves. To consecrate means to prepare in both our dedication and our spiritual preparation. If you would go meet the president of Israel or the president of a major corporation in Israel you would dress appropriately and not come in flip-flops (kafkafim) and shorts and without a shirt. You dress this way to go to the beach in Tel-Aviv, but you don't dress this way to come and worship God. Dressing casual is okay, but there's a limit.

Rashi, the great 12th Century commentator of the whole Hebrew Bible and of the whole Mishnah and Talmud, said that the phrase "let them wash their clothes!" means to be "baptized" — immersed for spiritual reasons. Keep a distance, put a limit, a border, between what is mundane and common and daily affairs, and the holy space — the mountain of the Lord. We live in a world where "time" and "space" have been almost eliminated in the business culture. People have smart phones and computers and they can work from anywhere and dress any way they want. From this portion of the Torah we learn that God wants us to place limits of space and place and also a limit on time — there is a beginning and an end to the processes in which we participate.

God's Grace — and His Wrath

Christians stress only the grace and love of the Lord and neglect to mention the wrath and anger of God. But just as God loves his children and shows them his grace, in the same way, when we rebel and ignore and boldly break His commandments, His wrath and presence is also felt with clarity and without doubts. The word of God says that it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of THE LORD in disfavor.

At the same time, our task is to share our love and prayers, interceding and helping and offering physical and humanitarian help, even to our enemies and to those who seek to destroy us as a people and as a nation. Israel is the first country and the first neighboring country to immediately send specialists for rescue and recovery to earthquake-stricken areas — a hand for help was even offered to Syria and Jordan when needed. I can say without apologies that the state of Israel is acting by far more like Yeshua's teaching than any country in the world.

The New Covenant — Read to Verse 37

The giving of the Law at Mount Sinai brings us to Jeremiah chapter 31 when God promises to the children of Israel and to the tribe of Judah that He's going to give a new covenant. And remember when you read Jeremiah 31:31 and on, read to the verse 37, don't stop at verse 34 like most Christians do, because it's the same context, the same occasion, and Christian tradition has cut themselves short stopping at verse 34.

Remember also that the New Covenant was not given to this or that other Christian denomination. It was not given to the Church of Constantinople or the Church in Rome or the church of Elkhart, Indiana, or the church of Westminster, London. It was given to the House of Israel, and to the House of Judah — the same people that received the Law on Mount Sinai received the New Covenant.

The continuation that is missed by most Christians, chapter 31 of Jeremiah from verse 35 to 37, affirms that God is still the God of Israel and that He will never leave them, as long as the Sun appears by day, and the Moon and the stars by night. And what Paul the Apostle said in Ephesians chapter 2 is the key for our Gentile brothers — you who were once Gentiles dead in your trespasses, now through the blood of Yeshua Hamashiach, you who didn't have eternal hope, you didn't have a covenant, and you were outside of the Commonwealth of Israel, now through the sacrifice of Yeshua Hamashiach, all these things that you didn't have as pagans, now you have received — including being grafted in, added into that Commonwealth of Israel, the family of Israel, the community of Israel. You belong together with the nation of Israel as the people of God — Jews and Gentiles together under the blood of Yeshua, not replacing Israel, but joining Israel.