Hundreds of years have now passed since God established the covenant of grace with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, giving them the land of Canaan and the promise of descendants as numerous as the stars. Since that time, the Israelites had become slaves in Egypt, and God had miraculously delivered them through the Red Sea.

After traveling many miles deep into the Sinai desert, God finally brought his people to a craggy mountain in the middle of the wilderness. Having rescued his people from slavery, God will now renew the covenant made with their ancestors. "I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant . . . you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:4b-6a).

In this covenant renewal at Sinai there is a new emphasis---the holy God now comes to dwell with his people. Notice how many aspects of the story point to the holiness of God. God comes down upon the awesome craggy peaks of Mount Sinai where thunder rolls and lightning crackles. The people must not even touch the mountain on pain of death. Only Moses can go up on the mountain to meet with God, and when God speaks it is too much for the people to bear---they ask Moses to speak for him.

So, in this great covenant renewal, Israel experiences both the love of God, who has rescued them and brought them to himself, and the holiness of God that demands their reverence and obedience.

Another new element in this covenant renewal is that God makes clear the obligations of his covenant partner, the people of Israel. It's the nature of covenants that both parties have obligations, and here they are spelled out. God's "obligation" remains the same---that Israel will be God's chosen people and that through them he will bless the world. Israel's obligation comes in the form of the law, the Ten Commandments that are to guide their life as God's people.

It's important to recognize that the Ten Commandments are more than mere laws requiring obedience. Notice how they begin: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery." Everything that follows rests on that statement. In other words, God first tells the people who they are and whose they are before he tells them what they ought to do. In God's covenant, behavior flows out of identity, law flows out of gospel, how we should live flows out of who we are. That covenant order is very important: it means that God loves us, and we therefore live by his law---not that if we live by God's law he will love us. There's a huge difference between the two.

Of course, Israel was never able to live up to its covenant responsibilities. But God kept his. In the new covenant in Jesus Christ our sins are forgiven, and the gift of the Holy Spirit inspires us to new obedience. Peter tells the people of the new covenant, "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light" (1 Peter 2:9).