A kingdom of priests
Jacob brought all his twelve sons to Egypt because of a great famine. God had already arranged for his son Joseph to arrive beforehand and to be next to the king of Egypt in authority. The descendants of Jacob, the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them (Exodus 1:7). The new king, who did not know Joseph, was frightened by the growth of the Israelites. Therefore he made them slaves and oppressed them with forced labour. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread. This oppression continued for a long period and the Israelites cried out to God:
The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. (Exodus 2:23-25)
As the time drew near for God to fulfil his promise to Abraham, Moses was born. For three months he was cared for in his father's house. When he was placed outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defence and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, `Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?' "But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, `Who made you ruler and judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons. After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to look more closely, he heard the Lord's voice: `I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.' Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look (Acts 7:20-32), but the Lord spoke to him and commissioned him to go to the Israelites and bring them out of Egypt:
"Therefore, say to the Israelites: `I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.'" (Exodus 6:6-8)
To make a long story short, Moses managed to bring the entire people of Israel out of the slavery of Egypt and eventually to possess the promised land. At the Mount Sinai God made a covenant with the people of Israel. At Mount Sinai Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said:
"This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: `You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites." (Exodus 19:3-6)
So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and eventually set before all the people all the words the LORD had commanded him to speak. The people all responded together, "We will do everything the LORD has said." So Moses brought their answer back to the LORD. Then God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and the Book of the Covenant which expounded the ten initial commandments (Exodus 24:3-8).
By establishing this covenant with the people of Israel God is making them a kingdom of priest to prophetically foreshadow the coming Kingdom of God. Their call was to live according to the will of God, expressed through the Law of God, thus being a people ruled by God and displaying the righteousness and peace of God to all the surrounding nations. As a sample of the Kingdom of God the nation of Israel was to draw all nations to submit to the rule of God through be a blessing to all the families of the earth.
God identified three things that would characterise the nation of Israel as a sample of the Kingdom of God: Wisdom, the presence of God, the judicial system. Through these three characteristics of the covenant community of the Kingdom of God, the nation of Israel was to influence the world and bring the blessing of God to all the other nations:
See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today? (Deuteronomy 4:5-8)