Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am [Jehovah Mekoddishkem] the Lord, who makes you holy.

Exodus 31:12,13

Jehovah Mekoddishkem (mek-KAH-dish-KIM) is a long, tongue-twisty name for an incredibly important truth.

It is God who set us apart for His purposes and accomplishes sanctification in our life. Our job is to follow Him in trust and obedience.

The Sabbath observance between the Lord and Israel, was to be an enduring sign of God’s Sabbath rest after His creation of the world. It was also a witness to the idol-worshipping nations around them that Israel was a special people, called to a unique relationship. Through that relationship, God intended Israel to be His advertisement to the world. Through their obedience and the blessings that would follow, the pagans around them would learn about the True God and turn to Him.

From the beginning, however, Israel was a “stiff-necked people” (God’s words, not mine, Exodus 32:9) who were too easily drawn to the sins of their neighbors. They welcomed God’s blessings, but rejected His holiness. They practiced a prideful form of religion that had nothing to do with a relationship to God. In their rebellion, they also forgot that disobedience brings judgment.

The record of Israel’s lapses and rebellions against their God would fill a book. In fact, it has. But their story is our story, too. It reminds us that it is God who has done it all, first to last. Like Israel, we are chosen because of His sovereign plan, not through any merit of our own.

They say that Scripture is its own best commentary. The following passage wraps up the whole truth of Jehovah Mekoddishkem: who we were, who we are in Christ and who we are called to be before a watching world.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (I Peter 2:5-10).

Nancy Shirah