This is what it boils down to in our contemporary times as it was in the days of Moses the servant of the LORD. Who is on the LORD’s side Moses cried out in Exodus 32 verse 26. God is looking forward to it, and He is waiting for His people to leave the world’s side and return to Him.
In the Exodus account, all the people saw the hand of the LORD. They saw the signs and wonders that He wrought before Pharaoh could allow them to leave the land of bondage. They saw the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, which followed them. In God’s final move to set them free from the Egyptian hosts, they saw the parting of the Red Sea firsthand. The awe of God’s presence was with them and still fresh that nothing should have stood in the way of their positive response to the call of God’s servant Moses: “Whoever is on the LORD’s side, come to me”. Only the tribe of Levi did and they received the Levitical order of priesthood to minister in God’s presence.
God told Moses, His servant, His heart intended to make the whole nation of Israel a kingdom of priests and a holy nation unto Himself (Exodus 19: 6). This was in the Old Testament but the whole nation could not fulfil this. What do we have today as believers, God’s intent is unchanging. In 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9, we read: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light”. God is still looking for a people for His possession, who will be a royal priesthood and a holy nation. But this is not automatic. Even though God is the Creator of all things, man including, He wants people who will willingly return to Him, not coerced, to be His special possession. It is only those who are willing and obedient that will receive the mantle of the priesthood and a holy nation, Jesus Christ our Lord being the High Priest.
Our Lord Jesus obtained a more excellent ministry than Moses, more than the Levitical order of priesthood because of His obedience to the death on the cross. His High Priesthood was by word of oath, ” The Lord swore and will not repent, Thou art a Priest forever after the order of Melchisedec (Hebrews 7: 21). His Priesthood was after the power of an endless life, that He, Jesus Christ might be a surety of a better covenant seen that the old Levitical order has been annulled for the law made nothing perfect (Hebrews 7: 16) but the bringing in of a better hope did. Jesus Christ, the Author of the new covenant, ratified by His blood, is that hope. It is no more the law calling out, it is grace now calling out to man, to come. The grace of God that brings salvation truly has appeared to all men teaching us to shun all ungodliness and every worldly lust (Titus 2:11).
Why did the people who first heard the word: “whoever is on the LORD’s side, come to me” adamant? Because they were not ready to give up ungodliness and worldly lust. Self was the focus, not God. What was the warning for our contemporary times in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 2-4: ” For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”. Indeed it is perilous time when and where all these are in manifestation. “Come to Me and be ye saved” (Isaiah 45: 22) says the LORD to His people that is, those who hear and are obedient.
We have a more sure word of prophecy that we should believe, we unto whom the end of the world has come. The testimony of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of prophecy and God has spoken in these last days to us in His Son, Jesus Christ, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the world (Hebrews 1: 2). For those still living by the law, we read in verse 19 of Hebrews chapter 7: the law made nothing perfect. For those counting on good works to save them, it is notable that: “no man, no flesh may boast before the LORD ( 1 Corinthians 1: 29). It is only by grace we are saved through faith in Christ Jesus.
The call, who is on the LORD’s side, is to those who have known the LORD, it is a call for them to have a total break from the world and cleave unto the LORD. What fellowship has light with darkness, and a believer with an unbeliever? If we are not distinct from the world, how shall we make a difference and bring them to the knowledge of Christ and disciple them? Our most reasonable service is obedience to God. The church had played enough of her whoredom with the world, it is time to step out and away from the world and show our peculiar-ness. We are heirs of a superior kingdom that should be setting standards for the world. The world should be convicted of sin, of righteousness, and judgment by the Holy Spirit through the Church. But what do we have? The world is seeing the church do our things, and execute our programs devoid of power; we have not made God known in the power and demonstration of the Spirit. Our Lord Jesus prayed in John 17 verse 3: “For this is life eternal, that they may know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent”. The people of God have to return to God, be separated from the world and they will be sent to every kindreds and tongues in the power of the Spirit to make the true God known. As it is written in Romans 10: 14-15: “How then shall they call on Him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear apart from preaching? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Who is on the LORD’s side is a call to identification and distinction. Though they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea, they all ate the same spiritual food, and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ (1Corinthians 10: 1-5), yet there was still the call. A call to identification and for those who identified with the LORD, there’s a distinction. Firstly, they have to leave, forsake the world, and make the LORD their portion. Secondly, the LORD Himself will make them a distinction, the LORD will make them His jewel, that is a royal priesthood, a holy nation unto Himself. The call is an open call, but a man will have to prove Himself before the LORD. “So if anyone cleanses himself of what is unfit, he will be a vessel for honor: sanctified, useful to the Master, and prepared for every good work” (2 Timothy 2: 21).
The LORD will not send His people in disarray, the Church is presently in disarray, we must be separated and return to God, and then He will breathe afresh upon us to become end-time Joel’s army where we march as one in unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ our Lord (Ephesians 4: 13). The final hour activities will not be for the faint-hearted like in the Gideon’s army or for those with casual interests. It is an honor to be in the service of the King of all kings but first, He wants to know those who are His by their obedience to the covenant.
They shall be Mine,” says the LORD of hosts, “On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him” (Malachi 3: 17). The church, the people of God are in a sobering time, a time of decision, the final hour that determines eternal destiny, not by God but by each man and his obedience.
If we are on the LORD’s side, let it be known by all that we are the LORD’s.
