Consecrate Me

 As I have been preparing my heart for Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Lenten season, God has been showing me wonders in His Word. This morning I read in Exodus 19, where the Israelites camp by Mt. Sinai and Moses goes up the mountain to meet with the LORD. One thing that really stood out to me upon reading this passage is the theme of consecration. The mountain was consecrated because God dwelt there. A dictionary definition of consecrate is “make or declare sacred; dedicate formally to a religious or divine purpose.” To be consecrated is to be set apart. God is holy; in this way God is unlike us. For that reason, His dwelling place on Mt. Sinai was consecrated and could not be accessed (or even touched) by just anyone. Only Moses and Aaron were allowed to go up to the mountain on certain occasions.

But despite God’s otherness, He desires relationship. Therefore the LORD makes promises to the Israelites through the prophetic and priestly ministry of Moses. He declares to Moses that if the Israelites “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” (Exo 19:5-6a). Then God demands that the Israelites consecrate themselves, for on the third day He will be coming to them in a cloud of smoke. In preparation for drawing nearer to God who is holy, the people are to “wash their clothes” (Exo. 19:10b) and “abstain from sexual relations” (Exo. 19:15b). 

To say the least, consecration is not something that comes natural to us. In our sinful nature, we are unable to make ourselves holy. Although God desires for us to be set apart for Him, although God desires for us to be a holy priesthood that can communicate with Him directly, we are powerless to be this on our own because our sin separates us from God. Like the Pharisees who “clean the outside of the cup and plate” (Matt. 23:25), we can wash our clothes but we cannot wash our hearts. We may be able to abstain from external pleasures but we cannot change the internal wrongly ordered desires that drive us to these pleasures; inside our hearts “we are full of greed and self-indulgence” (Matt. 23:25b). We want to approach the Mount where God dwells, but our dead, rotting hearts would not be able to survive the flames of His living, holy presence. 

But thank God that this is not the end of the story. For where the Law was unable to save us, consecrate us, and draw us back to relationship with God, Christ is able to do all of these things and more. Jesus Christ lived a life that was perfectly consecrated for the LORD. He spent all thirty-two years of His earthly ministry in perfect relationship with the Father, who declared that “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). Jesus did not need a go-between to talk to the Father for Him, because He was without sin.

But on the Cross, Jesus was separated. No longer consecrated in a positive sense, not set apart and near to the Holy One, but set apart from the Holy One in order to draw near to the world. He took on our sin, our brokenness, and our separateness in order to impart upon us His perfectness, his wholeness, and his oneness with the Father. He separated Himself in order to consecrate us.

Now, in Christ, Exodus 15:5-6 becomes true. Not through our own obedience do we have direct access to the Mount of God, but only through the obedience of Christ. Not by our own merit are we made a treasured possession, but only by receiving the treasure who is Christ. Not even by our own choice do we receive any of this, but only through God’s reaching down and choosing us for Himself. 1 Peter 2:9-10 makes this truth very clear, stating that “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, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

I keep thinking that for Lent I somehow need to “consecrate myself” but what does that mean, really? I am realizing more and more that it’s all on Him. He does the consecrating; I am powerless to consecrate myself. That is both freeing and terrifying at the same time: freeing because I do not have to worry about putting myself together. Terrifying because, if God is in charge of putting me together, I know it’s going to be big and probably uncomfortable. It’s going to entail submission to another. At times it’s going to require making painful changes. It’s going to feel like a cloud of dark smoke blowing in my face, reminding me that “for dust you are and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19b). 

LORD, consecrate us a afresh this Lent. Reveal to us our powerlessness to change ourselves. As a chosen race and a royal priesthood, enable us to approach Your throne of grace confidently, confessing our sins and asking for your forgiveness in Christ. Grant us a new awareness of our failures and free us from sin’s power.  Make us wholly Yours, and Holy Yours. We ask all of this in the Name of the One who was set apart yet chose to be set aside. Amen.