Exodus 19:5

King James Version (KJV)

Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:

Albert Barnes
Notes on the Whole Bible

A peculiar treasure - A costly possession acquired with exertion, and carefully guarded. The special relation in which Israel stands, taken out of the pagan world and consecrated to God, as His slaves, subjects, and children, determines their privileges, and is the foundation of their duties. The same principle applies even in a stronger sense to the Church. See Acts 20:28; 1 Corinthians 6:20; 1 Peter 2:9.

All the earth is mine - It was a point of great practical importance, to impress upon the Jews that their God was no mere national Deity. Compare Deuteronomy 10:14; Psalm 24:1.

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Matthew Henry
Concise Bible Commentary

Moses was called up the mountain, and was employed as the messenger of this covenant. The Maker and first Mover of the covenant, is God himself. This blessed charter was granted out of God's own free grace. The covenant here mentioned was the national covenant, by which the Israelites were a people under the government of Jehovah. It was a type of the new covenant made with true believers in Christ Jesus; but, like other types, it was only a shadow of good things to come. As a nation they broke this covenant; therefore the Lord declared that he would make a new covenant with Israel, writing his law, not upon tables of stone, but in their hearts, Jer 31:33; Heb 8:7-10. The covenant spoken of in these places as ready to vanish away, is the national covenant with Israel, which they forfeited by their sins. Unless we carefully attend to this, we shall fall into mistakes while reading the Old Testament. We must not suppose that the nation of the Jews were under the covenant of works, which knows nothing of repentance, faith in a Mediator, forgiveness of sins, or grace; nor yet that the whole nation of Israel bore the character, and possessed the privileges of true believers, as being actually sharers in the covenant of grace. They were all under a dispensation of mercy; they had outward privileges and advantages for salvation; but, like professing Christians, most rested therein, and went no further. Israel consented to the conditions. They answered as one man, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. Oh that there had been such a heart in them! Moses, as a mediator, returned the words of the people to God. Thus Christ, the Mediator, as a Prophet, reveals God's will to us, his precepts and promises; and then, as a Priest, offers up to God our spiritual sacrifices, not only of prayer and praise, but of devout affections, and pious resolutions, the work of his own Spirit in us.

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SDA Bible Commentary (limited)
Volume 1-7

5. If ye will obey. Rather than command the Hebrews to keep His covenant, as was His sovereign right, God graciously invited His people to do that which would be for their own benefit. The only avenue upon which we can walk with God is that of obedience. On no other terms but obedience could God consent to be their God or to have them for His chosen people. The grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ that brings salvation to all men (Titus 2:11) does not release them from their obligation to obey the divine law (Rom. 3:31). Faith in the redeeming Christ is inseparably joined to the power of the indwelling Christ, which enables one to keep the Ten Commandments (Rom. 8:1-4). Jesus and the apostles most emphatically affirmed the principle of obedience to divine law (Matt. 5:17, 18; 19:16, 17; 1 Cor. 7:19; James 1:25; 2:10-12; 1 John 2:3, 4).

My covenant. The covenant God made with Israel at Sinai is generally called the “old covenant” (Heb. 8:13). Owing to the failure of the people to appreciate fully the purpose of God and to enter into the true spirit of the covenant, it stood forth in contrast to the new, or gospel, covenant as follows: (1) It was more elementary (Gal. 4:1-5). (2) It was more closely related to outward rites and ceremonies (Heb. 9:1). (3) Its motives were largely penalties and rewards, for, as “children,” these were the only incentives Israel was yet prepared to understand (Gal. 4:3; PP 371). (4) Its blessings were largely temporal. (5) It trusted in human accomplishment and good works rather than in divine grace and a Saviour from sin (see on Ex. 19:8). The signal blessing of the new covenant is that through faith in Christ, power is imparted to the believer to fulfill “the righteousness of the law” (Rom. 8:1-4; cf. Acts 13:37-39).

God permitted Israel to attempt to keep the law, so they might become aware of their inability to do what they mistakenly felt able to do. They would thus be led from trust in self to trust in God, from confidence in their own endeavors to faith in divine accomplishment. Thus, the law would become the means of leading them to Christ as their only Saviour from sin (Gal. 3:23-26). Thus, the way was prepared for the new covenant relationship, the gospel of divine grace, the law kept in and through Christ (Jer. 31:31-34; Rom. 3:21-31; 8:1-4; Heb. 8:7-11). As Paul declares, this new covenant relationship does not “make void the law through faith” (Rom. 3:31). The law remains the standard of duty, the norm of holy practice. The new covenant establishes the law as the eternal code of righteousness, without which there can be no holy conduct.

A peculiar treasure. Rather, “my own possession” (RSV; see also Ps. 135:4; Isa. 43:1-4). In the sight of God no other nation was equal to Israel. Every child of God, every consecrated Christian, is a jewel in the crown of our Lord, and is so considered by Him (Mal. 3:17; see on 1 Peter 2:9).

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Ellen G. White
Fundamentals of Christian Education, 505-6

Abraham's seed multiplied, and at length Jacob and his sons and their families went down into Egypt. Here they and their descendants sojourned for many years, till at last the Lord called them out, to lead them into the land of Canaan. It was His purpose to make of this nation of slaves a people who would reveal His character to the idolatrous nations of the world. Had they been obedient to His word, they would soon have entered the promised land. But they were disobedient and rebellious, and for forty years they journeyed in the wilderness. Only two of the adults who left Egypt entered Canaan. FE 505.1

It was during the wilderness wandering of the Israelites that God gave them His law. He led them to Sinai, and there, amid scenes of awful grandeur, proclaimed the ten commandments. FE 505.2

We may with profit study the record of the preparation made by the congregation of Israel for the hearing of the law. “In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness: and there Israel camped before the mount. And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all the earth is Mine.” FE 505.3

Who, then, is to be regarded as the Ruler of the nations?—The Lord God Omnipotent. All kings, all rulers, all nations, are His under His rule and government. FE 505.4

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Ellen G. White
Christ's Object Lessons, 276

In the son who said, “I go, sir,” and went not, the character of the Pharisees was revealed. Like this son, the Jewish leaders were impenitent and self-sufficient. The religious life of the Jewish nation had become a pretense. When the law was proclaimed on Mount Sinai by the voice of God, all the people pledged themselves to obey. They said, “I go, sir,” but they went not. When Christ came in person to set before them the principles of the law, they rejected Him. Christ had given the Jewish leaders of His day abundant evidence of His authority and divine power, but although they were convinced, they would not accept the evidence. Christ had shown them that they continued to disbelieve because they had not the spirit which leads to obedience. He had declared to them, “Ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.... In vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Matthew 15:6, 9. COL 276.1

In the company before Christ there were scribes and Pharisees, priests and rulers, and after giving the parable of the two sons, Christ addressed to His hearers the question, “Whether of them twain did the will of his father?” Forgetting themselves, the Pharisees answered, “The first.” This they said without realizing that they were pronouncing sentence against themselves. Then there fell from Christ's lips the denunciation, “Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not; but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.” COL 276.2

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Ellen G. White
SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 1 (EGW), 1103

Amalek had made derision of the fears of his people, and made sport of God's wonderful works for the deliverance of Israel performed by the hand of Moses before the Egyptians. They had boasted that their wise men and magicians could perform all those wonders. And if the children of Israel had been their captives, in their power as they were in Pharaoh's, that the God of Israel Himself would not have been able to deliver them out of their hands. They despised Israel, and vowed to plague them until there should not be one left (Spiritual Gifts 4a:72, 73). 1BC 1103.1

God did not wish His people to possess anything which belonged to the Amalekites, for His curse rested upon them and their possessions. He designed that they should have an end, and that His people should not preserve anything for themselves which He had cursed. He also wished the nations to see the end of that people who had defied Him, and to mark that they were destroyed by the very people they had despised. They were not to destroy them to add to their own possessions, or to get glory to themselves, but to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken in regard to Amalek (Spiritual Gifts 4a:75). 1BC 1103.2

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Ellen G. White
Lift Him Up, 139.2

In this scripture the observance of the Sabbath is specified as a special, distinguishing sign between God's people and the people of the world. This gives to parents a most solemn work—the work of teaching their children to obey the Sabbath commandment, in order that they may be numbered among the people of God. LHU 139.2

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Ellen G. White
Confrontation, 25.2

God appointed Moses to lead out His people from their bondage in the land of Egypt, that they might consecrate themselves to serve Him with perfect hearts and be to Him a peculiar treasure. Moses was their visible leader, while Christ stood at the head of the armies of Israel, their invisible Leader. If they could have always realized this they would not have rebelled and provoked God in the wilderness by their unreasonable murmurings. God said to Moses, “Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.” Con 25.2

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