The Covenant Is Sealed

An invitation. God said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar” (24:1). Nadab and Abihu were Aaron's sons. Only Moses comes near. “And Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come near; nor shall the people go up with him” (24:2). God is holy, and only the one He chose could come close. Telling everything. “So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments” (24:3). The judgments were God's laws for daily life, given in chapters 21 to 23. One voice. “And all the people answered with one voice and said, ‘All the words which the Lord has said we will do’” (24:3). Every person agreed. A covenant. A covenant is a binding promise between two sides. God had already promised to be their God and to make them His special treasure (19:5-6). Now the people promised to obey Him. Not the first time. They had said almost the same words before God spoke from the mountain (19:8). They meant it both times. What we learn. God invites people into a relationship with Him, and He wants us to listen to all His words and answer with our whole hearts.

Covenant. The Hebrew word is berit (say: beh-REET), a binding relationship sealed by promises. In the ancient world, a great king might make a covenant with a people. First he told them what he had done for them, and then he told them what he required. God did the same at Sinai. He reminded Israel how He had rescued them (19:4), He gave them His words (20-23), and then the people made their pledge (24:3, 7). Levels of nearness (24:1-2). The people stay below, the leaders worship “from afar,” and Moses alone comes near. The same layered pattern will shape the tabernacle, with its courtyard, holy place and Most Holy Place. Access to God is real but carefully ordered. The words and the judgments (24:3). “Words” likely points to the Ten Commandments (20:1), and “judgments” to the case laws of 21:1-23:19. The people hear everything before they agree. God does not ask for a blind signature. A sincere pledge. “All the words which the Lord has said we will do.” Every voice agreed, and they meant it. But meaning a promise is not the same as having the strength to keep it. Within weeks, while Moses was still on the mountain, the people broke the first two commandments (32:1-6). A pattern repeated. Israel renews this pledge more than once. Near the end of Joshua's life they say, “The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey!” (Joshua 24:24). Each renewal is real, and each one shows the need for a better covenant.

God had given His people the Ten Commandments. He also gave them other good laws. God told Moses to come up the mountain. Aaron could come, and seventy leaders too. But they had to worship from a distance. Only Moses could come near to God. First Moses went to the people. He told them all of God's words and laws. Then they all answered with one voice. “We will do all the things that the Lord has said.” This was the start of a covenant. A covenant is a very serious promise. God promised to be their God. The people promised to obey Him.

Moses told the people God's words. They all said they would obey. That was a promise to God. God made a promise to them too.

Written down. “And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord” (24:4). God's words were not left to memory. They were written so the people could read them again and again. Altar and pillars. Moses “built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel” (24:4). Every tribe was included. Offerings. Young men “offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord” (24:5). Peace offerings were shared meals that celebrated friendship with God. Two halves. “Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar” (24:6). The altar stood for God's side. The book read aloud. “Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, ‘All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient’” (24:7). Sprinkled on the people. “And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words’” (24:8). Why blood? Blood stood for life given up. It showed that the covenant was a matter of life and death, and that sin is serious. What we learn. God's covenant was sealed with blood, and those same words, “the blood of the covenant,” point straight to Jesus.

Writing the covenant (24:4). Moses records “all the words of the Lord.” A written covenant can be read, taught and checked. Scripture begins to take shape as a book God's people live by. Altar and twelve pillars. The altar represents God's presence; the twelve standing stones represent the tribes. The whole nation stands before the Lord. Burnt and peace offerings (24:5). The burnt offering was wholly consumed, picturing full surrender. The peace offering (shelamim, say: sheh-lah-MEEM) was partly eaten, a meal of fellowship. Both prepare for the meal on the mountain in 24:11. The Book of the Covenant (24:7). Moses read this book aloud before the people made their second pledge. It most likely held the laws God had just given in 20:22-23:33, and those chapters are often called the Book of the Covenant for that reason. The people heard God's words first, and then they answered. Blood on both sides (24:6, 8). Half the blood goes on the altar, half on the people. One covenant now binds two parties. Blood marks the covenant as a matter of life and death: to break it is to deserve death. Hebrews 9 and Exodus 24. Hebrews 9:19-22 tells about this same day. It tells us Moses also used water, scarlet wool and hyssop, and that he sprinkled the book itself. Then it gives the lesson of the blood: “without shedding of blood there is no remission.” At the Last Supper Jesus used Moses' own words, “This is My blood of the new covenant” (Matthew 26:28).

Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Early the next morning, Moses got up. He built an altar near the bottom of the mountain. He set up twelve stones around it. There was one stone for each tribe of Israel. Young men gave offerings to the Lord. Moses put half of the blood in bowls. He sprinkled the other half on the altar. Then he read God's book out loud. The people said, “We will do everything that the Lord has said. We will obey.” Then Moses sprinkled the blood on the people. The blood showed that sin costs a life. It joined God and His people together.

Moses built an altar. He sprinkled blood on the people. It showed the promise was serious. Sin costs a life.

Going up. “Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel” (24:9). They obeyed God's invitation from 24:1. They saw God. “And they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity” (24:10). A glimpse of glory. The leaders saw a shining floor under God's feet, but they did not see all of God. Later the Bible says, “No one has seen God at any time” (John 1:18). God gave them a real but small glimpse of His glory. Kept safe. “But on the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand” (24:11). Sinful people stood near the holy God and were not destroyed. The blood of the covenant had made the way. A meal. “So they saw God, and they ate and drank” (24:11). Eating together was a sign of peace and friendship. The Lord's Supper. Jesus also shared a covenant meal with His disciples. He said, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood” (1 Corinthians 11:25). What we learn. God does not only give rules. He invites His people to know Him and to share a meal of friendship with Him.

The vision (24:10). The elders saw the God of Israel, and what they could describe was the pavement under His feet, “as it were” sapphire, “like the very heavens in its clarity.” God's glory was greater than words could hold. Ezekiel later saw God's throne with the same sapphire beauty (Ezekiel 1:26). Seeing and not seeing. John 1:18 says, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son… has declared Him.” Exodus 33:20 will add that no one can see God's face and live. The elders saw a true but limited display of God's glory, not God's full being. Jesus is the one who makes the Father fully known. Spared (24:11). “He did not lay His hand” on them. In Exodus, God's hand often means judgment (9:3). Here the covenant blood shields sinful leaders in His presence. The covenant meal. “They ate and drank.” In the ancient world, a shared meal sealed a treaty and declared peace. The peace offerings of 24:5 likely supplied this meal. From Sinai to the upper room. Jesus' words at the Last Supper bring us back to this day on the mountain: covenant, blood and a meal. Revelation looks ahead to a final meal: “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!” (Revelation 19:9). But Nadab and Abihu, who ate this meal, later died for offering fire God had not commanded (Leviticus 10:1-2). Being close to God does not replace obeying Him.

Then Moses went up the mountain. Aaron and his two sons went too. Seventy leaders of Israel went with them. There they saw the God of Israel! They saw something like a floor under His feet. It looked like it was made of blue sapphire stones. It was as clear and bright as the sky. But God did not destroy them. The blood of the offerings had covered them. So they ate and drank together. God wanted to be close to His people. One day Jesus would eat a special meal with His friends. He would say the cup was His blood of the covenant.

The leaders saw God's glory. It was blue and bright. God did not hurt them. They ate a meal together.

Come up and be there. “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them” (24:12). Joshua goes too. “So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God” (24:13). Joshua was learning to lead. Leaders left behind. Moses told the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Indeed, Aaron and Hur are with you. If any man has a difficulty, let him go to them” (24:14). The cloud. “Then Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain” (24:15). God's glory. “Now the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud” (24:16). Moses waited until God called. Like fire. “The sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel” (24:17). Forty days. “So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights” (24:18). What we learn. God's glory is beautiful and powerful. He called Moses close so He could teach His people how to live with Him.

Tablets written by God (24:12). God describes the tablets as “the law and commandments which I have written.” Their purpose is teaching: “that you may teach them.” The covenant is meant to be passed on. Leadership in Moses' absence (24:13-14). Joshua, Moses' assistant (the Hebrew meshareth, say: meh-shah-RATE, a personal attendant), goes partway up. Aaron and Hur are left to settle disputes, just as Jethro had advised (18:22). Their test is coming in chapter 32. Glory (24:16). The Hebrew kavod (say: kah-VODE) has the sense of weight or heaviness. God's glory is the visible “weight” of His presence. It “rested” (shakan, say: shah-KAHN) on Sinai, the verb that gives us the word for God's dwelling. The same glory will later fill the tabernacle (40:34). Consuming fire (24:17). From below, the glory looked like a devouring fire. Hebrews 12:29 says, “For our God is a consuming fire.” His holiness is not tame. Into the cloud (24:18). Moses enters the cloud and stays forty days and forty nights. Chapters 25-31 record the instructions he receives there for the tabernacle, the place where God will live among His people. Meanwhile, below the mountain, the people's promise is about to be tested.

God said, “Come up the mountain to me. Wait there.” God would give Moses two stone tablets. God Himself had written the commandments on them. Moses took his helper Joshua. He told the leaders to wait for them. He said, “Aaron and Hur are with you.” Then a cloud covered the mountain. God's glory came down on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud stayed there. On the seventh day God called Moses. To the people, God's glory looked like a fire. Moses walked right into the cloud. He stayed with God forty days and forty nights.

God called Moses into the cloud. God's glory looked like fire. Moses stayed forty days. God gave him good words.

The Covenant Is Sealed

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