Exodus 24:The Covenant Sealed
1Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD—you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders—and you are to worship at a distance. Moses alone shall approach the LORD, but the others must not come near. And the people may not go up with him.” When Moses came and told the people all the words and ordinances of the LORD, they all responded with one voice: “All the words that the LORD has spoken, we will do.” And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD.
Early the next morning he got up and built an altar at the base of the mountain, along with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent out some young men of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the LORD. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people, who replied, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”
So Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was a work like a pavement made of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. But God did not lay His hand on the nobles of Israel; they saw Him, and they ate and drank.”
God issues an incredible invitation: Moses and Aaron and his two sons and seventy of Israel’s elders are all to come up on Mount Sinai. In preparation for this, Moses goes over the instructions that God has already given him. The Israelites respond with a phrase that actually means ‘we will do and we will understand.” It’s one thing to do things out of fear of punishment by the law, but it is an entirely different thing to act and really understand why you are called to a particular action.
We only understand something after we have experienced it. We live and work in northeastern Ghana, where the temperature in the hot season can reach more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit at noon. But in the winter in the parts of America we originally come from, lakes freeze and ice and snow are a given. How can we explain to our friends who have only known extreme heat what it feels like to work in sub – zero weather? Only someone else who has gone through that experience can truly understand it.
Moses goes over the commandments that God has already given the Israelites and then makes blood sacrifices on behalf of each tribe of Israel. At the time of Moses, serious covenants demand blood as an evidence of the commitment of both parties. Blood symbolizes life. Moses sprinkles some of the sacrifical blood on the people to indicate that they are an integral part of this covenant, and that they are pledging their lives to keep these commandments.
Moses, Aaron, his sons, and the elders ascend the mountain and have a vision of God. Were God to have shown Himself in all His glory, these men would have been vaporized instantly. So God gives these men a vision that shows enough of Himself to be worshiped, but not enough to kill them. Aaron, his sons, and the elders rejoin the people while Moses goes on up the mountain.
APPLICATION: This story is bittersweet. Carried away by the Holy Spirit, Aaron and the others would probably do anything for God right after they return to the people. Unfortunately, as Moses delays on the mountain, the people become restless and pressure Aaron. Aaron is a smooth talker but his moral fiber is weak. Soon Aaron is collecting jewelry to mold an idol, an act that leads to an orgy. And in Leviticus 10 we learn that Nadab and Abihu get drunk and offer “strange fire” in their censors to the Lord, a violation of God’s holiness that causes God to strike them dead.
Mountaintop experiences are wonderful, but they are not meant to last. We must follow God once we come down off the mountain, and that’s a lot tougher. God wants us to become people of faith and faith does not demand visions and dramatic experiences to function.
PRAYER: SPIRIT OF GOD, DESCEND UPON MY HEART – George Croly
Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;
Wean it from earth; through all its pulses move.
Stoop to my weakness, mighty as Thou art,
And make me love Thee as I ought to love.
Hast Thou not bid me love Thee, God and King?
All, all Thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind.
I see Thy cross; there teach my heart to cling:
Oh, let me seek Thee, and, oh, let me find!
Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;
Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;
Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.
Teach me to love Thee as Thine angels love,
One holy passion filling all my frame;
The kindling of the heav’n-descended Dove,
My heart an altar, and Thy love the flame.
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