Ex. 24: God's Covenant Ceremony

With a vivid description of what the covenant was going to entail in Exodus 23, chapter 24 was the actual carrying out of the covenant ceremony.

God has Moses bring Aaron, Nadab, Abihu (Aaron's sons/Moses' nephews) and seventy elders up to Him. Everyone but Moses, who was summoned up the mountain, had to worship at a distance.

Moses wrote down and reported God's commands and conditions in His covenant with Israel. The Israelites in one voice said, "Everything the LORD has said, we will do."

Then Moses builds an altar and pillars for every one of the 12 tribes, and had young Israelite men offer burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD. I think young bulls are symbolic because they are young, in the prime of their life. Everything in life was ahead of them, and they were strong and virile, and had to give up a great deal, their life notwithstanding. Which I'm still not sure I can/will do. Ever. Fully. It's more than words, and thus far, I'm not satisfied personally with the lip service I've paid to God.

Anyway, half the blood is put into bowls for later, while the other half is sprinkled on the altar. Moses reads the covenant to the people...again. And they affirm it. Again, saying "We will obey."

Moses sprinkled the blood on the people, which is gross. And seemingly pagan, but it is God who has established using blood as a symbol...(sacrifices, circumcision, etc.). Blood was the seal at this point, that Israel was entering into a covenant with the LORD, according to His words.

So, the guys who we met earlier, Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders went up and...

"saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like sapphire, clear as the sky itself."

Amazing! They were able to look upon God, and God did not strike them down. Instead, they ate and drank with God! Can you just imagine that? Eating and drinking with God Himself. I wonder what the main course was...and the dessert...and the wine...which I personally have never developed a taste for, but it must have been pretty amazing. And what was that pavement? It was something like sapphire. And sapphire is pretty sweet (my birthstone).

What privelege to be able to look upon God. So significant is this, that the Bible records it, saying "God did not raise his hand against them."

Afterwards, God calls Moses up and gives him the tablets of stone, upon which were written God's commandments. The ten commandments? It doesn't say. I get the impression here it was all of the laws.

The Bible says in verse 16 that God was in a cloud on the mountain for six days. But to the Israelites, this cloud looked like a consuming fire. Maybe to be a warning to them not to approach the mountain? But to Moses it was the cloud, and Moses entered it, and stayed up there for forty days and forty nights. Sounds familiar...God's purification processes seem to last for forty days and forty nights.