Passage: Exodus 24

The Big Idea

At Sinai, the covenant was sealed with blood: Moses sprinkled it on the altar and the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant.” Then something astonishing happened: Israel’s leaders saw the God of Israel, and they ate and drank in His presence. Jesus took the cup at His last supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood.” The blood of Jesus brings us near, not to work for God, but to enjoy fellowship with Him. He’s eager to sit down at the table with you.

Dinner with Anyone

Have you ever been excited to go to dinner with someone? If you could have dinner with any one person (besides your spouse!), who would it be?

Worship from a Distance (Exodus 24:1-2)

God told Moses, “Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders. You are to worship at a distance, but Moses alone is to approach the LORD. The others must not come near, and the people may not come up with him.”

After three chapters of laws, the Holy Spirit wants us to see clearly that we can’t draw near to God on the basis of our performance. We’ll never measure up.
Performance-based religion will never work.
However hard we try, we’ll never be holy enough for God that way. “Worship at a distance. You can’t come to dinner.”
It didn’t matter who you were: Aaron the future high priest, his sons, or one of the seventy elders. Big shots in standing or ability had no right to approach God on the basis of law-keeping.
But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:13).
Christ is the end of the law as a way of righteousness for everyone who believes (Romans 10:4).

Why could Moses go up? Not because he was better or perfect. In this scene he’s a picture of Jesus, the true Mediator, who can approach God because He is holy.

“We Will Do It” (Exodus 24:3)

Moses came and told the people all the Lord’s words and rules, and they answered with one voice, “Everything the LORD has said, we will do.“

The people were invited into a covenant based on works, and they promised to keep every part of it.
Do our promises mean anything?
Not much. It’s never about our promises: “I’ll do better. I’ll do more. I won’t do that again.”
We always go back, because we can’t keep our promises.
We aren’t promise keepers. We’re promise believers.

The Blood of the Covenant (Exodus 24:4-8)

Moses wrote down everything the Lord had said. Early the next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars for the twelve tribes. He sent young men to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice young bulls as peace offerings. Moses put half the blood in bowls and sprinkled the other half on the altar.

Moses built an altar for the people.
Animals were sacrificed. Blood was shed.
The blood was the seal of the covenant, like signing a contract in blood.

He took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people, and they said, “We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey.”

They agreed to the terms: “We’ll keep the Ten Commandments and run our nation God’s way, and He’ll bless us.”
All of this foreshadows realities we receive in Jesus.

Then 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.”

Wait. “This is the blood of the covenant”?

At the Last Supper, Jesus took the cup after the meal and said, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20).

One foreshadows; the other fulfills.
Both were ratified with blood. The price of each covenant was blood.

But how could the blood of bulls actually do anything? Think of the paper money in your pocket. By itself it’s just paper, but it represents something of real value. The blood at Sinai pointed to something of infinite value: the blood of the Lamb of God (Hebrews 9:18-24).

They Saw God (Exodus 24:9-10)

This next scene is like the Old Testament’s mount of transfiguration. The leaders saw God’s glory.

Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and the seventy elders went up and saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself.

These men were invited to see God!
They saw His floor, and it was stunning. Now that’s a tile job: a pavement of sapphire.
What had they been used to in Egypt? Bricks. Making bricks for Pharaoh.
Now their God sat above a floor of jewels more beautiful than anything they’d seen. He had no need of their bricks. Their works had no place in His kingdom. He was perfectly complete without them.
Yet He invited them into deeper fellowship through covenant: promise, love and relationship. Not slavery.

How many Christians believe God mainly wants them as workers? “What have you done for God today?”

Serving God often gets elevated above knowing and enjoying Him. It shouldn’t.
Our serving must flow out of relationship, not be an attempt to earn or improve our standing with Him.

They Ate and Drank (Exodus 24:11)

“But God did not raise His hand against these leaders of Israel. They saw God, and they ate and drank.“

Read too quickly and you’ll miss it, but this may be one of the most precious verses in the books of Moses.

It shows the incalculable value of the blood.
See the privilege it secured: they saw God, and ate and drank in His presence. Real fellowship with God.
Eating and drinking always speak of fellowship: connection, acceptance, joy.

Jesus seemed to think this was one of the best parts of redemption. At the Last Supper He said, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15).

He’s excited about you!
Have you ever been excited about dinner with someone, heart fluttering a little? That’s how He feels about sharing His table with you.

And after the resurrection, Peter told Cornelius that God raised Jesus on the third day and caused Him to be seen, not by everyone, but by witnesses God had chosen: “us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead” (Acts 10:39-41).

Jesus fulfills everything these chapters foreshadow.
He loves you and wants to share a meal with you: to enjoy each other, to laugh, to be together.
In heaven, there will be the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9), the complete fulfillment of fellowship with Him.

What about now?

We taste that heavenly food and drink now as we believe His words.

Jesus said that unless we eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, we have no life in us. Whoever eats His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life, for His flesh is true food and His blood is true drink, and whoever eats and drinks abides in Him, and He in them (John 6:53-56).

Our calling is to abide in Jesus.
That’s our one “work”: taking in, believing and trusting His word and His work (John 6:29).
“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst” (John 6:35).

Into the Cloud (Exodus 24:12-18)

The Lord told Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and commands I’ve written for their instruction.” Moses set out with Joshua his assistant and went up the mountain of God. He told the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you; anyone with a dispute can go to them.”

When Moses went up, the cloud covered the mountain, and the glory of the Lord settled on Sinai. For six days the cloud covered it, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. To the Israelites, the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on the mountaintop. Moses entered the cloud and stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

“Wait here until we come back.” Moses went up into the glory and left the people waiting below.
It’s a picture of Jesus ascending into heaven after finishing His work, telling His people to wait for His return (Acts 1:9-11).

And here’s a preview: what would Moses receive in those forty days? The plans for the tabernacle.

The tabernacle shows us everything Jesus does for His people. It explains in depth the ministry of our great High Priest.
Isn’t it amazing that Jesus has been doing everything the tabernacle foreshadows for His church for two thousand years?
We’re blessed to study the tabernacle, because we get to experience the reality behind those shadows every day in our relationship with Jesus.

The Better Covenant

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

We get the real thing. They saw through a cloud.
We get transformed. They had to perform.
When Israel broke that covenant, the way back to such fellowship was closed until the true Mediator came.

Hebrews explains that even the first covenant wasn’t inaugurated without blood. Moses sprinkled the book and the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant God commanded for you.” Without the shedding of blood there’s no forgiveness. The earthly copies were purified with animal blood, but the heavenly realities required better sacrifices. Christ didn’t enter a holy place made by human hands, a copy of the true one, but heaven itself, to appear now in the presence of God for us (Hebrews 9:18-24).

He appears before God for us. And we stand before God because we’re in Jesus. That’s the gospel.
In Christ Jesus, we who were once far away have been brought near by His blood (Ephesians 2:13).

How? By His blood, put on like a coat, by faith.

Grace Takeaway

At Sinai, the elders ate and drank in God’s presence because the blood of the covenant had been sprinkled. Jesus raised His cup and said, “This is the new covenant in My blood,” and He’s eagerly desired to share that table with you. You don’t come to God by your bricks or your promises. You come clothed in the blood of His Son. And when you do, He can’t help but pour out grace upon grace. Guess who’s coming to dinner? You are.

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Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner