Exodus 24

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:31:03utc

The ascent of the mountain described in this chapter is, obviously, not the same as the one in chapter 19, although there are some similarities. There, Moses went up alone; here he is accompanied by Aaron and his two sons, Nadab and Abihu. Also, the laws received at this time, are different from the ones Moses received the first time. During the first encounter the Ten Commandments were given orally, together with a series of other laws, described in chs. 21-23. The topic in this section which spans eight chapters (24-31) is mainly a detailed description of the tabernacle to be built.

We do not know how long Moses was in God's presence the first time but here we read that he spent forty days in the cloud with God.

From Matthew Henry's Commentary we copy the following outline of Exodus 24:

"Moses, as mediator between God and Israel, having received divers laws and ordinances from God privately in the three foregoing chapters, in this chapter, I. Comes down to the people, acquaints them with the laws he had received, and takes their consent to those laws <v. 3>, writes the laws, and reads them to the people, who repeat their consent <v. 4-7>, and then by sacrifice, and the sprinkling of blood, ratifies the covenant between them and God <v. 5-6, 8>. II. He returns to God again, to receive further directions. When he was dismissed from his former attendance, he was ordered to attend again <v. 1-2>. He did so with seventy of the elders, to whom God made a discovery of his glory <v. 9-11>. Moses is ordered up into the mount <v. 12-13>; the rest are ordered down to the people <v. 14>. The cloud of glory is seen by all the people on the top of mount Sinai <v. 15-17>, and Moses is there with God forty days and forty nights <v. 18>."

When this chapter begins, Moses is at the foot of the mountain with the people and God calls him to come up with his brother and two nephews and a company of seventy elders of the people. The words: "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," are, obviously, addressed to the company of seventy-three people.

God singles out Moses. The special relationship between God and Moses is based on God's choice, not on Moses'. Moses' election did grow into an intimate fellowship with God which is unparalleled in the Old Testament. God gives this testimony about him: "When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD."[ 1 ]

In this, Moses is an image of the great mediator to come, our Lord Jesus Christ. The author of the Hebrew epistle emphasizes this when he says: "He [Jesus] was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God's house. Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, testifying to what would be said in the future. But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast."[ 2 ]

The Hebrew word translated "faithful" is aman which, according the Strongs Definition, means: "to build up or support; to foster as a parent or nurse …" There is a shade of meaning in the word that could be understood as intimacy. Moses became God's intimate friend. In the Old Testament nobody knew God as Moses did. That is why we read in the psalms: "He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel."[ 3 ] Israel saw what God did, Moses knew why He did it.

The response of the people, when Moses comes back down from the mountain, is the same as in ch. 19:8, "We will do everything the LORD has said." How little did they know themselves! Many of them would forfeit their lives because of this promise. Less than six weeks later they would have made the Golden Calf. It is this promise, based on the complete lack of understanding of their own sinful nature, that becomes their downfall. Peter's denial of Jesus is a New Testament parallel that personalizes this attitude. We read that Peter says: " 'Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.' 'I tell you the truth,' Jesus answered, 'this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.' But Peter declared, 'Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.' " [ 4 ]

Instead of being so cocksure about themselves and of boasting in their ability to remain faithful, they should have implored God's mercy and asked for grace to stand. Ecclesiastes warns us against this attitude. "When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the messenger, 'My vow was a mistake.' Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands?"[ 5 ]

The people's promise was, probably, based on fear. They had the mistaken notion that, if they promised to obey, the glory of God, which frightened them, would leave them alone. God showed His glory to the people to make them realize with whom they were dealing. They thought they could appease God as they would appease evil spirits. God is only appeased by confession and repentance.

Vs. 4 tells us, "Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said." This is the first mention in the Bible of the writing of a book. This is the beginning of the Pentateuch, of the Holy Scriptures. We may assume that the writing of the Bible began with Exodus chapter 21-23.

Whatever misunderstanding the people may have had about themselves and their ability to obey God's Word faithfully, the next ceremony demonstrates that God knew what He was doing. Moses builds an altar and has twelve pillars of stone erected. The altar, obviously, stands for the cross of Christ, the pillars represent the people. Young men bring the sacrifices. We do not read who they are, but, since the Levitical priesthood had as yet not been established, there were no ordained priests to do the rites. We read in vs. 6-8, "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. They responded, 'We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey.' Moses then 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.' " Even before the people have had a chance to sin against the commandments they promise to obey, God has made provisions for their pardon. It is on the basis of the shed blood of the animals that died in their places, that they are acceptable to God.

The writer to the Hebrews comments on this event, saying: "This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, 'This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.' ..... In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." We do not read in the Exodus account that scarlet wool and branches of hyssop were used, neither that Moses sprinkled the blood on the scroll. We do not know where the Hebrew writer gathered this extra-biblical information, but that does not mean that he is incorrect.

The blood is first applied to the throne of God and then sprinkled on the people. Sin did not originate with God, but God's perfect holiness demanded that every sin of every sinner had to be expiated by the blood of the sacrifice which took the place of the sinner, in order to remain perfect holiness. As the Hebrew epistle puts it, the heavenly things had to be purified.[ 6 ] The blood would have had no cleansing effect upon the people if it had not been applied to the throne of God. Sin is a cosmic affair. What happens on earth is linked to what happens in Heaven.

After the bringing of the sacrifice and the legalization of the covenant, Moses and the seventy-three others ascend the mountain. In vs. 13 we read that Joshua is among them also. Whether this means that there were actually seventy-five persons, including Moses, is not clear. Joshua may have been one of the seventy elders. But his role in the encounter with God differs from the others in that he stays with Moses while the others all go down, probably on the seventh day.

Vs. 11 is rather intriguing. We read: "But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank." The KJV renders this: "And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink." The translation "raise his hand" could be interpreted as a threat. The context, however, seems to indicate that this was more meant in the sense of being touched by the hand of God. God's revelation of Himself did not affect these people in the same way as it did Moses or even Joshua. Joshua seems to have been more sensitive to God's presence than anybody else except Moses. We read about him in ch. 33:11: "The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent." The glory of the Lord made Joshua thirsty for more. This did not seem to be the case with the other members of the group. We read about them: "they saw God, and they ate and drank."

It is a mystery how people react differently to spiritual things in general and to the revelation of the Lord in particular. Some are very sensitive, and others remain untouched and unchanged. Man is autonomous and God does not force Himself upon man. It is up to us to accept or to reject. We control the measure of our surrender, at least as long as we live on earth. When we look at Jesus' disciples, we see that not two of them reacted to His revelation of Himself in the same way. John responded with deep affection and sensitivity, but Judas managed to keep on stealing and lying, even as he spent three years of his life, day and night, in the presence of the incarnate Word of God. God can make us sensitive and responsive, but only as we ask Him. We have no power to make ourselves bear fruit. The only power we have is to resist.

"They saw God, and they ate and drank." There is nothing wrong with eating and drinking in the presence of God, but if eating and drinking takes priority over being saturated with God's glory, there is something wrong with us. Jesus ate and drank, but there were times when He was too full of the presence of the Father to be able to take in food. After speaking to the Samaritan woman, He said to His disciples: "I have food to eat that you know nothing about. ... My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work."[ 7 ]

It is not clear when God called Moses in this sequence of events. At one point Moses must have sent the elders back, since at the moment of the making of the Golden Calf, we find Aaron in the middle of the action, while Moses is still on top of the mountain.[ 8 ] The problem is that we read in vs. 9, "Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up," and in vs. 14 Moses says to the elders, "wait here until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them." The "here" is either at the place where they ate while seeing the Lord, or at the base of the mountain. The important part is that God tells Moses to climb to the top of the mountain to receive the two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments engraved upon them. As it turns out Moses will first spend six days, waiting for the Lord to invite Him into the cloud and then another total or forty days in the presence of the Lord where God explains to him in detail what he needs to know for the construction of the tabernacle and the service the priests are to perform in it. During this time Moses actually saw the original which is in heaven. We read, for instance, in ch. 26:30, "Set up the tabernacle according to the plan shown you on the mountain."

The only thing that happens during the first six days is that the glory of the Lord comes down upon Mount Sinai in the form of a cloud and Moses waits. In spite of Milton's dictum, "They also serve who only stand and wait," waiting is one of the hardest exercises a man can perform. It goes against the grain of our being. Waiting on the Lord is a spiritual exercise that is even harder.

The theme of waiting for the Lord is developed, especially, in the book of Psalms. A few examples are: "Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD."[ 9 ] "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him."[ 10 ] "I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning." [ 11 ] Those verses indicate that waiting takes courage and strength of character. It takes patience, faith and watchfulness. "More than watchmen wait for the morning!" Isaiah says: "The one who trusts will never be dismayed." Or, as the RSV puts it: "He who believes will not be in haste."[ 12 ] Waiting is one of the vital ingredients of victory. The difference between Moses and the rest of the nation of Israel was that Moses waited and the others did not. We read of them: "When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, 'Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.'"[ 13 ] That is why Moses knew the Lord and the others never did.

Moses waited for the glory of the Lord. The glory of the Lord is the ultimate measure for all creation. Paul defines sin as falling short of God's glory. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."[ 14 ] Our only hope of salvation is to be invited in the cloud of God's glory as Moses was. We will never measure up to the glory of God, unless we are covered with it. The Israelites looked at God's glory from the outside. To them Mount Sinai looked like a fire spewing volcano. They saw the glory from a distance and kept their distance from it, not only in a physical sense but also spiritually. It did not keep them from sinning.

Our position differs from Moses' in that we are not only covered by God's glory, but the shekinah moves inside. It is what Paul calls, "the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."[ 15 ] Even the most humble Christian is more than Moses ever was.

[ 1 ] Num. 12:6-8

[ 2 ] Heb. 3:2-6

[ 3 ] Ps. 103:7

[ 4 ] Matt. 26:33-35

[ 5 ] Eccl. 5:4-6

[ 6 ] Heb. 9:23

[ 7 ] John 4:32, 34

[ 8 ] See Ex. 32

[ 9 ] Ps. 27:14

[ 10 ] Ps. 37:7

[ 11 ] Ps. 130:5,6

[ 12 ] Isaiah 28:16

[ 13 ] Ex. 32:1

[ 14 ] Rom. 3:23

[ 15 ] Col. 1:27