Introduction with Recap of 23:20-33
There are two major halves to the Book of Exodus that hinge at Mt Sinai where the Israelites receive the 10 Commandments.
Going up the mountain...
· Rescue form Egypt...to make covenant with God...”getting married”
and going down the mountain...
· Journey to Canaan...taking of the land...”setting up home”
This fits the pattern of redemption. Redemption is always a matter of “out of” and “in to”. There is always an origin and a destination. For example, Abraham was called out of ancient Iraq into Canaan. But remember that when he arrives he lives a nomadic lifestyle, never settling, and he’s continually journeying. Of course Canaan is not his real destination; that is heaven. In Exodus, God’s people are also on a journey and will remain so until the end of the Pentateuch. And it’s a difficult journey.
In Mark 10, after giving us four examples of what discipleship is not, Jesus goes on to show that true discipleship is about following Jesus on the road he chooses, and it is towards a destination he chooses. The road is one of humility, servanthood and suffering in the short-term and only at the end will God’s promises of a settled, happy life be fully realised. Jesus is the ultimate example of this kind of life.So
1: we must follow Jesus and his example, and
2: we must have realistic expectations that there will be suffering as we are taught and disciplined.
In Exodus chapter 23 verses 29-30 God infers that this is a gradual process.
The Sub-divided Mountain
Moses is called up the mountain again, this time for forty days (v 18) to receive instructions about the tabernacle, priesthood and Sabbath regulations, themes that are set to dominate the book from now on.
Access (Verses 1&2)
The instructions God gives Moses in verses 1 and 2 are interesting because they seem to resemble the structure of the future tabernacle and Jerusalem temple. We see that there are levels of accessibility to God. Effectively, there are three levels of accessibility the higher up the mountain you go.
At the bottom are the people, then a little higher up are the priesthood (Aaron & sons), and lastly comes Moses who gets closer than anyone to God.
The tabernacle and the temple both have different access privileges for people too. Understand that their construction is modelled on Mt Sinai and the hostory we are studying now.
Agreement and Binding (Verses 3-8)
In verse 3 Moses tells the people what God has said, with 'words' meaning the Ten Commandments and 'laws' referring to the Book of the Covenant. He writes it all down in verse 4 which rather pre-empts God who in verse 12 also writes them down!
I suggest the best way to understand what’s happening in verse 3-8 is that the people are agreeing to and binding themselves to God’s covenant. the process is little different in major respects from making a modern contract.
1 The first party makes a proposal.
2 The second party agrees to it.
3 They visit their lawyers and make it a binding legal contract.
At Sinai, the process can be seen like this,
1 God lays down the terms v3.
2 The people commit themselves verbally to be bound by the terms in obedience. v3
3 Moses types up the contract (4). The altar is built, as a representation of God (ref Heb 9:23) (4-5). Signatures are put to the document by the blood of the sacrificed animals being sprinkled over first the altar and next the Israelites once the statutory cooling off period has not changed their mind.
Up to now there has been no mention of blood sacrifice in this covenant on Mt Sinai. The sacrifice only happens at the end of the process. Think about the historical process of making a legal document and specifically a will. You may remember this from Revelation 5 where we looked at Roman wills.
When you’d written up your will on a scroll, you would seal it with wax and the executor would have to open the document to carry out its contents after the death of the writer.
In fact a will, rather than a general legal contract, may be a better way to see what’s happening here. The Israelites are the junior party and simply agree to the proposal, and not in active negotiation. God is the senior party who has laid out the terms to be executed.
Sprinkled blood and seals crop up in the New Testament and are not confined to Exodus. Here are some exsamples that help us understand not only what Christ has done, but also the significance of what is occuring in Exodus 24.
· chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood (1 Peter 1:2)
· “the seal of God on your foreheads” (Revelation 9:4)
· Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Cor 1:21
· And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
· Hebrews 9:15-22. This book of the New Testament makes great play of the point that the efficacy of animal blood is imperfect, and has to be repeated, but Christ’s blood does the job once for ever for all. We can draw near God under new covenant unlike Old Testament people of God.
Seeing God and eating with him (Verses 9-11)
This is best described as a covenant meal. Meals are central to the Passover, and the Lord’s supper that marks Christian salvation. It is redolent of the Wedding Feast of Revelation 3:20 and 19:9 after judgement when God’s people will again live with God and see him ‘face to face’. Peter Enns sees parallels in Isaiah 25:6-8 and Feeding of 5,000 in the New Testament where both meals take place up a mountain! Of course people do tend to mark special occasions with celebration meals too and this event in Exodus is certainly a cause for celebration.
Seeing God
What is unusual about the elders seeing God is that a person cannot see God and live. We take this a given biblical principle for the Old Testament. The 10 commandments injunction against images would further indicate that God os not keen on people having any clear idea of his appearnce becuase then we would have the temptation to draw and paint his face and worship the image. God's clear preference it seems is that we don't visualise him, for it detracts from our faith.
Moses (Ex. 33:11 and Numb. 12:8) sees God ‘face to face’ according to the text and whatever that trully means, but what do the elders see here? The only thing we can be sure of is that they see a pavement upoin which they are certain the feet of God are resting. Do they therefore, see his feet? Are they allowed to see more? Are we misunderstanding the use of the verb 'to see'? We just don't know, but we can elicit some principles from this meeting.
The principle of seeing is that it confers privilege and authority. The closer to God you can come the more authority you have. Jesus has ultimate authority as he is closer than all of us and 'sees' God most clearly.
There is a wonderful family feel to this event. It is an action of trust and closeness that speaks of God's humility before men and how he delights in ssimple ocial contact with people.
Under the New Covenant we can, "draw close to God with a sincere heart in the full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us.." (Heb 10) but that doesn't mean we see physically, but that we understand spiritually.
I'm not sure what to make of this personally, but some kind of theophany took place and theophanies do seem to occur at strategic points in Israel’s history and development, always crediting their recipients with authority. That is perhaps all we need to know, that these men now have delegated authority.
Verses 12-14 describe Moses together with the future leader, Joshua, going up the mountain again, this time to receive the tablets of the law direct from God’s hand, and we see that the legal responsibilities are delegated to Aaron and Hur.
The Fiery Cloud
There a further dimension added to our understanding of the cloud and the fire in this particular setting I think. Certainly we are to understand God’s presence, as with the column and pillar, but more than that the emphasis is on God’s glory being "tabernacled" with his people – the word settled in verse 16 means just that.
In chapter 34 we will see that cloud and God’s glory would fill the tabernacle Tent of Meeting. The imagery is one of concealment but of illumination at the same time. We do not have all the answers but we have enough og God’s light to make the right choices and live as his people in the wilderness ready for the eternal home.