Exodus 24

Israel Affirms the Covenant

• Now He said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. And Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come near; nor shall the people go up with him.”
  • Nadab and Abihu are Aaron’s sons and unfortunately they will perish in the Book of Leviticus because even though they are priests, when they go to offer incense, they will do it while they’re drunk.
  • God wants more people to see Him and hear His voice besides Moses, so that they know Moses is not just making things up, and so that there are other people besides Moses that the people can go to and know God’s will
  • This is how God works with us too – He gives us HH the Pope and the bishops, He gives us the priests, and He gives us the servants. So if we have a question, we don’t need to call the Pope or call the Bishop – first I ask my servants, then if he doesn’t know, I can ask Abouna, and if he doesn’t know, then we can go to the Bishop
• So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the Lord has said we will do.”
  • So Moses told them all of the things God said – they heard the commandments by their own ears, but Moses told them the judgments and told them the feasts and told the conclusion in the end. And they said “All the words which the Lord has said we will do” – but it will take less than 40 days for them to forget. They were a forgetful people… and so are we.
  • Sometimes I will hear a sermon and I will really take it to myself and see my sin and my shortcoming and I will say “I must go and confess” or “I must start to pray” or “I must do xyz” – but by the end of the liturgy, or by the time I get home, I have already forgotten about it completely.
• And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord.
  • This is one indication for us that Moses wrote the Torah
• And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel.
  • Rising early in the morning to follow God’s commandment is a indication of your love for God. When God told Abraham to slaughter Isaac, Abraham “rose up early in the morning”. How much do we love God? Do we love sleep more than God?
  • Maybe God didn’t tell him to build an altar – but building an altar is another indication of love for God
• Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient.” And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.”
  • So this day is considered the day that God made the covenant with Israel. This is the day the covenant was consecrated.
  • The blood is sprinkled on the altar and then on the people
    • Hebrews 9:13-14, 19-22: “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
      • St Paul is explaining that the blood of animals that was used in the Old Testament gave a ritual cleansing for the people, and if that was the case, how much more will the blood of Christ, which is without blemish, cleanse our conscience and our spirits?
    • Hebrews 9:19-22: “For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.’ Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.”
      • Then St Paul brings up this actual event but he gives us more details that aren’t in the Old Testament. Like the water and the scarlet wool and hyssop, and how Moses sprinkled the book itself.
      • How did he know these things? From the Jewish Tradition that was passed down from generation to generation. This shows that the apostles and St Paul valued Tradition equally to Scripture, as we Orthodox Christians do today.
      • “Without shedding of blood there is no remission” Period.

On the Mountain with God

• Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity. But on the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand. So they saw God, and they ate and drank.
  • It is clear here that they saw the Lord Jesus Christ since we see “His feet”
  • This is as if they witnessed the Transfiguration
  • Sometimes we might say “I wish I could see a sign” or “I wish I could see an apparition” or “I wish Christ would appear to me” – let me tell you that two of these people, Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron – will perish in the Book of Leviticus. Instead of wishing for signs, pray for your salvation. Because seeing a sign will not guarantee your salvation.
  • If we open Revelation 4:2-3, we will see a similar appearance but in more detail
    • This is what Coptic Iconography will usually put in the Bosom of the Father. Because this is what Moses saw, and Ezekiel and Daniel and all of them.
  • God allowed them to see Him – they did not die.
  • The Fathers also see this last verse “They saw God and they ate and drank” as a symbol of our Liturgy. We see God and we eat His flesh and drink His Blood.
• Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.”
  • So there are things that God wrote with His hand, and there are things that Moses wrote with his hand
• So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Indeed, Aaron and Hur are with you. If any man has a difficulty, let him go to them.”
  • Moses leaves Aaron, Hur and the seventy elders in charge while he goes up the mountain
• Then Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain. Now the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. The sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
  • Moses disappears into a cloud and after six days of prayer and solitude, God calls out to Him from the midst of the cloud.
  • God appears like a fire
  • Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights without eating or drinking (we’ll read this later).
  • In these 40 days, God will give him the instructions of the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, the Vessels, the Vestments, Consecrating the priests, the incense, the oil, and even the names of those who will build it.