Chapter 12

Please read Exodus, chapter 24.

Yes, the Lord loves His people. And hand in hand with His love goes His holiness.

Exodus 24:1 “Then He (the Lord) said to Moses ‘Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. 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.’ “

Here, in just a few lines, we find a clear description of the divine economy under divine Law, referring to the people of Israel. From their history they could know about the men who were in the close presence of God. They knew about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; about king David, the godly prophets and priests; all of them men who stood between God and His people. The multitudes were to worship ‘at a distance’ and ‘may not come up with him’. From page to page we may search through the pages of Old Testament legalism and will not find an invitation for the Jewish people to ‘come near’.

Nor will we find Jewish peoples’ understanding of God’s desire for them.

Exodus 24:3 “When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws they responded with one voice: ’Everything the Lord has said WE WILL DO.’

‘All the Lord’s words’ were as to ‘what HE would DO’ and His laws ‘as to what Israel should BE’.

Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said.

Many Israelites did, but the nation did never benefit from Moses’ writing.

“He.(Moses) got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel”

Forgive me! I just wonder what kind of altar you are building. Do you want to be a respectable person in the community? If your altars are not for and unto God, they are without eternal value. You will not be able to present them at heaven’s gate as your credit. In fact, when your time comes, they will stay at this side of your grave.

“Then he sent young Israelite men (not ordained, senior priests) and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord.”.

Burnt offerings! Burnt by fire! Judgment! Yes, but also fellowship offerings. Fellowship! After judgment reconciliation is possible. It was God’s covenant with Israel and it was dedicated with the blood of innocent animals

Exodus 24:6 “Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls and the other half he sprinkled on the altar.

It was innocent blood, on His altar, that satisfied the holy God.

Innocent blood, on His altar, that sanctified His unholy people.

v.7 “Then he (Moses) 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’ “.

Israel still did not understand that their ‘doings’ could never reconcile them with the holiness of God. Only innocent blood would.

v.8 “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.’

Blood on God’s altar; the same blood on the people; innocent blood brought the reconciliation between a holy God and His sinful people.

Peace between God and me was made by the innocent blood of Jesus, the blood on the Cross. Do you have that assurance?

Exodus 24:9 “Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up

v.10 and saw the God of Israel.. Under His feet was something like a pavement of sapphire, clear as the sky itself.

v.11 But God did not raise His hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God and . . . they ate and drank.”

Down at the foot of the mountain there was the altar. The sacrifices of blood had sanctified these men and, at the top of the mountain they saw God and . . lived! They ate and drank! And so the holy God of Israel, the God of the Bible, could manifest Himself to sinful human beings. The pavement of sapphire under His feet would tell them of heaven’s powerful purity and light, its majestic holiness. Sapphire, is a deep blue stone with golden flecks (Job 28:6 Nuggets of gold). ‘Clear as the sky itself.’ Still, they saw the God of Israel and He did not raise His hand against them. Today only sinners who have been sanctified by the blood of Jesus may cross that pavement of sapphire, are loved by and welcome in the presence of a holy God. Today that holy God is my loving Father in heaven. Yours too? All my circumstances and situations are under His wise and powerful control. He allows or ordains all my moves, always in order that I may grow in the life of faith and obedience and acknowledge His glory.

Exodus2412 “The Lord said to Moses: ‘Come up to Me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the Law and the commands I have written for their instruction’ “.

Only if Israel could read the writing of God ‘for their instruction’ and only if they were willing to understand it, only then would they have been able to know that they were being sentenced to death. Only that man who would carry out the Law and commands, to the last dot, he would live. There was only one Jew who did, and He lives. His Name is Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, the Son of God.

Matthew 5:17,18 “Do not think that I (JESUS) have come to abolish the Law or the prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. I tell you

the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law, until everything (in the Law) is accomplished.”

Not until after He had accomplished every letter in the Law, could the Lord Jesus cry from the Cross ‘IT IS FINISHED’. Then the Man Jesus died and was buried. After three days in the grave He arose and for forty days and to many, many witnesses, some who with their own hands had buried Him, He showed Himself to be alive. That man returned to the right hand of God His Father in Heaven. That Man Jesus has saved me FROM an eternity in Hell TO an eternity in Heaven. By faith that assurance is mine! May be yours too!

Hebrews 10:19 – 22 “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the MOST HOLY PLACE by the blood of JESUS

By a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is His body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

Let us DRAW NEAR TO GOD with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Can you think of a more precious privilege? Enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus and draw near to God! In the darkest hour or the most dreary place, in the most dangerous situation, during the most trying task, between a rock and a hard place, in the Holy Place, near to God! That is the difference between a Jew under God’s holy Law and a Christian under His loving grace.

Exodus 24:15 – 18 “When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, 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 top of the mountain. Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Let us try to visualize. By amazing grace a sanctified sinner, Moses, enters the Most Holy Place to draw near to God.

Down at the foot of the mountain the Israelites may have stood aghast as they saw a consuming fire on top of the mountain. But the God of holy and fiery glory is the God of holy and infinite grace. For forty days and forty nights Moses was secure and safe in His very presence.