The Covenant Confirmed (Exodus): Some people describe Christianity, saying, “It’s not a religion; it’s a relationship.” But how can sinful people have a personal relationship with a holy God? In the covenant offered at Mount Sinai, God made a way where there was no way — so people might have peace and friendship with him. Today, in Christ, you don’t have to fear God’s holiness or judgment. He is not a threat, and this is such good news. Recorded on Jan 19, 2025, on Exodus 24:1-18 by Pastor David Parks.
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This message is part of our Exodus series called Journey to Freedom. Exodus is a story of liberation — of God working to rescue and redeem a people for himself, freeing them from slavery and leading them to the land he promised to the family of Abraham and Sarah. Exodus is also a picture of the gospel and the Christian life. In Christ, we, too, are freed from captivity to sin and death and led through the wilderness of life by God’s Word and Presence as we make our way to the Promised Land of the world to come. Join us as we make this journey to find true and lasting freedom.
Sermon Transcript
We’re working through the book of Exodus in a sermon series called Journey to Freedom. And Exodus is a story of liberation, of God rescuing and redeeming a people for himself. Yahweh God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, led them through the desert wilderness by his word and his Presence, and brought them to Mount Sinai to enter into a covenant relationship with them (as we’ll see today). But God had promised to give them their own land in Canaan, known as the Promised Land. The Israelites had struggled and grumbled thorough a series of tests and battles, but Yahweh proved faithful and good time and again. We saw that God’s great, big beating heart behind this whole Exodus project was to have a real relationship with people — people who were separated from a holy God by their sin — but people who were still greatly loved and precious to God. Today, we’re going to see this covenant relationship confirmed at Mount Sinai in a ceremony that might seem strange to us but was normal for them. And in this ceremony, we start to see a little glimpse of what God wanted out of this relationship. Have you ever heard someone describe the Christian faith this way: It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship. Have you ever heard that? Maybe you’ve said that yourself. It’s not a religion, Christianity is not a list of do’s and don’ts, it’s a relationship. And I like that. It emphasizes God’s personal and relational nature and God’s desire for a relationship with the people that he saves. But have you ever stopped to ask the question, what exactly is it like to have a real relationship with a God? Well, I guess it depends, right? What kind of God are we talking about? Yahweh is a God, as we’ve seen, who is the Creator of all, who is limitless in power and knowledge, who speaks galaxies into existence, who easily defeated the most powerful kingdom on earth, and who is perfectly righteous and holy. Wouldn’t you rather have a slightly less powerful God who only wants us to just have fun all the time? (And, of course, fun as we define it.) That seems like a much more manageable god to have a relationship with. Or maybe a god only for us, for our family, tribe, or nation? Who judges/defeats our enemies but lets us do what we please without trying to change us or interfere with our lives? That sounds like a nice god to have around. Meanwhile, at certain points in the Exodus story, I’m sure the Israelites wondered if they could even handle a relationship with Yahweh. Could they even be near him? It’s not a religion; it’s a relationship. Well, today we’re going to consider the nature of this relationship and we’ll see that a relationship with this God, the only true and living God, is actually far better than we could ever imagine. If you have your Bible/app, please open it to Exodus 24:1.
Exodus 24:1–4a (NIV), “1 Then 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, 2 but Moses alone is to approach the Lord; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him.” 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.” 4 Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said.” There are a few theories about where Mount Sinai was located. [Map slide] I believe it was probably toward the southern end of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt today. But this is where God appeared to Moses in the burning bush. And this is where God said he would lead his people back to worship and enter into a covenant relationship with him. Yahweh rescued Israel by grace and then gave them the Law through the prophet Moses. This Law included the Ten Commandments and the 600+ additional laws governing all aspects of their society but was famously summarized by Jesus as being about loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself. Last week, Nate did a great job showing both the vertical aspect of the Law in loving God and the horizontal aspect of the Law in loving people. After receiving the Law from God, “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.’” And then Moses wrote down everything the Lord had said. By the way, this is the basis for the whole canon of Scripture. It is from God, inspired by his Spirit, and given through human authors. Moses wrote the book of Exodus, along with the rest of the Torah, or the first five books of the Bible, but we believe it to be God’s word, not Moses’. We see this process in action here. Ok! So God gave the Law, the people agreed to obey it, and then God called the leaders of the people to come up on the mountain to himself. Moses was the prophet, Aaron and his sons were to be the priests, and the seventy elders of Israel were the leaders of the people that Moses appointed on the wise counsel of his father-in-law, Jethro (back in Exodus 18).
Exodus 24:4b-8 (NIV), “He 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. 5 Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. 7 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.” 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.” At this point, some of you might be wondering what is going on. Why all the splashing of blood? Again, this is culturally strange for us, but it was normal for them. People entered into covenants all the time, and there was a well-established pattern for how this worked. In Genesis 15, Yahweh entered into a covenant with Abram (some 430 years earlier), which had many similarities to this scene at Mount Sinai. But in Genesis 31, we get a picture of this covenant-making process between two men, which shows us that this practice was a common practice at this time. In Ge 31, a covenant was formed between Jacob (later known as Israel) and his father-in-law, Laban. In their covenant, Jacob committed to be faithful to and provide for Laban’s daughters, Rachel and Leah, while Laban committed not to invade Jacob’s land. Now, you wouldn’t think you’d need a covenant to prevent your in-laws from invading…but maybe some of you could imagine that! Anyways, to formalize their covenant, Jacob and Laban built an altar and a pillar, took a solemn oath to one another in the name of Yahweh, offered sacrifices, and shared a meal together with their relatives — a feast to celebrate their new relationship, before parting as friends. We see all the elements of that covenant ceremony here between Yahweh and Israel. Moses built an altar and twelve pillars, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. We have the solemn oath that the people would do everything the Lord had said (they would obey God’s Law), while God had committed to take them as his people and to go with them and to provide for them. We have the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, and then a meal with the representatives of the people of Israel, a feast to celebrate their new relationship, as we’ll see in the next passage. God was using this cultural practice to teach the people what he wanted and expected out of a relationship with them. This was a serious, formal, and legal relationship with mutual commitments, but it was also a loving, personal, and unconditional relationship, not unlike a marriage covenant. But still, why the blood? Well, there are two things going on here. First, in all the covenants in the Bible, there is a sacrifice made with the shedding of blood. This symbolizes what would happen if one of the parties were to break the covenant. Something like, “May the same be done to me if I break this covenant.”Second, the shedding of blood is needed for the forgiveness of sins. The author of the book of Hebrews writes, “…the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Heb 9:22). Blood represents life to God. And the wages of sin is death. So to allow for the forgiveness of sins (and for God to remain just), something needs to die — either you or a sacrifice made in your place. This is why God included the whole system of animal sacrifice in the Law: for the forgiveness of sins. Ultimately, this system pointed forward to Christ and his sacrificial death on the cross for the sins of the world. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God. So, the new covenant was also made through the shedding of blood, the blood of Jesus. But here, when Moses sprinkled the blood, it symbolically cleansed the altar, the articles used for worship, and the people to make them holy, to make them able to have a relationship with a holy God. They were made holy through the sacrifice of a substitute. Moses took the Book of the Covenant, God’s word that he had written down, and read it to the people and they agreed a second time to follow God’s word and his way. It might seem strange, but now it was time to party.
Exodus 24:9-11 (NIV), “9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up 10 and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. 11 But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.” Now, someone might be thinking, “Hang on. If God wanted this relationship and had done so much already to be able to have this relationship, why was there even the idea that God might raise a hand against these leaders?” But, again, this points us back to an issue that already came up in the Exodus story (and will continue to come up again and again): God is perfectly holy, so he cannot be in the presence of sinful people without destroying them. In fact, that would be just. So, God’s holiness was a real threat to Israel. In fact, we’ve been asking, “How can a holy God live in the midst of a sinful people?” Was it even possible? Well, we see here that Yahweh could not only live, but he could have real peace/friendship/fellowship with people through a covenant relationship. Imagine being able to see God like they did on that day! Imagine being able to eat and drink in his presence and not being worried about judgment or destruction! If you died today, would you be worried about facing God? Is he a threat to you? He doesn’t have to be. Because there is a new covenant offered to all through the blood of Jesus. The message of the gospel is a message of reconciliation and peace with God. Through faith in Jesus, you, too, can have fellowship/friendship with God. You can stand in his presence without fear. He’d probably want to share a meal with you, too. This is what God had wanted the whole time. This was his loving motive behind the whole Exodus project, in fact, behind all of creation and salvation. God wants a real relationship with people who know him and are known by him — with people who had been separated from him because of their sin but people who are precious to him nonetheless. He wanted this relationship so he had to make a way where there was no way — a way of forgiveness/the cross/cleansing from all guilt and shame/life everlasting in the kingdom where Jesus is King. This is what the gospel, this is what a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ has to offer! Let’s finish our passage.
Exodus 24:12–18 (NIV), “12 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 commandments I have written for their instruction.” 13 Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. 14 He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them.” 15 When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, 16 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. 17 To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. 18 Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.” This is God’s word. So God gave Moses the tablets of stone with the Ten Words or the Ten Commandments written on them by the hand of God. And Moses and Joshua went up on Mount Sinai, and the Lord was a consuming fire, but Moses didn’t perish. And so Moses stayed there with God for forty days and forty nights. He received more instruction from the Lord about the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, the priesthood, and more. We aren’t told explicitly, but this might be when God revealed to Moses what should be written in the rest of the Torah, including the stories of creation and things that had happened long before Moses. Well! This chapter served as quite the climax for the Exodus story thus far! There was smoke and fire and the voice of God, and if you got too close, you’d die. And yet, God made a way where there was no way. And the leaders, representing the people, were able to see God and eat with him in a celebration of their new relationship. At this point, you might wonder why Jesus even had to come. Because God established a covenant relationship with sinful people, he provided a system for them to be forgiven and cleansed from their sin and gave them a Law to guide and guard them as they served as Yahweh’s light to the world. However, as we’ll see in a few weeks, while Moses was still on Mount Sinai, and because he took longer than the people expected, they broke the covenant in the disaster of the golden calf. This would be the sad story for the generations after Moses all the way up to the first advent of Jesus Christ. God was good and the covenant of Sinai was good, and the people were able to be forgiven, but they were not able to be freed from the power of sin and death through their obedience to the Law. The Law was holy and right but could not save. This is why they needed Jesus. This is why we need Jesus. We need Jesus and the new covenant offered to all today, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. Again, God made a way where there was no way through his one and only son. So today, all are invited into a relationship with God. It’s a relationship given by grace and received by faith in the person and work of Jesus. It’s a personal relationship where God dwells in us and goes with us day by day by his Holy Spirit. And it’s a relationship where we’re still expected to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. But it’s a relationship of peace and fellowship/friendship with God. In Christ, you don’t have to be afraid of his holiness or judgment. He is not a threat. He is your good Father in heaven. He is limitless in knowledge and power but uses that for our good, not to harm us. And in all these things, he is most worthy of our praise. This is who God is. And this is what a relationship with him looks like. And one day, at the second advent of Christ, we too will see him face to face and enjoy fellowship, a feast, with him in his kingdom forever and ever. Amen. Let us pray.