God Wants to Dwell With His People
Over the last few weeks, we have been examining the law that God gave the people of Israel. These laws taught the Israelites how to worship and how to govern themselves. That’s what we’ve been looking at the last few weeks.
And then, over the next few chapters we’ll see God giving them very clear instructions on how they are to build a sacred dwelling place.
Exodus chapters 25-31, that’s seven chapters of Scripture where God is giving Israel very particular instructions, a very specific blueprint for how they are to build this sacred dwelling place. This sacred place is the place where God himself intends to dwell, and this place will come be to be known as the Tabernacle.
Up to this point, the place to meet God has been up on the mountain, far from the people. But God desires to be close to his people, to abide right in their midst.
So, God has his sights set on building himself a dwelling place, near the people. We’ll that in the coming weeks, God willing.
So, we’ve seen God give the law (chapters 20-23). And we know God will give them instructions to build the tabernacle that will pave the way for God to dwell amongst the people. But in between these events is Exodus 24.
After God has given the law, but before he gives them the blueprints for the tabernacle, something very important happens, and it’s right here in Exodus 24. Moses and some of the leaders of Israel are on the mountain and when they get back Moses begins to report back to them the things the Lord said. That’s where we’ll pick up, look at verse 3 with me:
Exodus 24:3: Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules.
Moses has now given them all the rules and expectations, and they respond, look at the second half of verse three
v. 3b: “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.”
Now, of course, anyone who knows the subsequent history of the nation of Israel, you know, that they didn’t actually do a very good job of fulfilling this commitment. They really don’t live-this-out, all that well. The remarkable thing we observe about God is that in the years and decades and centuries to come, while Israel is consistently unfaithful to God, God remains faithful to them. His love and compassion and mercy are constant. It’s remarkable!
God Establishes the Covenant
So, they’ve made this commitment to God, but then it goes further. God will then establish and confirm a covenant.
Look at verse four.
v. 4: And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. 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.
5 And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord.
Okay, so what we’re about to witness is a ratification ceremony of sorts. This is where the covenant is solidified; this very serious sacred agreement is being made between God and his people, Israel. And as a part of the ceremony, Moses instructs the young men to bring him oxen to be sacrificed.
Look at verses 6 and 7:
vv. 6-7: And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar.
7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people.
So, Moses builds an altar and there they sacrifice these oxen, several of them, so there’s a lot of blood here. I didn’t google how much blood is in an ox because I’ve got a weak stomach and I didn’t want to run the risk that some pictures of slaughtered cattle appearing on my screen, so I skipped the Google search, but I would imagine there’s a lot of blood, right?
He takes half the blood and pours it out onto the altar and then the other half, he puts in these basins. He then reads the Book of the Covenant; this would have included the Ten Commandments and the case laws that we’ve been looking at the last few weeks.
And they respond, similar to how they responded in verse 3, look at the second half of verse 7:
v. 7b: And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”
This part of the scene is similar, in some ways, to a modern wedding ceremony, right?
I’ve officiated quite a few weddings and when I do I look at the couple getting married and I exhort them, I challenge them, I give them a list of things that God expects from them, in how they are to live with their spouse, and they make the commitment by saying, “I do.”
That’s sort of what Moses is doing here, he’s giving them the list, the commands, and they respond with an “I do.”
They say, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” Then, look at what Moses does. Look at verse 8.
v. 8: And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” Okay, that’s something that we would NOT do at a modern wedding ceremony, right?
Moses “threw” the blood at them, all that blood that was in those basins, he threw it at them. Now, I don’t know how he did this. Did he have like a soup ladle? Or did he have a towel and dunked and waived it around? Or did he just pour it out? I have no idea, the Bible doesn’t give a clear picture, but the blood is going everywhere.
And it had to be a lot. Remember, this is a large group, hundreds of thousands of people. That’s a lot of blood, and it would have been very messy.
They are being covered by blood, and the last time they would have seen this sort of imagery would’ve been during the Passover.
Several months earlier they were still in Egypt. God was in the process of demonstrating his power to Pharaoh through the ten plagues. And then the 10th came.
As we read in Exodus 11, God says at “midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die… there shall be a great cry throughout the land of Egypt, such as there has never been.” But of course, God gives the Israelites instructions. God tells them to sacrifice a “[lamb] without blemish…” and “to put the blood of the lamb” on the outside of the door… and God said that when he passed through the land of Egypt that night, he would Passover the homes covered by blood.
So, here in Exodus 24 we see it again, those covered by blood are the ones that will experience God’s mercy. Now, this altar scene, this ratification ceremony here in Exodus 24, this is not the first time we see this and certainly not the last. Most notably, we’ll something like this again in Exodus 29 with the ordination and establishment of the priesthood.
When we examine these types of sacrifices, these covenantal ratification ceremonies, we notice a key thing: The animal being killed, it should have been us. When these Israelites watched those oxen being slaughtered, they would have looked upon those animals and would have known, that they deserved to be on that altar for their sins.
And it’s the same for us with Jesus; when we imagine Jesus on that cross, we know, it should have been us, it should have been me, should have been you. That’s an important thing to remember.
They Saw God
Okay, let’s continue. Look at verse 9:
v. 9: Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel.
There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. Moses and some of the other leaders go up the mountain, and it says that they “saw” God. Now, if you’re a good student of the Bible, you might pause and ask yourself, “I thought no one can see God and live, right?”
In Exodus 33, God says to Moses, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” But this is unique language, and here’s why I say that.
In that same chapter, Exodus 33, it says that the Lord would “speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.”
In Numbers 12 it says that God spoke with Moses “mouth-to-mouth” but we know that God does not have a mouth.
In Deuteronomy 26:8 we read that God rescued the Israelites from Egypt with a “mighty hand” and with “an outstretched arm…”
Here’s the thing, God does not have a face, or a mouth, or a hand, or an arm. In John 4:24 it says that God is Spirit. In Exodus 33, Moses asks to see God’s face, God says no, but says he can see his “back.” Well, God doesn’t have a back either.
This is what we call anthropomorphic language. Certainly, many of you are familiar with this. Just in case you’re not, anthropomorphic language is when we use human attributes to describe non-human things. The Biblical authors use this type of language.
When God says he speaks to Moses face-to-face or mouth-to-mouth, he means that Moses and the Lord have a very close relationship, an intimate friendship. Moses reveres the Lord, and he trusts the Lord.
And when God says you cannot see my face and live, he’s basically saying there are some things that you cannot handle. There’s some things God won’t reveal.
God can reveal some portions of himself and give us some insight into his own glory, but then there’s other things that we cannot see, they would be far too intense for us to handle. So here, when it says that they saw God, it simply means God revealed himself to them in a way that they could handle. They saw some portion of the glory of God.
They see this pavement made of blue sapphires and these gems are as clear as possible, they are the most beautiful sapphires you could ever imagine. And this is not the only time in Scripture that this description is given. We see similar descriptions given twice in the book of Ezekiel and in the book of Revelation.
The fact that this pavement is so clear is important. It says they were “like the very heaven for clearness.” Another English translation says, it was “as clear as the sky itself.” So, we have this pavement made of clear blue sapphires, under the feet or under the footstool of God, they could see into the heavenly realm, something they could not see before. God is sending them the message, of sorts.
The Limits of the Old Covenant
Now that you’re in covenant with me, I will reveal more of myself to you. There are things you couldn’t see before, but now I’m revealing these. This is an incredible privledge! But there’s still a limit. Look at verse 11.
v. 11: And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel.
Again, this is, this is anthropomorphic language. God does not have hands like we do, right? And so, it’s basically saying, that there was a form of intimacy that was still off-limits.
They could see God’s feet, they could see what’s under his feet, they could get a glimpse of the glory of God, but they couldn’t handle if God were to place his hand on them. That’s some form of glory that they were not ready for, that was still off-limits. But they could eat with God. Look at the second half of verse 11:
v. 11: “…they beheld God, and ate and drank…”
They beheld God and they ate and drank in his presence. The fact that they could eat and drink in the presence of God without dying is an amazing act of kindness on God’s part. God was under no obligation to allow this, but he allowed it and he orchestrated it to demonstrate his kindness.
John Calvin, the 16th century pastor and theologian, he said it this way in his commentary on Exodus:
“Herein... God’s incomparable [kindness reveals] itself, when, in manifesting Himself to His elect, He does not altogether absorb and reduce them to nothing... In sum, therefore, Moses [shows] us that it was a miracle that the rulers of Israel remained safe and sound, although the terrible majesty of God had appeared to them. Herein kindness is revealed.”
God was showing his mercy and his kindness by allowing to enter into his presence where they ate, and they drank.
Church, and that’s precisely why God did it, because he loves communion with his people, with us! God has a passionate desire to abide with his people. And for us to see his glory.
And that is why God did all of this. God rescued them from Egypt and established this covenant, so that he could commune with the ones he loves, his own people. God has had this strong desire to commune with his people. All of this, all that God has been doing in Exodus, all that God has been doing throughout all of the Scripture, is because God longs to abide with his people.
In the second half of this chapter, Moses goes back up the mountain by himself, only Joshua goes with him, and the rest of the leaders go back with the rest of Israel. And as Moses goes up the mountain, Joshua has to stay at a distance, he cannot get as close to God as Moses does.
There are these limits. Moses gets to enjoy this presence and he receives revelation directly from God for 40 days and 40 nights, but no one else.
But, of course, there would come a time when that would change.
Not long after the events of Exodus 24, God would graciously allow the people to build the Tabernacle and God would dwell among them. That was an incredible privilege and massive step forward for God’s people.
But, of course, even that was still limited. There would come a time when God would avail himself to all of us, and that became a reality at the cross.
On the night that Jesus was betrayed, Jesus takes the cup, and he says, “this cup is the cup of the new covenant.”
When he says that, there are overtones from this moment in Exodus 24, Jesus is alluded back to this moment in Exodus 24 when the first covenant was inaugurated with blood. It was a covenant that allowed God’s people to enter into the presence of God.
God Pursues Us
Our God is the God that will go to great lengths so that his people can enter into his presence. He was this way in the Old Testament for the nation of Israel, and he’s certainly this way with us today.
Jesus told this parable in Luke 15:
He said: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders.”
Jesus is making it clear: God pursues us, he chases after us, he goes the distance. Jesus did what was necessary to save us!
I once heard Pastor John Piper say this in a sermon:
“God in eternity looked upon me and he said, ‘I want that man in my family! I will pay for him to be in my family with my son’s life.’ That’s love folks, that is mega, off the charts love!”
God saw you, he chose you, and he did what it took to get you into his family! Jesus did what it took. Jesus chose to enter the human story, he became a man, he lived among us, he suffered all the pain this world has to offer.
He lived the life we should have lived, but we couldn’t, and he died the death that we deserved, in our place, in my place, in your place. And then, on the third day, he defeated death, he rose from the grave.
And now, today, for all who trust in Jesus, we shall have everlasting life.
The Old Covenant had great value for the Israelites. But the new covenant, this covenant that was ratified by Jesus with his own blood, this new covenant. It’s better than the Old Covenant.
Hebrews 9:11: “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.”
Jesus secured our eternal redemption. Jesus made it possible for us to enter the presence of God.
So, what do we do this?
Well, we all sin. We all fail. And in those moments, many of us will be tempted to believe a lie; this is the lie that we often believe is that because we sinned, we cannot enter into God’s presence. We cannot pursue intimacy with the almighty.
But here’s the truth: No matter how much you’ve sinned this week.
No matter how bad you’ve failed, and no matter where you’ve been, or what you’ve done, you can come to Jesus.
He is the one that went to great lengths to make it possible for you to approach him. I exhort you this morning church, in your moments of failure and sin and shame, run to Jesus, throw yourself on the mercy of God, he loves you!!!!
And friends, you privledge to do that, to come to him, because Jesus purchased that privledge for you at the cross.
The Table
And now we come to the table, to remember the eternal redemption that Jesus secured for us. This meal is open to anyone here who is a follower of Jesus. If you are here this morning and you are a follower of Jesus Christ, we invite you to participate in this meal with us.
However, if you are here this morning, and you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, if that’s not you, then we would ask for you not to participate in this meal, and when the bread and the juice come by, just let it pass.
But don’t let the moment pass by you.
If you are not a follower of Jesus, instead of taking part in this meal with us this morning, I implore you, take Christ instead.
If you want to talk to anyone about that, we would love to talk to you about that, just come on up after the service, we’d love to have a conversation with you about what it means to follow Jesus.
Cities Church, his body is the true bread.
His blood is the true drink.
Let us serve you.