ESOCS Devotional 21 April 2024 – The Blood of the Covenant
MEMORY VERSE: ”And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.” Exodus 24:8
TEXT: EXODUS 24:1-11
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. 2 And Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come near; nor shall the people go up with him.”
3 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.” 4 And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. 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. 5 Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. 6 And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 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.” 8 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.”
9 Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, 10 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. 11 But on the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand. So they saw God, and they ate and drank.
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In Exodus 24:1-2, God told Moses that Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel were going to come up the mountain and worship from afar. But Moses alone was going to come near the Lord. No one else was going to come near the Lord.
Once again, an important point is being made. Only Moses could come near to God. Aaron and two of his sons along with the seventy elders were going to worship on the mountain but they were to do so from afar. Only Moses could come near to God. We have seen through the book of Exodus that Jesus is the new Moses, which the gospels repeatedly paint for us in those accounts: Only Moses could come near and no one else.
Moses came to the people and told them all the words the Lord spoke and all of His just decrees. Listen to the response of the people: “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” They committed themselves to the covenant. God decreed the terms of the covenant and the people agreed. Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars (24:4). The twelve pillars represented the twelve tribes of Israel and the altar represented the presence of God. Burnt offerings and peace offerings were made to God. Moses took half of the blood and threw it against the altar (v 6). Then, He took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. The people, after hearing the terms of the covenant, again responded, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” They declared their allegiance to the covenant. Moses took the blood and threw it all over the people (v 8). He said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” This is the sealing of the covenant between God and the people.
Blood is the basis for the relationship with God. God is teaching the people that the way to have a relationship with God is through blood. The blood sprinkled on the people indicated that they were now in a covenant relationship with God. They were now His people. They were marked as belonging to God. The New Testament implications of this image are staggering, showing us the role of Jesus and our belonging to the covenant.
- How strongly do you feel about the covenant in the blood of Jesus? How well do you respect it?
- Lord, help me to abide by the principles of the covenant in the blood of Jesus.
Further Reading: Jeremiah 11;18-20; John 15:18-end; Ephesians 2:11-18
ESOCS Devotional 21 April 2024
