Exodus 24 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Exodus 24:1-4

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. 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.

A. Find Out:

1. Who did the Lord call? v.1
2. Who was to come near and who not? v.1c,2
3. What did Moses go and do? v.3a
4. What response did he get? v.3b
5. What did he then do? v.4a
6. What did he do next morning? v.4b

B. Think:

1. Reread 20:21. Where has Moses been hearing the Lord?
2. So what does he next have to do?
3. And what will follow that?

C. Comment:

     Moses, you will remember from Study No.9, has gone up the mountain a fourth time and it was on this occasion that he received the various laws that we have been considering. At the end of this conversation with the Lord, the Lord instructs him to bring near the priestly leaders and the seventy elders. So, according to the instructions, there will be the people at the bottom, the leaders will be part way up, and Moses further up meeting with the Lord.

     So the next thing is for Moses to go down the mountain and convey this to the people and the leaders. However, before giving the new instructions to come up to the leaders, Moses conveys to the people all the laws the Lord has spoken to him. It has evidently been a very vivid encounter and he is able to come down and recount all of these laws which he then writes down (v.4). The next step will be to prepare the leaders to meet with the Lord on the mountainside.

    We have thus seen how the first set of the Law has been conveyed to Israel from the Lord. The Lord spoke it and Moses wrote it. This did not include the Ten Commandments which the Lord spoke and then conveyed on two slabs of stone. In that sense they stood out and above the rest of the law conveyed by the Lord.

D. Application:

1. The Ten Commandments are of particular importance being spoken by God and then written in stone by God.
2. The other laws were important, spoken by God, written by Moses.

Passage: Exodus 24:4-8

4 Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said.

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.’

A. Find Out:

1. What did Moses do next morning? v.4b
2. Who did he then instruct to do what? v.5
3. What did Moses do with the blood? v.6
4. What did he then read and with what response? v.7
5. What did he then do with the remaining blood? v.8
6. Read also Heb 9:18-22, Mt 26:28

B. Think:

1. What did we say earlier blood represented?
2. Why do you think blood played such a big part here?
3. What was actually taking place here?

C. Comment:

       When you stop to think of what was happening here it is quite ghastly! A number of animals (possibly one for each tribe) are killed and the blood drained off. The meat is either burnt (symbolically given to God in the burnt offering), or eaten (fellowship offering), and the drained off blood saved for use. Large amounts of this red liquid is gruesome.

      We saw earlier in the Note after Study 21 that blood represents the life of a creature (Lev 17:11 ). These animals are dead because this blood has been taken from them. It represents their life. But it gets worse. Half of this large amount of blood is sprinkled over the altar. It’s not poured out. That is too easy and too quick. It is sprinkled. It’s like you might decorate a wall by sprinkling it with a different colour. It is slow and systematic and you have time to think about it. This altar is being covered slowly with the life of other creatures.

     But it gets worse. The other half of this drained off blood Moses now sprinkles over the people. Imagine standing there and being splattered with this blood. Yuck! Messy and horrible. Everyone is the same. You have been covered with the sign of the life of another. This is the sign of the covenant. You have to be covered with the signs of someone else’s life, someone who gave their life so that you can live, someone who stood in for you and took the capital punishment due to you for your sins. What a picture!

D. Application:

1. To walk with God your sins have to be dealt with.
2. Sins are dealt with by another taking your punishment.

Passage: Exodus 24:9-18

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.

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 assistant, 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.

A. Find Out:

1. Who went up and saw God? v.9,10
2. What did they see and what happened? v.10,11
3. What did the Lord tell Moses to do and why? v.12,13
4. What provision did Moses make for the people? v.14
5. What happened on the mountain in the next seven days? v.15-17
6. How long did Moses stay up there? v.18

B. Think:

1. What seemed to be the first level of revelation, involving who?
2. What was the next level of revelation involving who
3. What seemed to happen at the two levels?

C. Comment:

     The Covenant has been made with the giving of the law and the reading of it and agreement to it by the people (v.3,7), followed by the ceremonial sacrifices and sprinkling of blood. One further thing remains for oriental agreements to be finalised, a covenant meal, and so Moses, Joshua, the priests and the elders go part way up the mountain and eat in the presence of the Lord. Here they are allowed a partial revelation of the Lord, for all that is described is the place where He stood. Yet this they are allowed to see and live. From here Moses is called alone higher up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments from the Lord in the form of the tablets of stone.

     Moses initially takes Joshua, his servant, presumably who stops part way and acts a check to stop anyone else coming up. Moses continues up. A cloud comes down on the mountain top accompanied by the glory of the Lord, seen by the people below as fire. For six days Moses has to wait alone and on the seventh the Lord joins him, so to speak. Moses stays on the mountain for well over a month. Why? Presumably to commune with God and to receive the further revelation that is next given in the book. It is often assumed that Moses fasted but it may be that he took supplies from the fellowship offering that had just been made.

D. Application:

1. God is the one who always takes the initiative. Let Him lead.
2. God brings revelation of Himself to who He will. He is sovereign.