The Blood of the Covenant

Today we return to the book of Exodus and pick up our study in chapter 24. With the giving of the Ten Commandments and the Book of the Law in chapters 20–23, the essential terms of God’s covenant with Israel were established. After that was the official ratification of the covenant, the record of which begins in today’s passage.

To seal and enact the covenant, God called Aaron, Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel to join Him on the mountain (24:1). Aaron and his sons represented the priesthood that would soon be formally ordained (see 28:1), and the elders represented the rest of the nation. These men could draw nearer to the Lord than the rest of Israel, yet only Moses could come closer still (24:2). This stresses his role as the mediator of the covenant and shows that while God truly entered into a loving covenant relationship with His people at Sinai, He did not at that time provide a way for all believers to enter His presence. Such open access would not occur until the sacrifice of Christ (see Heb. 10:19–21).

After the Israelites committed again to keeping the covenant (Ex. 24:3; see 19:8), Moses made final preparations for enacting the covenantal bond. First, he “wrote down all the words of the Lord” (Ex. 24:4). God’s covenants with His people have written documents—namely, the Scriptures—that covenant members must read and follow. Then, Moses built an altar and erected twelve pillars to represent the twelve tribes of Israel that would be covenanting with the Lord (v. 4).

On the altar that Moses built, the people offered burnt offerings and peace offerings of oxen, the most valuable of animals in that day (v. 5). In burnt offerings, the entirety of the animal was offered up to God in order to propitiate—turn away—His wrath against sin (see Lev. 1; 16), and in peace offerings, part of the animal was offered to God and the worshiper ate the other portion of the sacrifice to signify that he was at peace with the Lord (7:11–18). We will consider the significance of the peace offering a bit more in our next study. Moses then took blood from the offerings and threw some of it on the altar and some of it on the people (Ex. 24:6, 8). The blood evidenced that atonement had been made and was a symbol of the life that the people enjoyed as they trusted in God and proved that trust by keeping the demands of the covenant. That the blood was shed pointed to the consequence of death for impenitent covenant breakers.