The Covenant Ceremony
1 Then he said to Moses, “Go up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders, d and bow in worship at a distance. 2 Moses alone is to approach the LORD, but the others are not to approach, and the people are not to go up with him.”
3 Moses came and told the people all the commands of the LORD and all the ordinances. Then all the people responded with a single voice, “We will do everything that the LORD has commanded.” e 4 And Moses wrote f down all the words of the LORD. He rose early the next morning and set up an altar and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel at the base of the mountain. 5 Then he sent out young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD. 6 Moses took half the blood and set it in basins; the other half of the blood he splattered on the altar. 7 He then took the covenant scroll and read it aloud to the people. They responded, “We will do and obey all that the LORD has commanded.”
8 Moses took the blood, splattered it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you concerning all these words.” g
9 Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders, 10 and they saw h the God of Israel. Beneath his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as clear as the sky itself. i 11 God did not harm the Israelite nobles; they saw j him, and they ate and drank.
12 The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay there so that I may give you the stone tablets k with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”
13 So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua and went up the mountain of God. l 14 He told the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. Aaron and Hur are here with you. Whoever has a dispute should go to them.” 15 When Moses went up the mountain, the cloud m covered it. 16 The glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day he called to Moses from the cloud. n 17 The appearance of the LORD’S glory to the Israelites was like a consuming fire o on the mountaintop. 18 Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. p
E. Covenant ratification (24:1–18). 24:1–2. Only Moses is allowed to approach the Lord (24:2). Those invited to ascend the mountain are granted a vision of the God of Israel while the people worship at a distance. The representative leaders include Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders (24:1). Nadab and Abihu are the eldest two sons of Aaron (Ex 6:23), who later bring unauthorized fire into the presence of the Lord and are consumed by fire (Lv 10:1–2). One of the possible explanations of that rash deed stems from this ceremony. Their privileged position here goes to their heads, and they presume to be able again to enter into the Lord’s presence when the tabernacle proceedings are inaugurated. The seventy elders are recognized leaders (cf. Nm 11:16).
24:3–8. Moses repeats to the people what the Lord has said, they promise to be obedient, and Moses writes down the contents of the covenant in preparation for the ratification ceremony (24:3). Moses also builds an altar and sets up the symbolic twelve stones, and young Israelite men sacrifice burnt offerings and fellowship offerings (24:4–5). While the purposes and procedures for these sacrifices are later detailed in Lv 1–4, the offerings are already known to the Israelites, as their idolatrous worship of the golden calf demonstrates (Ex 32:6). Possibly, as Moses wrote these accounts later, he described what happened in terms that were familiar to those who knew the sacrificial procedures. The Israelite young men, representative of the people, slaughter the animals, while Moses mediates by sprinkling the blood (24:6).
24:9–11. The Israelites’ vision of God corresponds in abbreviated fashion to significant aspects of Ezekiel’s vision into heaven. The clear pavement of lapis lazuli under God’s “feet” (24:10) sets apart the presence of God’s throne just as does the expanse gleaming “like awe-inspiring crystal” above the heads of the living creatures and below the throne (Ezk 1:22–26). Some of these same features reappear in the final throne vision of Rv 4. In every case the glory of God overwhelms its audience. Not only do these invited participants see God; they eat and drink in his presence, symbolizing the relationship established by this covenant (24:11).
24:12–18. Following the communal meal the Lord summons Moses to ascend the mountain and receive the tablets of stone on which the Lord has written the torah (24:12). Joshua, not part of the covenant ratification group, accompanies Moses. Aaron and Hur, of the tribes of Levi and Judah, are appointed as caretakers in their absence (24:13–14). Moses is called into the cloud, leaving the human sphere and venturing where no one has ever gone. The glory of God appears to the people as a fire that is consuming (24:15–17). It is no wonder they question if Moses will ever return. Moses remains on the mountain for forty days and nights to receive the instructions for the construction of the tabernacle and the preparation of the priesthood (24:18; cf. 25:40; 26:30; 27:8). When the glory of the Lord covers the mountain, it is a prelude to his presence manifested in the forthcoming tabernacle, God’s dwelling in the midst of his people. The tabernacle is only a copy and shadow of God’s heavenly dwelling (Heb 8:5; 9:24).