Exodus 24 - I AM Your Covenant

[Music] open up your bibles to the book of exodus chapter 24. father in heaven we ask you now that as we come before your word lord we don't literally take our our shoes off as in a holy place but lord certainly in the attitude and the disposition of our heart we do exactly that we come now humbly before your word recognizing it as a holy place and we ask that you the great god speak to our life do it now lord in jesus name amen exodus chapter 24 beginning now at verse 1. now he said to moses come up to the lord you and aaron nadab and abihu and 70 of the elders of israel and worship from afar and moses alone shall come near the lord but they shall not come near nor shall the people go up with them 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 israel was camped out at the base of mount sinai and god had already revealed himself in a dramatic even a frightening way to the nation as he descended down in power and glory upon the summit of mount sinai and not that they saw a physical form it's not that they saw a actual being come down to the mountain that they saw the fire and they smelled the smoke and they could feel the earthquake under their feet all these different emblems of god's presence were so manifest there that they knew god was present upon that mountain and then he spoke to them from heaven the ten commandments but then following the ten commandments god gave the judges of israel sort of a series of case law operating principles under which they could lead and govern the nation and that was exodus chapters 21 22 and 23 which we've spoken about on previous sundays and that we've gone through in great depth on those conversational expositions but now after all of that god speaks to the people of israel and he says i'm calling up to me in moses and the leadership of israel look at it there in verse 1 it says come up to the lord you and aaron nadab and abihu and 70 of the elders of israel god's saying i want you select few to come up to me on the mount i've got some special business to do with you and so as a preparation for doing that moses comes now down among the people and if you look at it right there in verse 3 it says so moses came and told the people all the words of the lord and all the judgments now he explained to them what god had revealed in chapters 21 22-23 all those minute laws all those examples all those things that set forth the character of god and the heart of god before them he said look these are the principles on which god wants us to be a people before him and then you'd say how would the people react look at how they reacted verse 3 says all the people answered with one voice and verse 3 says that they answered all the words which the lord has said we will do do you ever get the feeling that sometimes we answer too quick and too easily to god as if moses lays out all these laws that declare who god is and how he wants to be among israel and how do the people respond yeah sure god sounds great no problem there you just tell us what to do and we'll do it now any of you know anything about the subsequent history of israel did it exactly work out that way but you know don't we sometimes find ourselves in the same place we're a little too quick maybe a little too glib with god we failed to do what jesus said we must do and that is to count the cost before we say we're going to come and follow him in the way that he's leading us and i see israel here under a good intention and no doubt under the ah that was before them at mount sinai they're failing to carefully consider okay what does this really require of me therefore it's as if god won't let them off that easily god says okay you're serious about this i'm not going to merely take your word as an approval of this no let's go deeper than your mere word let's make a covenant and as we begin now on verse 4 i'm going to ask you to do something that i've asked you to do many many times but i'm going to ask you to do it all over again i want you to really picture this scene as i read it to you starting at verse 4 let's look at it together and i want you to visualize this scene happening as we read it 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 12 pillars according to the 12 tribes of israel then he sent the young men of the children of israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the lord and moses took half the blood and put it in basins and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar 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 and moses took the blood and 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 ladies and gentlemen there are certain turning points in the history of any people and this right here what we read in verses 4 through 8 of exodus chapter 24 was one of the absolute turning points and marking points in the history of israel this is where they entered in to solemn covenant with god a covenant that would define and sort of define the contours of israel existence even unto this very day notice how it began verse 4 tells us that moses wrote all the words of the law those ten commandments that god spoke out on sinai moses wrote him down the the detailed laws in exodus chapters 21 22 23 moses wrote them all down it wasn't enough just to reserve it to memory or to human recollection no no it had to be written down they must specifically understand and consider the things that god wanted them to enter into covenant about god wasn't going to let it just be an easy breezy oh you hear something okay that's fine with me no let's write it out this wasn't going to be just a verbal handshake so to speak no the covenant would be written out and it would be laid out before the people so they perfectly understood what they were going into i want you to notice something god did not write out an individual covenant for each individual member of the nation of israel no god gave one covenant for all the people and ladies john i want you to think about this carefully the same is true today the same is true today god has one covenant that he deals with mankind about you have a personal relationship with god it's true now maybe it's a good relationship or a bad relationship but you have a personal relationship with god but what you don't have is you don't have your own private agreement with god you don't have your own secret covenant with god that nobody else has and what do i mean by that oh let's face it we we live here in the united states of america we live here in this culture that really prizes or at least in its ethics as does some people think we're moving away from it but at least in our fabric we prize this idea of individual rights and the initiative of the individual and it's all about the individual and sometimes people get it in their minds that they have their own private covenant with god what do i mean by that well let me explain i've met a person more than once in discussing with them this is how it actually works out in their mind they say well don't you know that god doesn't want you to sin in such a way then why do you do it and they say well you know it's okay between me and god as if they've sort of cut their own covenant with god where god says yeah you know that stuff of sexual morality that i expect of all those other people well no no you and i we have our own personal agreement or or you know those things about you know me being the lord over your resources over your bank account i i know i expect that of other people but but not you and there are people who believe that when it comes to the moral demands of god they have their own agreement with god that goes out of the bounds of other agreements that people have and that's not how it is you have your own personal relationship with god but you don't have your own private agreement no jesus christ comes and he says i'm going to make my covenant with my people and if you want to be a part of my people then this is the covenant that you enter into very much along the same lines the same pattern as this covenant that israel made with god back in exodus 24. here's the second thing i want you to notice about this in verse 5. it says that they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the lord covenant can only be made in the context of sacrifice first you need a written word for covenant a written word secondly you need a sacrifice you know what sacrifice does sacrifice admits our own sin and failing before god and it addresses the need of our own sin and failing through the death of a substitute we're told right here in exodus chapter 44 that oxen were sacrificed before the lord i don't expect you to get all weepy about those oxen but i will tell you this they were innocent victims those oxen hadn't done anything wrong they were fine oxen they were good oxen they could have lived out the rest of their oxen days very happily i'm sure but i'll tell you this the innocent had to die on behalf of the guilty there had to be sacrifice for the institution of the covenant and so those oxen were killed then i want you to notice something else here in verse 7 it says he took the book of the covenant and he read it in the hearing of the people so not only was there the writing of the word not only was there the death of a sacrifice but thirdly there was the hearing of god's word and the response to god's word he took the book of the covenant and he read it in front of all of god's people now again i want to stress this point our covenant with god is based on his word his terms not our own words not our own terms he offers us a covenant and that may frustrate you frustrate you i don't know maybe in your own personal life maybe you're a great negotiator maybe you're a killer deal maker and you think that you could negotiate your own deal with god that's better than what he's offered to you and i don't know maybe the experience of your life has led you to believe that but that doesn't matter if it's possible or it's impossible it just can't happen maybe you could cut a great covenant with god it just doesn't matter he's given you one option hear what he offers to you in jesus christ you see there must be a response to god's word god's word goes out and there must be a response to it verse 7 gives the response that they said they said all that the lord has said we will do and be obedient god just offers it to you i don't know sometimes i i feel like sort of building up suspense through a message and sometimes not why build up suspense i'll just cut to the quick right now jesus christ offers you the forgiveness of your sins the cleansing of your conscience new life in him based upon what he did on the cross basically it's one of those negotiations where god writes it all down for you slides it across the table and he says take it or leave it you say well no i want to renegotiate this no take it or leave it here it is it's before you well i want to add on a few you know changes or or additions or you know appendixes or whatever no here's the deal you take it or leave it i'll go my own way before you i do not want what jesus did on the cross to be my covering for sin fine you've made your deal god's offered you that covenant that contract so to speak you slid it across the table to it you looked at it you understood it you said no thank you well great at least you've made that intelligent choice if it could be called an intelligent choice because when you see the wealth the riches of what god offers to you in covenant with jesus christ oh it's precious or you you'd never turn it down if you're thinking rightly and then notice what moses did right there in verse eight this is the part i visualize so strongly because it says from all those oxen you know they would sacrifice them they would kill them by slicing the jugular vein and catching the blood that poured out with every pulse of the heart in basins and there were several oxen and you could see the steam coming off of the warm blood as it came into the basins and they would take half of the blood and lace gentlemen i don't know how much blood you're talking about i i'm not just trying to make this sound like a horror movie or something like that but really what we're talking about is buckets of blood buckets of blood and they would take half the blood and pour it out on the altar half the blood says yes lord this is yours this is an atonement for sin there was nothing magical about the blood but the blood represented the life of the victim the life of the being later on in leviticus chapter 17 it'll say this for the life of the flesh is in the blood and we understand that don't we this isn't some strange bizarre symbols we understand when blood pours out life pours out so they would catch that life so to speak in the blood they would pour out the life of that sacrificial victim half of it before the lord but then did you see what they did with the other half of the blood they went and in something i just can't wipe clean from my mind this idea of moses standing up and i don't know what he did it with i don't know if he got great big you know waving wands but he took that blood and it would be as if i stood before you here and i started sprinkling blood on you as an assembled audience and you just think that's gross it is gross it it is something offensive about it you think back i saw that oxen just a few moments ago standing upon the platform and now moses is sprinkling the blood of that sacrificial victim upon me but this is what you realize moses took the blood and he sprinkled it on the people because covenant was always made with the application of blood as the nation received the blood of the covenant the nation was sealed by that covenant there they are touched marked by the blood as that blood is sprinkled upon them it means that they are identified with this covenant that they enter into god before now on the night that jesus was betrayed the day before he would be crucified and shed his blood on the cross he got together with his disciples and he sat down for a ritualized meal it would be their celebration of the passover he sat down for a ritualized meal and jesus held a cup of wine in front of him and he said something that if you or i were there i bet our our a chill would have run up our spine when we heard him say it goosebumps would have come all over us jesus sat before his disciples and he said this he said this is my blood of a new covenant shed for many for the remission of sins jesus had the audacity to say you know all that old covenant that moses did with the people there in exodus chapter 24 hey that's great good praise the lord we're living in the light of it to this day but this cup this is the new covenant in my blood and jesus holds that cup before you today and he says come taste drink receive my covenant now i i just want you to imagine take yourself back to exodus chapter 24. you're there part of israel there gathered before a moses there in the group and you felt some of the blood splatter upon your forehead you you had the the sense that it's such a holy occasion that you didn't wipe it away not right away but you just kind of felt it there it almost burned upon your forehead but there you are you're an unbeliever matter of fact even though there you are amongst all of israel you don't even believe in yahweh you don't even believe in the god of abraham isaac and jacob then what of you is that blood somehow magical that it can be applied to you that you can be in its presence that you can be in its midst but apart from your own receiving of it by faith that does something no and even so in a few minutes this morning and isn't this a perfect morning for us to come to the lord's table together even in a few minutes as we come and take that bread and drink of that cup you could eat a thousand pieces of bread and you could drink a thousand cups but if you did not put your trust in who jesus is and what he did for you on the cross it would avail you nothing but god offers it to you here this morning he puts out covenant right before you and this covenant it's not just what gets you started in your life with god it's what makes you walk ongoing in hebrews chapter 13 jesus said that it's through the blood of the everlasting covenant that it makes us complete in every good work to do his will doesn't that sound good to you for you to be complete in every good work and to do his will that happens through the blood of the covenant that god offers to you right here right now you see we come to god through a new covenant not an old one that's why we're going to pass around in a moment pieces of bread and little cups that's why i'm not going to sprinkle ox blood upon you this morning and aren't we grateful for that i think so there's a few outfits that might need to go to the dry cleaner if we were doing that here this morning no no we come to god under a new covenant better but our covenant with god follows the same pattern first the words of god are read secondly sacrifice must be made thirdly there must be a reception of god's words and then finally there must be a reception of the blood of sacrifice ladies and gentlemen if you follow that pattern with god today you can be a part of this new covenant and israel began their old covenant at this holy occasion now when we're done there with the end of verse eight we almost whoo what a dramatic scene you know we just breathe a little bit wow what an instance for the nation but you know god has something else really spectacular in chapter 24 and i just like to spend the rest of our time here the 10 or 15 minutes whatever we have left taking a look at this starting out verse 9. look at it then moses went up also air and nadab and abihu and 70 of the elders of israel and they saw the god of israel and there was under his feet as if it were a paved work of sapphire stone it was like the very heavens and its clarity but on the nobles of the children of israel he did not lay his hand so they saw god and they ate and they drank you know what i'm a fairly confident bible expositor but there are times when i stand before you and i say i don't know exactly what this means and in verse 10 where it says and they saw the god of israel ladies general i don't know exactly what that means i think i got an inkling i think i understand it better now than i did a couple of weeks ago i tell you what it says in verse 10 it says that they saw something under his feet the idea is that they saw something of the footstool of the enthroned god i want you to notice there's no figure mentioned here there's no personal characteristic there's not a head there's not hair there's not eyes there's not a shape there's nothing described about any kind of image or person of god no not at all the only thing that says that this is this were under his feet it's almost as if god said i'm gonna display myself to you elders of israel but i'm gonna display to myself the only aspect of my being that you can see and not die at you're not going to see a thing of my outline or my image or my portion or anything like that what i'm going to do is i'm going to give you a glimpse of my footstool here you're going to see my little ottoman as it stands out before and before my throne and that's all they saw they saw something like that but it was still enough to where they could say and we saw god you know they see him in the context of this strange blue or sapphire light by the way i think it's interesting that many of the visions of heaven that we have described in the bible in the book of revelation in the book of isaiah in the book of ezekiel there's suggestions of blue color about and i don't know all what that means but it just you're going to see some blue when you get up to heaven that's all i can say i'm not saying that's the only color on the palate but it's one of them that's existing there when you go up there you're going to see that you're going to see god in a way that they couldn't but i like what it also it says very plainly about it it says there that they saw verse 10 says that they saw the paved work of sapphire stones you know what i find interesting about just a little illusion here one of the things that they made in egypt was brick paving stones and what a distance right a few months ago a year ago they were making brick paving stones and now they're seeing the sapphire paving stones of heaven what a difference in perspective what a difference that god gave to them at this point but yet there was something different here verse 11 says if you look at it but on the nobles of the children of israel he did not lay his hands you see as glorious as this experience was for the elders of israel there was something incomplete in the encounter it wasn't a face to face with god it wasn't to the same level that moses would later experience no there was something missing in this it was spectacular but it yet wasn't fulfilling yet nevertheless verse 11 says so they saw god they definitely saw something but what it was couldn't be described as i said before probably the best we could do is to say that they saw his footstool and that was enough to blow their minds but i do like what it says there in verse 11. did you notice this it says and they ate and they drank in the very presence of the lord you see god wanted them to eat and drink in his presence because he wanted to communicate a sense of fellowship with these leaders you think this is amazing eating and drinking are things that you do every day some of you doing it right now eating and drinking and things that you do every day god wants your experience with him to connect with everyday life you know i hope that you have some pretty amazing experiences with god i'm very pro amazing experiences with god i i hope that there's times when you feel like heaven has touched earth and you've just been touched by something so divine so transcendent so beautiful and powerful from the presence of god but ladies and gentlemen listen carefully to me it's wonderful for you to be touched by a great experience but it has to connect to daily life it has to connect to eating and drinking in some way in other words it needs to be related into the context of who you are every day i heard a guy express it like this once and i suppose it's a pretty good way to explain it he said it's not how high you bounce it's how straight you walk and i hope you have a nice high bounce at times with the lord a great experience and that's good but shouldn't it translate into a nice great walk after that you see and this really shows the validity of they ate and they drank they had this experience of this amazing experience with god but it was connected with everyday events the great bible teacher fb meyer he noted that eating and drinking are entirely normal daily activities and that these men's experienced god very profoundly but again in the context of things so normal and these were some observations that fb meyer said let me just share this with you briefly he said listen there are some people who eat and drink but they do not behold god in other words you live your daily life you go through the normal activities but as if god is absent from them that's not good and then there are other people he said some behold god but they don't eat and drink oh some people live their life just on some high lofty plane you know it's just off into the heavenlies every day but they just don't seem to connect much with shoe leather daily living and if b meyer said no that's not good either and he said no here's a great pattern for us some men behold god and then they eat and drink in other words they have that vital connection with god sometimes in transcendent and even spectacular ways but it always it always connects with their daily life i hope the lord touches you and meets with you when we gather here on sundays but sometimes the most encouraging thing is to hear how you're walking on monday not just with how the lord has touched you on sunday all right so this amazing experience that moses and the elders have let's wrap it up here starting at verse 12 where it says then the lord said to moses come up to me on the mountain and be there and i'll give you tablets of stone and the law of commandments which i have written that you may teach them so moses arose with his assistant joshua and moses went up to the mountain of god and he said to the elders wait here for us until we come back to you indeed aaron and her are with you if any man has a difficulty let him go to them then moses went up into the mountain and a cloud covered the mountain now the glory of the lord rested on mount sinai and the cloud covered it six days and on the seventh day he called to moses out of the midst of the cloud the site of the glory of the lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of israel so moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain and moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights now please notice what's going on here after this amazing time of connection and fellowship with god moses gets together with the elders and i don't know if they descended back down to the mountain or if they stayed at a midpoint but moses said one way or another i'm going on you guys reconnect with the camp of israel i like what he says in verse 14. he says i'm going to go up on the mountain for this extended time with god to receive something from him you guys have aaron and her with you to lead the camp aaron and her what could go wrong that's a little joke for people who know what's going to happen next but notice this verse 17 the sight of the glory of the lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of israel there it was in all of its glory and to the elders of israel and to the people of israel it said okay we'll keep our distance what did it say to moses moses said i want some of that i want to pursue that so verse 16 says that he called to moses out of the midst of the cloud friends this wasn't a tremendous welcoming place there was smoke there was fire there was a sense of great awe and awesomeness about the presence of god there was something about that environment that said stay away but god said to moses you come close to me and as harsh and as dangerous as that environment was there was something to the glory of god in it now all of these images of god's glory the smoke the cloud the fire the the the the just the transcendent sense of his glory upon that mountain although that plays pales it fades in connection to who jesus is and how he has revealed the glory of god to us but in all of this god said to moses what he says to you and i right now you can draw near to me i will keep myself safe and reveal myself to you i'm pretty excited because in the following chapters that we have in the book of exodus we're going to see moses draw near and experience something that i hope god ignites a fire with in your heart but he's speaking to us right now you can draw near to me here i am come up to me but he lays it all out before you now on the basis of his covenant god's daring you this morning he's daring you to draw near to him on the basis of his covenant in just a few moments pastor nate's going to come on up and do something that i think is just absolutely holy in our midst he's going to bring us before the lord's table and we're going to act out this covenant and receive it into ourselves i dare you to draw near to god in this way that moses has except an even better way by the blood of jesus not some not some poor ox father this is my prayer lord while the old covenant said stay away we know that you under your new covenant you say come near to me so we want to be like moses who draw who drew himself near to you lord god right here right now at this holy moment of your invitation and i pray god i pray that for at least a few in this room you would meet them closely and you would touch them deeply maybe in a way they weren't even expecting here today but jesus i pray that you'd connect it to their real life that we would be those who experience you and walk with you afterwards thank you jesus we look to you this morning and it's in your name we pray amen [Music] you

Channel: David Guzik

Views: 1,790

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Keywords: david guzik, guzik, enduring word, exodus 24, i am your coventant, covenant, ten commandments, mount sinai, moses, aaron, israel, people of israel, mosaic covenant

Id: gzc7rUezN5Y

Length: 36min 2sec (2162 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 02 2020