Exodus 24 – The Covenant Confirmed
Thoughts about serving others
This link includes a list of posts about Serving the Least, the Lost, and the Lonely.
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Let the Word evoke words. May your life encourage lives.
It’s most interesting to note the devotion and commitment of “the people” here in Exodus 24, “Everything the Lord has said we will do” (24:3) and Moses “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'” (24:7). It’s interesting because just after this, Moses goes up on the mountain to be with God for 40 days and nights and in Exodus 32 we learn “the people” have crafted a golden calf to worship in his absence. Their devotion does not appear to be so complete after all. Before I jump onto my high horse of self-righteousness, I wonder how many times I have said the words, “I will obey,” then turned aside at the next temptation.
Moses records that he, “and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel” and “God did not raise his hand against these leaders…they saw God, and they ate and drank” (24:9-11). The NIV Study Bible clarifies that they did not see God in form, “not in the fullness of his glory,” so this is a confusing, did they see God or not? In Exodus 33, “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (33:11), however, God continues, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live” (33:20). So to see God as we would see another human is beyond our reach, but to see God in all that is around us is encouraged. The most provocative thought about seeing God comes from an understanding that God is beyond human flesh and bones, though we want to see him as a person, he is, after all, God. When we have attained heavenly form, then we will see God with eyes that can understand what we’re looking at, until then, the imagery presented throughout the Bible will have to suffice.