Exodus Chapter 24
The Covenant Is Made
The covenant between God and Israel reached its formal ratification in Exodus chapter 24, where the people, Moses, and the appointed leaders entered into a solemn agreement under divine authority. This moment not only finalized the giving of the Law but also illustrated the seriousness of Israel’s relationship with the LORD under the Mosaic covenant.
The Signing of the Mosaic Covenant
(Exodus 24:1–3)
“Now He said to Moses, ‘Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy 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 him.’ 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.’”
God invited Moses, along with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders, to ascend the mountain. Yet, while the elders could approach only to a point, Moses alone was permitted to draw near to God. This separation emphasized the holiness of God and the mediatorial role of Moses. The others could worship from afar, but the privilege of intimate communion with God belonged to Moses alone. In this we see the foreshadowing of Christ, the ultimate Mediator who alone has direct access to the Father on behalf of His people.
Moses, acting as the messenger of God, relayed all the divine words and judgments to the congregation of Israel. The people, moved by the gravity of the revelation and the awe of Sinai, answered in unison, pledging their obedience: “All the words which the LORD has said we will do.” Their response reflected zeal and good intention, yet it also revealed a measure of overconfidence. They did not yet understand the depth of human sin or the impossibility of perfectly keeping the law apart from divine grace. A nation that had just witnessed God’s power and majesty could only respond with submission, yet their pledge would soon be tested in the wilderness.
The Nation Confirms Their Covenant
(Exodus 24:4–8)
“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 twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent 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, 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.’”
The covenant required more than words of agreement; it demanded action and sacrifice. Moses began by recording “all the words of the LORD.” God’s commandments were not to be entrusted to memory or oral tradition alone but were to be written for preservation and transmission. The written Word became the permanent testimony of God’s covenant, establishing a divine record that transcended human recollection.
Next, Moses constructed an altar and twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes, symbolizing unity in their commitment before God. He appointed young men—likely the strongest and most able among the people—to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings. The burnt offerings represented atonement and total consecration to God, while the peace offerings symbolized fellowship and communion with Him. The use of young men, before the establishment of a priestly order, underscored the practical and communal nature of this early act of worship.
Moses then divided the sacrificial blood, sprinkling half on the altar to signify God’s part in the covenant and reserving half for the people. The altar represented God’s presence, while the sprinkling upon the people demonstrated their participation and acceptance. The covenant thus united both parties in a solemn bond, sealed by blood. The blood symbolized life itself, as declared in Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” It represented life given in substitution and the seriousness of covenantal relationship with a holy God.
Moses read aloud from the “Book of the Covenant” to the assembled people, ensuring that their agreement was based on divine revelation, not assumption. Once again, the people affirmed, “All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient.” Their repeated commitment demonstrated sincerity, yet it also highlighted human frailty apart from God’s enabling grace.
Finally, Moses completed the ceremony by sprinkling the remaining blood upon the people, declaring, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words.” The act marked the binding seal of the Mosaic covenant. This pattern—divine revelation, human response, sacrifice, and the application of blood—would later be mirrored and fulfilled in the New Covenant through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ.
Jesus referenced this very framework when He instituted the Lord’s Supper, saying in Matthew 26:28, “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Similarly, the writer of Hebrews explained the ongoing sanctifying power of Christ’s covenant blood: Hebrews 13:20–21 states, “Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
Thus, the Mosaic covenant at Sinai foreshadowed the ultimate and perfect covenant through Christ. Both involved the reading of God’s Word, the necessity of sacrifice, the response of faith and obedience, and the sealing by blood. The old covenant anticipated the new, and through the blood of Christ, the covenant relationship between God and His people is eternally secured.
B. The Elders and Priests of Israel with God on Sinai
After the covenant was ratified through sacrifice and the sprinkling of blood, God allowed select leaders of Israel to witness a remarkable manifestation of His presence. What follows in Exodus 24:9–18 demonstrates both the majesty of God and the unique access granted to Moses as mediator of the covenant.
The Elders of Israel Meet with God
(Exodus 24:9–11)
“Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in 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 drank.”
Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel ascended the mountain at God’s command. In this rare and sacred moment, “they saw the God of Israel.” Yet the passage carefully limits the description to what was beneath His feet, indicating that the vision did not reveal the fullness of God’s essence. What they beheld was most likely a visible manifestation of His glory, akin to the visions later described by Isaiah and Ezekiel. Isaiah wrote, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1). Ezekiel described, “And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it” (Ezekiel 1:26). Both prophets witnessed only an accommodated revelation of the divine glory, for as Exodus 33:20 later records, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”
The description of what was “under His feet” being “a paved work of sapphire stone” conveys transcendence and majesty. The sapphire, with its deep blue hue, likely reflected the purity and serenity of heaven itself, for the text says, “it was like the very heavens in its clarity.” The elders may have witnessed the “sea of glass like crystal” seen by John before God’s throne in Revelation 4:6. This imagery evokes purity, perfection, and the untouchable holiness of God’s presence.
The statement, “But on the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand,” indicates that although they were in proximity to divine glory, God spared them from judgment. In the Old Testament, to “lay a hand” often symbolized power exercised in judgment or destruction. Here, His mercy preserved them. Yet this vision was incomplete, for they were permitted to see God’s manifested glory but not to commune directly with Him. This was not the face-to-face intimacy that Moses alone later experienced (Exodus 33:11). The word translated “nobles” literally means “cornerstones” or “corner pegs,” symbolizing those of high standing or strength among the people.
The concluding phrase, “So they saw God, and they ate and drank,” portrays covenant fellowship. The meal served both as a seal of covenantal peace and as an act of worship. In ancient Near Eastern culture, eating together signified fellowship and reconciliation. By eating and drinking before God, these elders participated in a symbolic communion, affirming peace with the Almighty who had just entered into covenant with them. This parallels the sacrificial peace offering described earlier, which often concluded with a communal meal in God’s presence.
This scene beautifully portrays the balance of divine transcendence and grace: God is infinitely holy and unapproachable in His full glory, yet He condescends to fellowship with His covenant people. These men ate and drank in the presence of God—ordinary acts sanctified by extraordinary proximity to the divine. F. B. Meyer once noted that in this moment, the natural and supernatural intersected: some eat and drink and do not behold God, some behold God and forget to eat and drink, but these men beheld God and ate and drank, showing that true communion with Him sanctifies even the common activities of life.
Moses Ascends Further to Meet with God
(Exodus 24:12–18)
“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and 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 Hur 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 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. So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.”
After this vision, God summoned Moses higher still: “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there.” The command not only called for ascent but for lingering in the divine presence. God would now give Moses “the tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written,” a tangible and permanent record of His covenant with Israel. The Lord Himself inscribed these tablets, emphasizing that divine law originates not from man’s wisdom but from God’s authority. Moses’ role was to “teach them,” serving as the conduit of divine revelation.
Moses was accompanied by Joshua, his young assistant, who had already demonstrated faithfulness during the battle with Amalek (Exodus 17:8–16). Joshua’s presence here foreshadows his later role as Israel’s leader. Yet even here, Joshua stopped short of full ascent, for only Moses entered the divine cloud. This established a divine hierarchy: the nation waited below, the elders stood partway up, Joshua went further, and Moses alone entered the immediate presence of God.
Before ascending, Moses entrusted leadership of the camp to Aaron and Hur, saying, “If any man has a difficulty, let him go to them.” These two men had previously assisted Moses in prayer and intercession, holding up his hands during Israel’s battle (Exodus 17:10–13). Despite this vote of confidence, their later failure during the golden calf incident would demonstrate the frailty of human leadership apart from divine dependence.
The text then describes the visible manifestation of God’s glory: “A cloud covered the mountain… the glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai.” The word “rested” (Hebrew šākēn) later gives rise to the term shekinah, denoting God’s dwelling presence among His people. The same concept is echoed in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” where “dwelt” literally means “tabernacled.” The glory that once covered Sinai would later dwell among men in the person of Jesus Christ.
For six days the cloud enveloped the mountain, and on the seventh day God called to Moses from its midst. The divine delay underscored God’s unapproachable holiness and the necessity of reverence in drawing near to Him. When the children of Israel gazed upward, they saw the glory of the LORD as “a consuming fire.” This appearance, radiant and terrifying, confirmed that their covenant God was a God of holy fire—pure, consuming, and glorious. It reminded them that sin cannot survive in His presence.
Moses entered the cloud, vanishing from view, and remained there forty days and forty nights. This period symbolizes testing and preparation, seen again in the lives of Elijah (1 Kings 19:8) and Jesus (Matthew 4:2). During these forty days, Moses would receive the commandments, the design of the tabernacle, and the divine instructions that would govern Israel’s worship and national life.
This moment marks the height of Sinai’s revelation: Moses entering into divine fellowship as mediator of the covenant. It foreshadows Christ, who would ascend into heaven to intercede eternally for His people. The mountain burned with fire, yet God called Moses into its midst—an act of both awe and grace. Likewise, through Christ’s blood, believers are invited to draw near to God without fear. As Hebrews 4:16 declares, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
