Scripture Daily

Context No. 716 of 4322 · Exodus

Context · Reflection

Exodus 24:1-7: in context

1He said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD, you, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship from a distance. 2Moses alone shall come near to the LORD, but they shall not come near. The people shall not go up with him.” 3Moses came and told the people all the LORD’s words, and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, “All the words which the LORD has spoken will we do.” 4Moses wrote all the LORD’s words, then rose up early in the morning and built an altar at the base of the mountain, with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. 5He sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of cattle to the LORD. 6Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “We will do all that the LORD has said, and be obedient.”

After the thunder of the commandments and the laws that follow, the covenant is made official, and Exodus slows down to show the ceremony. Moses comes down and tells the people everything the LORD has said, and they answer with one voice: all the words the LORD has spoken, we will do. Moses writes it all in a book. At dawn he builds an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes, has young men offer sacrifices, and catches the blood, half in basins and half thrown against the altar.

Then he takes the book of the covenant and reads it aloud, and the people repeat their pledge, fuller this time: all that the LORD has said we will do, and we will obey. The blood binds both sides, the altar for God and, in the next verse, the people themselves. It is the phrase Jesus would pick up over the cup, the blood of the covenant. And it is a wholehearted vow, unanimous and sincere, from people who mean every word. The trouble is only that the reader knows what is coming a few chapters on. Before Moses is even back down the mountain the second time, they will be dancing around a golden calf. They promised in good faith what their own strength could not keep.

The people vowed with one honest voice to do all God said, and could not hold it a month. What have I promised God in complete sincerity and simply lacked the strength to keep?

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