Stop the Clock, Here!
Opening Prayer
Lord, in Your presence is fullness of joy (Psa. 16:11). Help me to appreciate what these leaders were privileged to behold.
Read Exodus 24:1–18
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance, 2 but Moses alone is to approach the Lord; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him.”
3 When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.” 4 Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said.
He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. 7 Then he 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.”
8 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up 10 and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. 11 But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.
12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”
13 Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. 14 He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them.”
15 When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, 16 and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. 17 To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. 18 Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
“Everything the Lord has said we will do… We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey” (Exod. 24:3,7).
If only the story ended here! We could conclude their odyssey with the people promising, twice, to do everything that the Lord had said, sacrifices made on an altar representing the twelve tribes of Israel, Moses reading the Book of the Covenant and confirming it, and God’s glory on display to one and all. The final scene would show Moses on the mountain in the midst of the cloud, waiting to receive the tablets that God has written, while the Israelites behold the glory of the Lord as a consuming fire. It would be a picture of happy communion; a community in covenantal harmony with her
God, the covenant sealed by both parties. Unfortunately, we know that the story doesn’t end this way, and even before Moses has descended from the mountain the people would rebel and make a golden calf. The rebellion would continue in the spirit of Mardi Gras, and God would eventually judge, but that’s not for today.
There are occasions to dwell on the sacred moments. We worship a God who loves us and has called us, as in “Come up to the Lord” (1), and we can come into his presence. Everything the Lord has said, we will do. We can meditate on the one who said, “Here I am… I have come to do your will, my God… Here
I am, I have come to do your will” (Heb. 10:7,9), the one who became a sacrifice so that we might become holy. We hold in our hands the words of the old and new covenants; words which will never pass away. In the meantime, we wait for the appearing of Christ when we shall see him face to face, and his glory will not be obscured by a few mere clouds. Might it be that under his feet there will be something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, bright blue as the sky itself (10)?
Apply
Remembering the commitment of youth can lead to recommitment. Call to mind a time when you were fully committed to God. Pray, “Everything the Lord has said, we will do.”
Closing prayer
Lord, remind me that when I promise You something, I am required to fulfill it and that You have no pleasure in fools who promise but fail to deliver.
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