Covenant Confirmed

Exodus 24

I don’t know about you, but I’m not a great fan of formal ceremonies. I must

admit that I find many formal ceremonies boring and I often don’t see the value

of all the formalities.

But there’s one formal ceremony that stands out. It’s a ceremony that was hugely

significant. And it changed my life. And that’s the ceremony where I married my

wife.

You see, I dunno if this is true for everyone, but for us our engagement was an

emotional roller-coaster ride. Maybe its because we got engaged so quickly. We’d

only just met. Now suddenly we were engaged. And suddenly the reality of what

we were doing was hitting home. “I’ve just met this person and now we about to

get married.” And suddenly we started noticing our differences and we started

feeling doubts and insecurities and fears. And it was an emotional roller-coaster

ride. Until… we got married

Again, I’m not saying this is true for everyone. But for us, that ceremony on our

wedding day was a turning point in our relationship. Obviously

We still had our differences and disagreements. But now we were married. We

were bound together. And that bought a stability and security to our relationship.

Before the ceremony: we were insecure. After the ceremony we were secure. And

so that marriage ceremony made a big difference in our lives.

Well this morning we looking at an even more significant covenant ceremony

where God confirms his covenant with His people. And if we understand this

covenant ceremony, will help us to appreciate the security we have in our

covenant relationship with God.

I wonder: How secure do you feel in your relationship with God? In other words,

how confident are you that God accepts you and that He loves you? Do you spend

large proportions of your life feeling guilty and wondering whether God has

rejected you?

Well this morning I want you to see that this doen’t need to be the normal

Christian experience. It is possible to walk before God with a clear conscience

knowing we are loved and accepted because of our secure covenant relationship.

So that’s our goal this morning.

Now just to remind you where we are in the book of Exodus, the title of our series

is redemption: from slavery to worship. Those are the two main sections of the

book. God rescues Israel out of slavery and He brings them to Mount Sinai to

worship God. From slavery to worship.

But you could also break up this book into 3 sections.

In chapters 1-18 you’ve got the God Who delivers (He rescues His people)

Chapters 19-24 you’ve got the God Who demands (all the laws God gives His

people).

And then finally chapters 25-40, the God Who draws near. We gona see this next

week. God gives instructions for the building of His tabernacle so that He can

come and live with His people. And what’s nice about that breakup is it highlighs

the goal of the book. In fact its the goal of the whole Bible. God wants to live with

His people and so the Bible is a book about how He makes that possible. He’s the

God who draws near.

And we get a glimpse of that in our passage this morning. If you look at verse 1

you can see the leaders of Israel get called up to God. Verse 1.

“Then He said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and

Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel.”

These are representative leaders of the nation.

And in verse 9 you can see what happens when they go up.

“Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up

and saw the God of Israel”

Now we need to be careful here. They don’t see God’s face. We gona see that in a

couple of weeks time. No one can see God’s face and live. But they are bought

into some kind of nearness. They see what’s under God’s feet. And even that is

indescribable. Notice how they try and describe it. “it was something like a

pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself.”

And so these leaders only see the outer edge of God’s glory, and yet even that is

something dazzling and beautiful beyond human description. And in fact its so

glorious. It’s amazing that they don’t drop down dead. That’s the surprise of verse

11. God doesn’t raise His hand against them. Instead they see God and notice

what they do. They eat and they drink.

And you need to understand. In the Ancient near east, to welcome someone into

your home and to show them hospitality and to give them food and drink. That

was the great way to display your friendship and your fellowship and your

intimacy.

And so that’s what God is doing here. He’s showing intimacy. He’s drawing near.

This is the great goal of the covenant. God wants to welcome us in. He wants to

seat us at His table and enjoy a meal with us. That’s the goal of the Bible. It’s why

heaven is often described as a great feast. We gona sit at God’s table and enjoy a

meal with Him. God wants to draw near.

But before all this can happen, God’s covenant relationship with His people must

be confirmed. And so that’s what happens in verses 3-8.

Now of course, the first step to entering a covenant with someone is

commitment.

When I decided I really liked Jenna and I wanted to marry her, I didn’t

immediately go and hire a tent and start sending out invites and organizing the

our ceremony. No, before that, I first needed to speak to Jenna. I needed to ask

her if she was willing to commit.

And so on the 21st of July 2007, I took Jenna to Cape Point Nature Reserve. I got

down on one knee. And I asked her to marry me. And Jenna said yes. Only then

could we plan the ceremony.

And that’s what we see in verse 3. Before the covenant ceremony comes the

covenant commitment. Look at verse 3. Moses went and told the people all the

LORD’s words and laws and they responded with one voice, “Everything the LORD

has said we will do.”

Israel say yes.

And I just wanna make a couple of comments about this commitment. Firstly

notice its an informed commitment.

Moses tells the people all the LORD’s words and laws.

Probably the “words” here refers to the 10 commandments. That’s how they

described in chapter 20. Literally they the 10 words that God spoke. And then

laws refers to the all the detailed laws in chapters 21-23 where the 10

commandments get applied to the details of life.

And so before the people commit, they first presented with all the LORD’s words

and commands. And that’s an nb principle throughout the Bible. You see, God

isn’t like one of these shady salesmen who want you to sign an agreement before

uv understood all the terms and conditions. God doesn’t ask you to make an

uninformed commitment.

And If ur someone here this morning who’s investigating Christianity, its great to

have you and you need to understand this: we would love you to make a

commitment to Jesus. But we not here to pressurize you into a blind leap of faith.

It’s good for you investigate: what’s involved? What does it mean to be a

Christian? What’s the cost of following Jesus? And that’s what we wanna present

to you. We want you to make an informed commitment.

But secondly, notice that its also a whole-hearted commitment.

According to verse 3, they respond with one voice. So There isn’t one person who

disagrees. There isn’t one person who is hesitating. They all speak together.

Everything the LORD has said we will do.

And that’s the commitment God is looking for.

Deuteronomy 5 verse 28 refers back to this commitment. And in verse 28, God

tells Moses: “I’ve heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was

good. Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my

commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever.”

God is pleased with this whole-hearted commitment. Yes, we must understand

what’s involved. But then we mustn’t be half-hearted and hesitant. God wants us

to commit wholeheartedly to the covenant. And isn’t that the longing of our

hearts: Oh that our hearts were inclined to fear God and obey Him always. Not

just on Sunday. Not just after an inspiring message. Not just when others are

watching. But always. In the secret places of our lives. In the busy times of our

lives. Oh that our hearts were always inclined to fear and obey God.

And so this is an informed commitment. It’s a whole-hearted commitment. And

now that the commitment has been made, now the ceremony can commence.

Moses gets up early the next morning. There’s lots to do. He builds an altar which

probably represents God. And he builds 12 stone pillars representing the 12 tribes

of Israel. And so you’ve got God and Israel: the two parties of this covenant. Then

Moses sends young men to offer burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the

LORD. According to the commentators, burnt offerings represent complete

devotion to God. Just like a burnt offering gets completely consumed by fire, so

we are called to complete devotion to God.

Fellowship offerings represent the fellowship or the peace that we enjoy with

God.

And so this sets the scene for this ceremony. This is what its going to be all about.

the 12 tribes of Israel offering themselves in complete devotion to God and

enjoying fellowship with Him.

And now finally once all the preparations are complete. Finally we come to the

formalities in verses 6-8. And there just two main formalities I want you to notice.

They very similar to the vows at a wedding and the signing of the register. They

two things that seal this covenant and make it binding on the people. You can see

them both referred to in these verses.

Firstly there’s the book of the covenant in verse 7

Secondly, there’s the blood of the covenant in verse 8.

So firstly, the book of the covenant.

When you enter an agreement with someone and you wanna make sure that you

know where you stand and you secure in this agreement and you understand all

the terms and conditions. Then this is what you’ll say to your covenant partner.

“Can I get it all in writing?” Can I see it written down. I don’t wanna trust our

fallible memories of what we think we heard the other person say. No I wanna

have something in writing that we can keep going back to as our fixed point of

reference to we know where we stand.

And that’s what God gives to His people. Just look back to verse 4. What was the

first thing Moses did after the people have made their commitment? Verse 4

“Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said.”

And so all these words and all these laws, they get written down in a book.

And this is the book of the covenant. And in verse 7 Moses reads this book to the

people. And the people respond just as they did in verse 3. “We will do

everything the LORD has said. We will obey.”

That’s exactly what happened in verse 3. But now they doing it in a formal way.

They binding themselves to this book.

And we mustn’t underestimate how important this is: that right from this early

stage in Israel’s history, right from the time of Moses, God’s people were

committed to a book.

And so they weren’t just reliant on oral tradition where God’s Word could be

twisted and changed down and where uncertainty could creep in about the exact

words of the LORD.

No, they had this fixed standard of truth. This ultimate authority.

This fixed reference point by which everything else should be measured and that

would outlast them and would be preserved down the generations so that over

and over again through the years, God’s people could keep coming back to book

and have it as this ultimate and fixed standard of truth.

And this is important for us to today because there many who suggest that its

unspiritual to be bound to a book. As though you missing out on some spiritual

experience when you study words on a page. As if you restricting God or putting

Him in a box.

But no, here we see right from the early stages of salvation history God has been

happy to reveal Himself through written words. He’s been happy to bind Himself

to His words written down in a book.

And so its not an insult. It’s a great compliment. When people describe us as Bible

people or as people of the book.

In fact that’s tied into our slogan as a denomination. I dunno if you realize this,

but our slogan at REACHSA is God’s Word above all things. That’s our highest

authority: the word of God written in the Bible

And that’s why every Sunday when we gather we open this book. We have

readings from this book. And we work hard to understand what this book is

saying. And although we do have the occasional topical sermons the main staple

diet of our preaching is to work through books in the Bible so that its not just left

to Solanga or myself to say: I think this is what I want to emphasize. Or I think this

is what the church needs to hear. No we don’t actually have the right to decide

what we wanna emphasize. We need to be tied to this book. And so by working

through the Bible, passage by passage each week that’s what we trying to do. We

wanna bind ourselves to this book and let God’s Word dictate what we emphasize

and what we believe.

“And so you might think I’m over-emphasizing this point. But I do get the

impression that some times people come into our church and they look at what

we doing and they say, “really? Seriously? Are we really gona spend all this time

carefully studying what some words mean that have been written down in this

book? How weird! What a dead church!”

Are you someone who is bound to this book? It’s a crucial part of knowing

stability and security in your relationship with God so you not be swayed by your

feelings or controlled by your circumstances, but you keep coming back to this

book as the fixed reference point and the ultimate authority for your life. Let me

encourage you this morning: don’t forsake the daily reading of the Bible. Be a

person who is bound to this book.

So this is the first binding formality here: the people are bound to the book of the

covenant.

Then secondly, the people are bound by the blood of the covenant. Look at verse

8. might seem very strange!

In many wedding ceremonies, after the bride and groom have said their vows, as

they walk out the church, people might stand outside and sprinkle petals on them

as they walk out. But Moses doesn’t sprinkle petals. In verse 8 he sprinkles blood

on the people. In fact literally it says, he threw blood on the people.

And so imagine ur one of the Israelites. You just made ur vow to God and then

Moses starts throwing blood at you and you get blood in your hair. You get blood

on your clothes. And apparently blood leaves a terrible stain. Its very hard to get

blood out of your clothes.

And so these people are marked by blood. And …what’s the significance?

Well I wonder if you’ve ever made a promise to a friend, maybe when you were a

child. And oyu really wanted to emphasize that you gonna keep your promise.

And so it wasn’t enough for you just to say: I promise. You felt the need to add

these words: “I cross my heart and hope to die.”

What were you saying when you added those words? Well basically you saying:

I’m so committed to this promise, I’m willing to put my life on the line.

I will not break this promise. If I do break it, I deserve to die.

And that’s really what this blood sprinkling is all about.

You see, this was how people would sign a covenant in the Ancient Near East.

Nowadays we just take a pen and we sign on a piece of paper. But in those days

you would do something much more dramatic, you would sacrifice an animal. And

often they would cut the animal in half and the two parties would walk in

between the halves. And basically what they saying is: if I break this covenant,

then may the same thing be done to me. May I too be cut in half. You can see an

example of that in Genesis chapter 15 when God makes His covenant with

Abraham. He walks between animals that have been cut in half.

Or else they’d do what you see here where they sacrifice calves and they take the

blood and they sprinkle it on the parties involved. Did you notice, its not only the

people who get sprinkled with blood. In verse 6 the first half of the blood is

sprinkled on the altar. And the altar represents the presence of God. And so both

parties are sprinkled with blood.

This is how committed they are to this covenant. They are bound by blood.

Basically, they calling down a curse on themselves. If I break this covenant, then

may I be cursed, may my blood be spilled.

And so now suddenly we begin to sense the danger of this covenant.

How will Israel obey all of these commands?

In fact it just takes a few chapter and Israel will break the second command.

They’ll make an idol and they’ll worship a golden calf.

And over and over again throughout Israel’s history we see their failure to keep

God’s covenant.

And so this is a deadly moment. Israel are binding themselves to this covenant.

But they actually binding themselves with a deadly curse.

But now finally I want you to see: this curse of the blood of the old covenant

looks forward to the cleansing of the blood of the new covenant.

You see more than a thousand years later, Jesus enters the world. And on the

night He gets betrayed, just before He’s about to die, He refers to His blood that’s

gona be poured out on the cross. And he sues language from Exodus 24. this is

how He describes it. Luke 22:20

“In the same way after the supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new

covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

You see the New Covenant is also established on blood. And the meaning of the

blood is the same. It still represents the curse that you deserve for breaking the

covenant. But the difference is that in the Old Covenant, the curse was hanging

over the people. In the New Covenant the curse has fallen on Jesus.

Galatians 3 verse 13 says: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by

becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a

tree.”

And so this is the great message of the sprinkled blood of the new covenant. No

longer is it a mark of a curse upon us. Now it’s a mark of the cleansing from that

curse

Hebrews chapter 10 verse 22 says:

“Let us draw near to God in full assurance of faith, how? having our hearts

sprinkled to cleanse us from the guilty conscience…”

And so let me ask you again: do you know security in your relationship with God?

Do you know that you’re accepted and loved by God? God doesn’t want us to

walk around with a perpetual guilty conscience. He wants our consciences to be

cleansed. He wants us to know that we are secure. And the basis for our security

is this covenant that we have with God. It’s a covenant that doesn’t depend

ultimately on our commitment to God. It depends ultimately on His commitment

to us. It doesn’t depend ultimately on our obedience. It depends ultimately on

Jesus’ sprinkled blood.

I wanna close with an illustration from Don Carson. And I think I’ve used it before.

But it’s the best illustration I’ve heard to help us examine whether we really

trusting in Jesus’ blood.

Compare the following two different prayers. Firstly, imagine you wake up one

morning and the sun is shining. The birds are singing. The wind isn’t blowing. Uv

slept well and so you jump out of bed. You do your quiet time. And then you cook

yourself a nice breakfast. You go to work. And you very productive. You get a lot

done. Your boss calls you in to compliment you for the good work you’ve been

producing. And as the day goes on, everything happens so smoothly. It’s a really

good day. And so that night just before you get into bed, you kneel next to ur bed

and you pray. And ur filled with confidence. And the words just flow from ur

mouth. Our Father Who Art in Heaven I Praise you tonight for your wonderful

attributes. You are holy. You are Mighty. I declare Your praise. You are the Holy

Trinity – Father Son and Holy Spirit, I worship You tonight. And you go on and on

and you end up praying for half an hour before you go to sleep. That’s the first

prayer.

But then secondly, the next day you wake up and the wind is blowing. And uv

slept late so you miss ur quiet time and you don’t have time to make breakfast

for yourself. And you get stuck in traffic on the way to work. You end up being

late. You have an argument with a work colleague. And as the day goes on

everything just seems to go wrong. It’s a really bad day. And so that night as you

get into bed you say a quick prayer to God. And its very different from the

previous night. You feel far from God. Uv got no confidence to pray. Father, it

hasn’t been a good day. Please change my life. Please provide for my needs. And

please give me a better day tomorrow. Amen

That’s the 2nd prayer.

And what Don Carson argues that both of these prayers are unacceptable to

God… because ur basing ur confidence to come near to Him… on the quality of ur

day… or on the quality of your performance rather than on the blood of Christ.

Hebrews 10v19 says: We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the

blood of Jesus

The only way to enjoy confidence and security in our relationship with God is by

the sprinkling of His blood.

Lets pray.