Tuesday 18 November 2014
- Bible Book:
- Exodus
“Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. God did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; also they beheld God, and they ate and drank.” (vv. 9-11)
Background
Our passages this week omit the giving of the remainder of thelaw and skips straight to the ritual ratification of the covenant.But the account we have is somewhat confusing. It is most likelythat Exodus was composed over a period of hundreds of years andthat the final written form we have draws on a number of ancient(possibly oral) sources that were passed down through thegenerations. In this passage we seem to have two different accountsof the ritual used to ratify the covenant, probably from differentsources.
Verse 1 recounts God's command to Moses to bring Aaron and hissons and 70 elders up the mountain. But this narrative is notpicked up again until verse 9, when they go up the mountain, and inan extraordinary event in the Old Testament they are allowed to seeGod and survive, albeit only his feet! Although a shared meal was atypical way to seal a covenant in Old Testament times, this directencounter between God and people is a unique moment indicating aunique relationship between God and the people of Israel. Naturallywe think of Jesus' own covenantal meal with his disciples on thenight before he died, which echoes this story (
The other narrative (verses 3-8) recounts the use of a bloodsacrifice to seal the covenant. Blood-ritual was also a commonancient way of ratifying a covenant, but scholars believe that thisversion has also been influenced by later priestly ceremonies ofcovenant renewal. This was a much more primitive ritual, but alsoinvolvesd all of the people of Israel, whereas only theirrepresentatives are permitted to feast with Yahweh in verses 9-11.The public reading of a covenant from an official written documentwas also important so that all the people could give their informedassent to it. Jesus also refered to the tradition of bloodsacrifice at the last supper, when he described not the blood of asacrificial animal, but his own blood, shed in sacrifice, as 'theblood of the new covenant' (
Once the covenant was ratified, God called Moses further up themountain to give him the stone tablets and also to instruct him inthe forms of divine worship. Moses remained in God's glory for 40days and 40 nights, which echoes both Israel's 40-year wandering inthe wilderness and Jesus' own period of temptation (
To Ponder
- Can you think of a modern example of using two differentaccounts to communicate one essential truth? What might this be?And why do you find this helpful?
- Reflect on shared meals when you have felt God to bepresent.
- The people saw the glory of the Lord as a devouring fire on topof the mountain. In what ways have you found God to be bothglorious and terrible?