Exodus 24

Exodus 24

After God had given Moses this initial set of commands, Moses went back down the mountain to share God’s laws with the Israelites. In the process, God told Moses to bring with him a select group of men with 70 of the elders onto the mountain. Now if you remember back before the Ten Commandments were given, only Moses was allowed to step foot on the mountain. Now God wants these other men to come a little closer while Moses meets with the Lord alone. So Moses gathers these leaders together, builds an altar to the Lord, and begins sharing the Lord’s commands with the Israelites. It is beautiful scene of the Israelites responding in obedience. They commit to keep God’s commands and follow Him, and the covenant is established between God and His people.

After this scene with the Israelites, God calls Moses and the elders up to meet with Him, and they eat and drink with the Lord! Even in the Old Testament we see how God is personal. He walked in the Garden with Adam and Eve. Now He is eating on the mountain with Moses and the elders of Israel. He has always been calling His children unto Himself, demanding obedience from them so that they can have right standing before God. Even today, we have this amazing opportunity to have that close relationship with the Lord. It comes through salvation and is expressed in our lives through our obedience. Although the Old Covenant has been replaced with the New Covenant, and we are not commanded to necessarily abide by these old Israelite laws, we are still to remain obedient to God’s commands. The call to obedience has not changed.

After spending time with some of His children, God then calls Moses on up the mountain to receive the laws written on stone, a physical manifestation of God’s commands. This would allow the Israelites to have a physical copy of the Law that they could see and thereby obey. Similarly, we have the Law written down for us as well, through the Bible. It has been given to us so that we may know what God expects and obey His commands. So Moses went up the mountain with Joshua to receive these commands. He left the rest of the elders behind with Aaron, telling them to wait for his return. He told them that they should also handle any dispute that arose while he was gone. Again, remember that Moses’ father-in-law had suggested that he appoint elders in Israel to help him handle the different disputes that would arise, knowing that Moses could not physically manage the hundreds of thousands to millions of Israelites by himself.

So Moses went up the mountain to meet with God, and it is interesting to note that he was not allowed to meet with the Lord right away. For six days Moses stood right outside the Lord’s presence, and then on the seventh day, God called out to Him to enter into His presence. The text is not clear as to why he had to wait. I think that a possibility might be to cleanse himself before entering the Lord’s presence. Maybe he needed to get rid of some of the sins in his life and be in right standing with the Lord before he met with Him. Or maybe Moses spent that time worshipping the Lord. No matter the cause, how awesome would it be to be right there in front of the cloud where the Lord was? When Moses did enter into God’s presence, he met with Him for 40 days and 40 nights. During that time, God gave him more laws and instructions on how to build the tabernacle.

Matt