Commitment and Covenant

OPENING PRAYER:

Lord, You are my light and salvation. Today, by Your Spirit, reveal new insights to me from Your Word.

READ: Exodus 24:1-18

The Covenant Confirmed

24 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.

Exodus 24:1-18

REFLECT:

Think about your day. Which single word best describes your feelings about your activities and commitments? Reflect on that word. Talk to God about it. It’s an amazing, awe-full time. The God of international rescue offers the prospect of intimate relationship. Come close (v 1), close enough to see (v 10) and even to share the food of friendship (v 11). Small wonder that in such heady times, Israel was able to confidently affirm their whole-hearted fidelity to God (vs 3,7). And yet (spoiler alert), it will only be a short while before they falter in their faith (32:1). It’s easy to judge, but many of us share their experience of promises made on a spiritual high melting away when God appears to be distant. It was a good thing for Israel (and for us) that the possibility of friendship with God does not rest on human faithfulness, but on God’s covenant reliability. God has made a covenant promise to his people (v 8). It always stands, is never retracted, and is ‘sealed’ in place by blood (Luke 22:20). Our challenge, when we fall, is not to renegotiate the covenant, but to receive, by repentance and faith, God’s covenant that always stands (Hebrews 10:19-22).

APPLY:

Have you fallen away from whole-hearted commitment to Christ? Do you know anyone who has? Pray for the Holy Spirit to help fan into flame the fires of faith.

CLOSING PRAYER:

Amazing Lord, let a sense of Your goodness course through every fiber of my being until my lips declare Your praise. Indeed, You are good; Your love endures forever.

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