As I read Exodus 24 this morning I noticed that Moses read from the Book of the Covenant after he visited God on Mount Sinai. It raised the question: what is the Book of the Covenant? With a little research I have the answer. Exodus chapters 20-23 is known as the book of the covenant. This is the Law that David referred to in Psalm 1 when he talks about meditating on the Law of God, day and night.
The Book of the Covenant
In Exodus chapter 24, God invites Moses, Aaron and his two eldest sons, Nadab and Abihu, and the 70 elders who had been appointed to be judges over the people to come up on Mount Sinai to worship from afar. The rest of the people are not invited and remain at the bottom of the mountain. Only Moses is called to come nearer. When Moses comes back from his visit with God, he proclaims to all the people the Lord’s commands and judgements. And what do the people say? “…all the people answered with one voice and said, ‘All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do!’” (Exodus 24:3).
To be sure the people knew the words God spoke regarding this covenant, Moses wrote them all down and these writings are referred to as the Book of the Covenant in v. 7. This is the first record of a written record of God’s Word and helps me understand what Moses was doing for 40 days.
The following morning, Moses wakes early and builds an
altar to the LORD, with 12 pillars representing the 12 tribes of Israel. He presents a burnt offering and a peace offering of young bulls to the LORD. The burnt offering
is an offering of consecration. In the Bible, consecration refers to the act of
dedicating yourself to the service and worship of God. The peace offering was
made to obtain peace with God in order to assure communion with God, so it represented
fellowship with God. For the peace offering, the meat was roasted and a portion
was given to the people and the rest given to God. This illustrates the need
to be dedicated to the Lord before you can have peace and fellowship with him.
Moses reserves half of the blood from the sacrifices in basins, and sprinkles the altar with the rest. Then he reads the Book of the Covenant to the people. After Moses finishes reading the Book of the Covenant to them, they say, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient” (v. 7). Then Moses takes the blood in the basins and sprinkles it on the people saying, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words” (v. 8). They accepted it and agreed with it, and because blood represents life (see Leviticus 17:14), its sprinkling on the congregation represented an essential commitment between God and His people.
The blood covenant
These actions make this a blood covenant. Many cultures had blood covenants. Often, it required the drinking of blood. The Israelites were forbidden to drink blood, and so Moses bound them to the covenant by sprinkling them with the blood of the covenant.
Other well known blood covenants in the Bible include the covenant between God and Abraham, which was sealed by circumcision and the new covenant, between God and believers sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ.
Why blood? In Hebrews 9:11-23 we see that God's covenant is ratified by blood (Hebrews 9:11-23).
Photo credits: FreeBibleImages