THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

He (Moses) 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.

Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar.

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."

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."

Exodus 24:4b-8

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In yesterday’s message, we saw Moses briefing the Israelites on the guidance God had given him to share before writing down “everything the Lord had said". In today’s scripture passage, we see where he followed this up with specific acts meant to honor the Lord and seal the covenant with His people. Look again at these words from Exodus, chapter 24:

He (Moses) 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.

Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar.

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."

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." Vv. 4b-8

After resting overnight, we read that Moses “got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain”, setting up “twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel". His actions were actually a part of the standard preparations that took place when a covenant making ceremony was about to occur and in this instance, Moses and the people of Israel were about to seal their covenant with God at Mount Sinai. The twelve stone pillars erected around the altar represented the “twelve tribes of Israel".

Once the altar was constructed, the second part of the covenant ceremony began. This involved young bulls sacrificed as fellowship offerings to God and the scriptures tell us that Moses took half of the bull’s blood and sprinkled it on the altar, an act meant to serve as a sin offering to establish or restore the relationship between the Israelites and God.

After this, the ceremony then turned toward a renewing of the covenant and as we see in our passage, this started with Moses taking “the Book of the Covenant” and reading “it to the people."

What was in this Book of the Covenant?

It included the words of God from Exodus 19, the Ten Commandments of Chapter 20 (also referred to as the Decalogue), and the case laws listed in Exodus 20:22 to 23:33. After Moses read this book to the people, we find them replying just as they did at the beginning of this chapter, saying:

"We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey."

This reaffirmation of their vow to be completely obedient to what God wanted was followed by an act that perhaps was unexpected by the Israelite people. For we read where Moses took half of the sacrificed bulls’ blood and sprinkled it on the people proclaiming:

"This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words."

In other words, the blood of the sacrifice served to seal the covenant between God and His people.

Now, you may remember that this wasn’t the first time that blood played a role in the lives of the Israelites. For when we go back to the twelfth chapter of Exodus, you’ll find that the Lord commanded His people to spread the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts of their homes in Egypt so that the angel of death would pass over them and spare the firstborn of Israel. In other words, the blood of the lamb brought salvation to Israel’s future generation.

With this let’s fast forward to the days of Jesus and these words from John as he introduced the Messiah as He started His earthly ministry saying:

“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" John 1:29

Indeed, Jesus was to be the unblemished Lamb of God who would offer Himself up as a sin sacrifice for all mankind. Paul would go onto say that Jesus was the “Passover Lamb” who had been sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5:7).

And as He hung from the cross - broken, battered and bruised - Jesus shed His blood as a sign of His Father’s covenant with His children. The blood of Jesus had brought salvation to all of creation’s future generations who would simply place their belief in Him, a fulfillment of these words spoken by Jesus Himself:

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

As for the atoning power found in the blood of Jesus, we find Paul writing this in his letter to the Hebrews:

“...the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” 9:22

All mankind has been afflicted with sin and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) ever since Adam and Eve committed the first transgression in Eden’s garden, sin that keeps them separated from God without saving intercession. That saving intercession only comes through Jesus and it’s His shed blood that washes the sinner so to appear blameless before God, justified through the blood of the Lamb who indeed did take away the sin of the world and make the way for death to pass over His disciples.

Friends, as Christians, it’s this truth that seals our covenant with God today as we stand as believers who have been washed white as snow by the blood of Jesus (Ephesians 1:3, 7-8) and we get the opportunity to remember what Jesus did every time we observe the sacrament of Communion in worship. It’s during that remembrance that we hear these words from our Savior echoing in our hearts and minds:

“This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." Matthew 26:28

Here, we find the emphasis is still on the blood of the covenant as it was shed to bring forgiveness of sins but this blood no longer came from any animal sacrifice but instead from Jesus Himself bringing the end of separation from God and the gift of eternal life to all who would just believe in Him.

Today and every day, let us not forget to give thanks to God for the covenant He had made with us through His Son, Jesus Christ, the Passover Lamb and Savior of the world.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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