Exodus 24

24 ¹ Then he said to Moses, "Come up to me — you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel — and bow in worship from a distance.

Sealed in Blood

² Moses alone is to come near to me, but the others must not come near, and the people must not come up with him."

³ So Moses came and told the people all the words of our Father and all the rules. And with one voice all the people answered, "Everything our Father has spoken we will do."

⁴ Then Moses wrote down all the words of our Father. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵ He sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as peace offerings to our Father. ⁶ Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half he splashed against the altar. ⁷ Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people, and they said, "Everything our Father has spoken we will do, and we will obey."

⁸ And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, "Look, the blood of the covenant that our Father has made with you in keeping with all these words." ¹ 1 v8 The blood sealed the covenant between the people and our Father; Jesus took up these very words over the cup — "this is my blood of the covenant" — making his own blood the seal of the new covenant that brings us home.

⁹ Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, ¹⁰ and they saw the Sovereign Father of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. ¹¹ But he did not stretch out his hand against the leaders of the Israelites; they saw our Father, and they ate and drank.

Moses Enters the Cloud

¹² Our Father said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the stone tablets, with the law and the commandment that I have written for their instruction."

¹³ So Moses set out with Joshua his assistant, and Moses went up on the mountain of our Father. ¹⁴ He said to the elders, "Wait here for us until we return to you. Aaron and Hur are here with you; whoever has a dispute can go to them."

¹⁵ When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, ¹⁶ and the glory of our Father settled on Mount Sinai. The cloud covered it for six days, and on the seventh day he called to Moses from within the cloud. ¹⁷ To the Israelites, the glory of our Father looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. ¹⁸ Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.