As you've undoubtedly noticed, we're skipping a few chapters here. This is because what we are doing is a character study on Moses through the events of his life rather than on the book of Exodus. The intervening chapters are a bunch of laws regulating Israelite behavior, which are an interesting study in their own right but not of particular interest here.
Chapter 24 is titled in my Bible "The Covenant Confirmed" which is a bit of an interesting title. What happens in chapter 24 is even more interesting.
Moses has been up on the mountain conversing with Yahveh and receiving the law of Israel. He has now come back down and relayed the law to the Israelites. The Israelites respond by saying that they will do everything Yahveh has said, which Moses then writes down.
So far, fairly normal and what we would expect. But now is when things start getting weird, at least from our point of view. Moses sets up an altar at the foot of the mountain and surrounds it with twelve pillars, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. He then sacrifices a bunch of young bulls as fellowship offerings to Yahveh. Half of the blood he sprinkles on the altar and the other half he puts in bowls.
Again Moses reads the laws from the book he just wrote, called the Book of the Covenant and again the people declare that they will obey. Then Moses takes the blood from the bowls and throws it on everyone, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words." Promptly thereafter, Moses, Aaron and his sons, and the 70 elders all sit down and have a meal in the presence of Yahveh, who they see.
From our 21st century, western point of view, this whole thing is very weird. What is going on here? What is up with the blood and then having a meal in the presence of Yahveh?
To understand what is going on, we must first understand what a covenant is. A covenant is basically a contract between two entities. It could be a simple as a work contract between two people or as grand as an alliance between two world powers.
Although there are records of "covenants" between individuals in the ancient Near East, most often it is used in the sense of two nations reaching an agreement. The most poignant examples of this are various Hittite treaties from the early 2nd millennium BC between the Hittite Empire and vassal states, which neatly parallel the covenant between Yahveh and the Israelites.
In the Hittite examples, a book of the covenant was written which essentially outlined the treaty between the Hittite overlord and whichever vassal state was surrendering. Now these books followed a set formula, where the overlord was introduced with titles, then came a historical recapping of what brought everyone to that point, then came the stipulations or what was expected of the vassal state, followed by a preservation of the text, then a signing of witnesses, and finally there was a section of blessings and curses; blessings for following the covenant and curses for breaking it. The book of Deuteronomy (which we will touch on later) essentially follows this exact pattern. It is the book of the covenant.
So essentially what we have here is a treaty that establishes Yahveh as the overlord of the people of Israel, who become his vassal state. Now when one nation becomes the vassal state of another, there is a special ceremony that accompanies the sealing of the treaty. That we understand; most of us have seen treaty signings for various things on TV after all.
However, the ancient Near East did treaty signings slightly different than we do. They often killed animals as sacrifices to seal a treaty (examples of this are at Mari and Alalakh). The Hebrew word for covenant, "berı̂yth" comes from the Hebrew word for cutting, like bisecting. In Genesis, when Yahveh establishes his covenant with Abraham, he has Abraham cut several animals in half and then they walk through them. The idea is that if I break this agreement, I will become like one of those animals. Admittedly a bit hyperbolic, but I suppose it gets the point across.
In this case, they simply sacrifice bulls and sprinkle the blood on the people. Covenants were sealed with blood. Then, after all of this, they ate a meal in the presence of Yahveh. This too carries great significance in the ancient Near East.
To us, meals are something rather innocuous. We enjoy food no doubt (our obesity rate speaks to that) but we don't take meals seriously. In our microwave society, we want our food quick and easy so that we can move on to the next part of our schedule.
But even today in the Middle East (the ancient Near East), meals are of central significance. Mealtime is where friendships are established and family ties are confirmed. If you eat with someone, you are family to them in that culture. Sharing a meal is a symbol of close friendship.
This is the significance of the meal between the elders of Israel and Yahveh. In that act, they were declaring themselves part of Yahveh's family, under his leadership and wing.
When you understand Exodus 24 in its cultural context, it is huge. Yahveh is taking a people and making them essentially citizens of heaven. He is bringing them under his care and his rule. Through Israel, Yahveh is trying to bring a piece of heaven to earth.
What does this mean for us? Most of us aren't Jewish and even if we were, that Israel no longer exists. So how do we relate to what happened at a desert mountain 3500 years ago?
What happened in Exodus 24 sounds an awful lot like Paul's description of salvation in Romans 10, where he defines being saved as confessing with our mouths that "Jesus is Lord" and believing in our hearts that God raised him from the dead. This is how we become a part of Yahveh's kingdom.
We are offered the chance to join the kingdom of heaven by accepting Christ as our overlord, much like Israel did. What that means is that we learn to live, as Israel was to, by the code of heaven. We adopt heaven's mindset and culture and live by her laws. This is not salvation by works, but rather works by salvation. We obey Christ because being saved means accepting him as our lord. Remember heaven is not a democracy.
This new covenant with Christ has been sealed with blood, but not the blood of a bull, but Jesus's own blood on the cross shed for you and me. We don't have to do anything but simply say, as Israel did, "We will do everything Christ has said; we will obey." And then we can eat in the presence of Yahveh.
This is significance of communion, something that has probably been lost as our cultures have changed. It is the reaffirmation of our relationship with Yahveh by sharing a meal essentially with him. We are confirming our service and fealty to him while receiving the blessing of his salvation anew.
Israel didn't have to accept the covenant and neither do you. It's your choice to serve Yahveh as a vassal. But contrary to what Satan said, it is better to serve in heaven than rule in hell. So I urge you to claim Christ as your lord and then raise your glass to the Maker of the Universe.
(Source note: My information on covenants and treaties from the ancient Near East is from Richard Hess's Israelite Religion's, 2007. If you are interested in more information on the topic, I highly recommend his work which has fascinating information on Israelite religion. Always give credit where do.)
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