LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Solemn Preparations
Exodus chapter 24 is an important milestone in Israel's history - which is also our own spiritual history. So far we have seen how God has brought Israel out of Egypt and into His ways. He takes him to Sinai and gives him the law. But is that all? Until this chapter 24 we still know nothing that God has anything more for Israel.
Up to this point Moses has already been taken up the mountain on two occasions, but on neither occasion do such important things happen as here. Here there is a series of actions that give us to understand that something big is coming. For the first time the Lord invites the sons of Aaron and seventy elders to go up the mountain with Moses (Ex. 24:1).
Then God orders to erect an altar and twelve pillars, peace sacrifices are offered, the book of the covenant is read, the people are sprinkled with the blood. And, above all, God shows a marvelous vision of himself, where the men "saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a tiling of sapphire, like unto the heaven when it is calm". Then the guests, those seventy and more men, eat and drink there. And then the cloud covers the mountain for six days.
We ask ourselves: Why so much solemnity? Because in chapter 25, God would speak for the first time of the greatest purpose for the people of Israel, the same one that is consummated later in Revelation 21: "The LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they take an offering for me ... And they shall make a sanctuary for me". This purpose has to do with the House of God, that is, with the church.
The invitation to the sons of Aaron and the seventy elders reveals God's intention to show corporateness in the work of His House. Not only Moses or Joshua have to do with the House, but all Israel, represented here by the elders.
There is a personal dimension to God's work, and also a corporate dimension. When it comes to the House of God, the many are included. Moses alone, in spite of all the grace received, cannot build a house for God. He needs the body which is the church.
Thus, Exodus 24 is a magnificent introduction to what is to come. The invitation to the many gives way to God's revelation of himself. How glorious: there is a revelation of himself, prior to the news about the House of God. God shows us who he is, and then shows us what he wants.
The revelation of who God is prepares the way for men to be ready to offer themselves to him to do his work. Whoever has not seen God cannot offer himself to God. Whoever has not seen his glory cannot take part in his work.