THEY SAW THE GOD OF ISRAEL

(A PAVEMENT OF SAPPHIRE)

Exodus 24:1-11

Key Verse 24:11

But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.

This passage shows us the blessedness of the life of the Israelites as the children of God. They used to live in Egypt as a slave nation. Through God’s grace they came out of Egypt, entered into a covenant relationship with God, and came to have a fellowship with God, and thereby began to live as children of God. 

The scene described in v. 11 reminds us of Jesus’ offer in Rev 3:20.  We sinners do not deserve to have fellowship with the Lord, but by his grace we are given this invitation. So by all means we are to remember the grace of salvation and live a life that is worthy of the grace, never going back to the old ways of life, but remaining true to the purpose of his calling.  

Read vs.1- 8. Verse 3 reads, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.” Verse 7 also reads, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.” What is (or are) included in “everything” (cf. 24:4; 19:1-23:33)?

** Everything that the Lord has said to the Israelites through Moses, namely, the call to love the Lord with all their hearts, souls, minds, strengths, and the call to love their neighbor as they do themselves. [Consider the point of the Moses’ Ten Commandments, for its essence is holy love, modeled after God’s sacrificial character that gives what is best to his children.] Other laws such as protection of property or social responsibilities also revolve around the love of God and love of one’s neighbor.

In short, the “everything” has to do “everything” that reflects God’s character, which God’s children are to bear in them. 

Like father, like son. So God wants his children to be like him, being holy even as holy as he is. 

 Verse 7 refers to “the Book of the Covenant” and verse 8 mentions about “the blood of the covenant”. Who are the parties to the covenant? What are the contents of the covenant? What is the significance of “the blood” (as in “this is the blood”) sprinkled upon the people?

** The God of Israel on the one part, the Israelites on the other part. 

** The contents consist of the duties and responsibilities on the parties to the covenant. On the part of God’s children, they are to love and obey the Lord, whereas on the part of God, God is to be their God (or their Father, if you will) providing for them, protecting them from harms and dangers. 

This is very much like a marriage relationship where both husband and wife must fulfill their own duties and responsibilities. For a relationship to work, the two must make efforts and remain faithful to what they are supposed to do. Otherwise, the relationship suffers loss. 

** The blood stands for life for the Scriptures say that the life is in the blood. This characterizes the nature of the covenant relationship, that is, the relationship of “life,” meaning, “life” (not merely biological life but eternal life) is at stake, so that one must be faithful to the covenant relationship by all means just as man’s life itself needs to be protected at any cost. 

In addition, this blood signifies the grace of God. Due to man’s sin, the Israelites (as well as all other sinners, namely, the Gentiles) remained lost; due to mans’ sin, man rightly deserves to be abandoned in a condition disconnected from God, the source of life. But God came up with an alternative, that is, an atoning sacrifice (such as bulls being sacrificed as burnt offerings or fellowship offerings, offered in lieu of sinners) on the altar. This blood points to the blood of Jesus, for as the Scripture says, the laws are merely a shadow of the good things that are coming, that is, Jesus. 

Moses sprinkled the blood upon the people, to remind them that animals were sacrificed in their places. Moses did this to help them remember that it is by God’s grace that their sins are forgiven, and thereafter came to be qualified for the fellowship with the holy God. 

Read verses 9-10a and think about the expression, “saw the God of Israel.” What does “Israel” mean? What do the Scriptures (especially Genesis) say about the God “of Israel”? 

** Israel means the one who struggled with God (and men) and came out victorious.  In other words, Israel is a spiritual man out of an otherwise unspiritual (or carnally minded, or worldly) Jacob. 

** Scriptures say that God worked as a shepherd for Jacob until Jacob (which means a deceiver) became Israel, that is, a man of God. So the God of Israel refers to a personal God who shepherds over his children one by one in person.  

The God of Israel also denotes the God of salvation, who in love promised and indeed has been working in all generations to bless all peoples on earth through Jesus Christ, the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel). Read Genesis 22:18; 24:7; 24:60; 26:4; 28:14; Romans 9:7,8; and Galatians 3:16 , Looking forward to the coming Christ, while Jacob fell asleep on his way to Paddan Aram, the Lord revealed to him in a dream that all peoples on earth will be blessed through him and his offspring, namely, Jesus Christ, the Savior (to come).  

In Hebrew the name Israel (consisting of five Hebrew letters) represents the acronym of three patriarchs of faith (Abraham, Isaac, and Israel) and four matriarchs of faith (Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah),  indicating that it is through faith in Jesus, the Christ, that salvation and all other blessings associated with it come. 

By revealing himself as the God of Israel to the slave nation Israel, the Lord chose to convey such messages as:

They carry in their bodies the promise on the Savior to come;

So they are called to live as a chosen people commissioned to carry the good news of great joy for all peoples on earth; 

They themselves are to live by faith in the Lord God who promised to redeem them from the slavery to Pharaoh, the symbol of the devil, to the worship of God.  

Verse 10b states, “Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire…” Compare this passage with “bricks made of straw” in Exodus 5 (such as 5:7 or 14). What do “pavement” and “bricks” have in common? How is a “pavement made of sapphire” different from “bricks made of straw”? Why do you think (take a guess) God chose to let this be seen under his feet during their fellowship with him?

** They refer to the same product, that is, bricks. The Hebrew word  lebanah used in Exodus 5:7(lebenah for ‘bricks’)  and Exodus 24:10 (libnah for ‘paved’ in the KJV) refers to either a brick or a tile or a pavement.

** The former (pavement or paved work in KJV) is an improved form of a mere ‘brick’, with the former more sophisticated, durable, and beautiful than the latter. 

** Most likely it was put there as a memorial (or souvenir if you will) for their slave life in Egypt. This is to remind them of the hardness of the life under Pharaoh as opposed to the blessed life under the grace of God the Father. While we are in sin, which is from Satan, we are subject to the forced labor under the devil, the cruel taskmaster. But in Jesus this hard life as a slave to sin and death is a long gone memory which we should rather not forget, so we would not take the freedom in the Lord for granted.  Otherwise, we are in danger of living a life that is not worthy of God’s grace. In fact many forget the grace of God and so they go back to their old ways of life, to their great loss.

Read verse 11. This verse indicates that God could have raised his hands against them, and yet chose not to. Why?

** Thanks to his promise to forgive their sins for all who believe in the Lord, for Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

 

According to verse 11 they not only saw God but also “ate and drank.” What is the significance of eating and drinking with someone? 

** It denotes intimacy among those who are involved in an eating fellowship. It refers to the ideal state of salvation. God is like a father who wants to see his children coming to his house, sitting around an eating table, and having a joyful fellowship eating and drinking, all as one family, with joy and love and lots of laughter.

The end.

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