In Exodus 24 we see the first corporate worship service in Israel's history. God had told Moses to bring his people out of Egypt to Mt. Sinai where they would worship God.
So Israel does precisely what God had commanded Moses! They offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings (v5). Then (as the meat of the peace offering was being cooked) Moses read the Book of the Covenant to Israel. The people of God responded by professing their faith and obedience – "All that the LORD has spoken we will do" – and then Moses sprinkled the blood of the covenant on the people (thereby showing the connection between the blood of the covenant and the book of the covenant).
And then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up the mountain…
Wait!!!!
God had said no one besides Moses and Aaron were to go up the mountain! What has happened?
The sacrifice has happened! Through the shedding of blood, sin is atoned for. God is teaching Israel that the wages of sin is death – and the only way for a sinful people to enter the presence of a holy God is through the blood of the covenant.
And so they go up the mountain and they eat and drink before God.
For us, we enter the presence of God through the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus!
And then we hear the book of the covenant read and proclaimed. We respond with our prayers and praises. And we partake of the covenant meal – we participate in the body and blood of our Lord Jesus.
Now, we don't follow this pattern just because Moses did it. Rather – as Revelation will show us – Moses himself followed this pattern because it is the heavenly pattern...
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