Introduction
I’ve often wondered what it would be like to get a phone call from someone well known, say Donald Trump no matter his political ratings or Patrick Mahomes. Maybe the head of an organization I’ve always appreciated or a famous scientist. Let’s say they saw something I wrote or said and they want to come by or that he would be in my area and maybe I would have time to meet up with him and a few colleagues. What a hoot! I would certainly want verification that the caller was the person of note. But then quickly I would agree to meet with him and whoever, and immediately my previous plans would change.
We would no doubt make time for those whom we deem very significant.
Sometimes we label what we do on weekends at synagogue or church a ‘meeting.’ This gerund is a reminder that we are doing something when we gather. We meet with one another certainly. But committees don’t really tend to do much. Remember what Fred Allen, the American comic said? “A conference is a gathering of important people who singly can do nothing but together can decide that nothing can be done.” Or this from Barnetta Cocks: “A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled.”
Obviously, that’s not what I’m referencing. I’m talking about a meeting together with someone of significance. And in the biblical sense, we are talking about meeting up with God.
In our story today, from Exodus 24, the elders of the Jewish people gather with Moses and others to meet and visit with God. The entourage is significant; the point of the meeting is even greater. What to do when meeting with significance and how to see your own limitations—these will shape this lesson. Also, we will talk about ratifying an agreement, like the covenant of God. And one final thought on listening to the Significant One.
When Henry Norris Russell, the Princeton astronomer, had concluded a lecture on the Milky Way, a woman came to him and asked, "If our world is so little, and the universe is so great, can we believe God really pays any attention to us?" Dr. Russell replied, "That depends, madam, entirely on how big a God you believe in." (Today in the World, Feb 89, p. 12.)
So today we will talk about the size of God and how to believe in Him as well.
How to determine significance
Even the most humble or religious among us are often concerned with human enterprise. We want to get to the train on time, or to eat at a good place for lunch. I’m currently on a Greek island with my wife on a holiday and want the best theatre or metro car with the best air conditioning. Some want recognition from our employers. We wouldn’t mind a few of those creature comforts they sell on late night television, while we are listing things desired. Even in religious gatherings we want to be healed or at the meeting, to be singing our favorite songs or hear our favorite preacher or get things the way we like them. That’s why so many shop for the better congregation so often. It’s not about God; it’s about them.
Here in our text, we start with a significance being given to Moses and to the leaders. Moses is preeminent, but he includes others. Who is there? There are the 70, along with Joshua and some others. Joshua of course is the future leader, very early introduced as groomed to be leader. The 70 may be a reflection and an honor given in the name of Jacob, whose 70 joined him on the way to Egypt. Thus, they gain their significance from being ‘related’ to Jacob. Also, we see Moses’ brother who is part of the first worship service there on the mountain, and who will remain in charge below, along with Hur, who also held up Moses’ arms in the battle with Amalek a few chapters ago. Nadav and Avihu are the oldest sons of Aaron and will figure later in worship in an informing, albeit incorrect, method of worship. So, our cast of characters is almost complete. We have one more actor who acts as a unit. It’s the chorus who sings for us twice and who are the single/corporate recipient of the ratification prize, the covenant agreement. They have the blood of some animals sprinkled on them. Oy, there goes my fashion statement! They also have two lines in the drama. Very similar but one of great significance. You’ll see that soon.
And if you really want to see significance, look at how the text depicts the Almighty. He’s glorious; he’s beautiful; he’s sitting near a sky-blue lined road with immensity and power. Just the dazzle of His presence is enough to cry “SIGNIFICANT!” By the way, the word ‘significant’ is defined as ‘the quality of having importance or being regarded as having great meaning’, among other definitions and my favorite is ‘relating to the occurrence of events or outcomes that are too closely linked statistically to be mere chance.’
Seeing your own insignificance
Nothing could be more dramatically demonstrated than the insignificance of the Israelites in today’s section. The Almighty is showing His glory, but only a few see it. All the people are down at the foot of the mountain. Imagine the leaders, the pillars of Jewish community, standing up the Blue Mountains in say, Springwood or Blackheath, and the rest of the people are gathered at the Penrith train station. We are distant and we are remote. We have no place with God, and we have no capacity to hear from Him. We are separated; the gulf is too great.
This may be the most important lesson you can learn about spirituality in your life. Who you are not is the basis of all spiritual learning. Humility is another way of saying this, but it’s characterized in this notion of inability. The author named O. Hallesby used to say that the first lesson in prayer is our distance from God. He called it helplessness. You won’t look for a life raft or a rope from a passing ship if you think you can swim alone in the ocean. When you finally admit your inabilities, you will begin to find answers. It may take a while, but you will find them. It’s all summed up for us in knowing who you are not.
Ratifying an agreement
It’s common for people to make contracts and seek legal advice. And once the contracts are read and signed, there is a ratification process. The witnesses on the contract also sign it. The lawyers might pass it on to a governmental agency that seals the agreement that others have made. You see this in marriage as the partners sign together, the rabbi agrees with his signature, and then the government ratifies the agreement/contract/ covenant, even sending you a copy of your marriage license if you pay enough money to them.
Here in the text, the people make a covenant with God and then Moses ratifies it with blood. Not a usual method or symbol. A wedding ring after all keeps much better. Some comments from the NIV commentary on this passage:
The division of the blood points to the twofold aspect of the blood of the covenant: The blood on the altar symbolizes God’s forgiveness and acceptance of the offering; the blood on the people points to a blood oath that binds them in obedience. In other words, the keeping of the words and laws was made possible by the sacrificial blood of the altar.
8 The blood by which the covenant was ratified and sealed was the basis for the union between the Lord and the people. This phrase becomes most important in the NT (Mt 26:28; Mk 14:24; Lk 22:20; 1Co 11:25; Heb 9:20; 10:29; also, Heb 12:24; 13:20; 1Pe 1:2).
The Chorus’ Lines
The people say (v. 7) “All that the Lord has spoken we will do…and we will obey.” Or as I would translate (unlike any other translation) “What God said we will do, and we will listen, really we will.” I’m thinking that the listening/obedience is a connection. In other words, we must know what we are supposed to do by listening and then we are required to perform what we have heard. (James 2.12, Rev. 1.3, Luke 11.28) “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and observe it”) But that’s not enough, and then we have to keep on listening to further instructions. I think that’s where most of us religious people fail. We listen just enough to get some beginning information. We might even do well with accomplishing it. But then, things get a bit tough, and we say, we have heard enough. We know enough. We are doing the best we can. We don’t need to hear anything else. What a waste. What a desperate shame.
The Shema is the watchword in Judaism. But it’s often the thing we don’t do the most. Listen, Israel, that’s what Shema means. Hey, don’t miss this. Don’t be listening to each other. Don’t be eavesdropping on the nations. Don’t give yourself to past tapes… there is new and fulfilling information out there. Keep listening.
And the most famous ‘keep listening’ is related to the Messiah. Listen to the text from the opening words in the book of Hebrews:
“God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (1.1-3)
If Israel stopped listening to the voice of the Lord, we would have missed out on the ‘Final Word’ that came to humanity in Yeshua. That’s just what happened to so many of our Jewish people. We stopped hearing, but God did not stop speaking! Those with ears to hear will hear what we say about Yeshua.
Lessons learned
I believe we should see applications from our chapter today.
1) Knowing who you are not…allows you to know who is, and to meet personally with the God of the universe
2) God longs to be in relationship with all people, especially those who hear Him
3) Jesus is God’s Final Word to humanity, and speaks forth the excellencies of the Lord to all who truly listen
4) Proximity to God doesn’t always guarantee perpetuity
5) Knowing God is the most relevant and significant reality known or as yet unknown to man
More New Testament connection
Moses alone functioned as the mediator of the covenant. He alone sprinkled the blood on the people. And in a few weeks, his role increases. To those who are familiar with the passages of the Newer Testament, Yeshua fulfills this ministry in himself as well. He is the only mediator of the better covenant. (Hebrews 8.6) It’s better because it’s eternal, it’s enacted on better promises, and is fulfilled in the one who won’t fail at all, but in fact, has succeeded and is now sat down to demonstrate his success.
His blood was better than the blood of bulls and goats. If you saw ‘the movie’ then you know there was a lot of blood spilled by Jesus in his last few hours. And it’s the receiving of the blood, that is, the belief in him, the faith in him that gives us a guarantee of the covenant. The ratification is complete when we speak our faith in Jesus to Him and to others. He sprinkles us clean and makes us born again. (Num. 19.19, Isa. 52.15, Heb. 9.10-15)
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