Sermon Tone Analysis

This evening’s text highlights an exceptionally important truth, viz., that Biblical covenants between God and man were generally sealed with the shedding of blood.

I say /generally/ because the Adamic covenant was inaugurated without the shedding of blood; the only blood mentioned in connection with it was the death of the offender as a punishment for violating the covenant.

There has also been some discussion about the use of blood in God’s post-flood covenant with Noah.

In this evening’s text, however, blood is integral to the covenant and necessary for man’s salvation.

The bond between God and his people was established specifically by the shedding of blood.

Moses took the blood of the sacrifices, sprinkled half of it on the altar and the rest on the people.

As he did so, he said: /Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words/ (v.

8).

This is what we want to consider today.

We will examine the text to see what happened then and how it applies to us now.

!

Preparing to Meet with God

Verse 1 says that the Lord commanded Moses to gather Aaron, his sons and the seventy elders of Israel to meet with him on the holy mountain, i.e., at the base of Mt.

Sinai.

This was not a mere social visit.

Rather, God was about to give the Jews something he had never given to any other people on the face of the earth — instructions for the construction of the tabernacle and its furnishings.

In turn, the tabernacle would give the people access to God through its many sacrifices and ceremonies, all of which looked forward to the only really effectual sacrifice — the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The intricate and detailed instructions for the tabernacle taught the people not to approach God casually, as if he were your buddy from down the street.

God himself, the holy God, the king of the universe, the one who saved his people from Egyptian slavery and the power of sin, had to tell them how to approach him.

Without the tabernacle, they could only guess at what might please God, and they would never find the answer.

But before Moses and the others could go up to the place where God would give them these directions, they had to prepare themselves by following a different ceremony.

Verses 4 through 8, which we’ll come back to in a minute, describe the worship that took place, but the manner of worship is not as much in view in the first verse as is the place of worship.

God commanded the people, Moses and the elders included, to worship from a distance.

At this point no one, not even Moses, was ready to draw near to God.

This does not mean, however, that God wanted to keep his people afar off.

To the contrary, the purpose of this entire incident was to draw them to the Lord again.

In verse 3, Moses reported to the people what God had told him, which no doubt included a rehearsal of the exodus events and the giving of the law.

Following this, the people said with one voice, /All the words which the LORD hath said will we do/.

Moses then wrote down all that God had said.

When he woke up the next morning, he built an altar and twelve pillars, which represented the twelve tribes of Israel.

Note that these pillars stood figuratively, if not literally, in the shadow of the altar.

God could only be approached through a stone edifice.

Otherwise, he remained afar off.

By comparison, think about the tremendous privileges we have in the gospel era.

We no longer worship God through stone structures, but in the person of God the Son.

This gives us a freedom of access that Moses and his contemporaries only longed for.

Paul wrote, /But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ/ (Eph.

2:13).

Hebrews 7:19 says, /For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God/.

With these greater privileges in mind, James exhorted all believers to /draw nigh to God/, promising that when we do /he will draw nigh to/ us/ /(Jas.

4:8).

But do we take advantage of this greater freedom?

Do we come before the Lord in worship at every opportunity unless providentially hindered?

Are we here on time or do we arrive late?

Do we concentrate on each element of the service?

Because our order of service is basically the same from week to week, it’s easy to let our minds wander sometimes.

We must avoid this temptation.

And how about family worship and private devotions?

Are these high priorities in our lives?

Do we view our entire existence as a living sacrifice of thankfulness?

The emphasis of the Old Testament is that God draws near to his people.

This was fully realized in Christ, who is our Immanuel or “God with us.”

The Bible even says that Christ dwelt or tabernacled among us.

He did this to offer himself as the sacrifice for our sins.

But do we draw near to him like we should?

!

The Sacrifices

Moses’ preparations would not have been complete without offering sacrifices to the Lord.

Verse 5 says that Moses sent young men, probably the oldest sons of the priestly families, who acted under his direction to make sacrifices to the Lord.

The sacrifices that they offered were burnt offerings and peace offerings of oxen.

Hebrews 9:18–20 says that other animals were sacrificed as well.

The dedication of the /first testament/, as the writer of Hebrews described this event, was forged in context of a lot of bloodshed.

But in Exodus, the emphasis is on the kind of sacrifices that they offered.

The burnt offerings came first.

This was the most common type of sacrifice in the Old Testament and seems to have been the only type of sacrifice used before the exodus.

It was a general purpose sacrifice for sin.

Thus, burnt offerings were made daily and even more were offered on certain holy days.

Because they set forth the completeness of God’s forgiveness, they were wholly consumed on the altar.

For this reason, they were sometimes called whole burnt offerings (Deut.

33:10; Ps. 51:19 and Mark 12:33).

These were the first sacrifices made by Moses and the young men because they needed to make atonement for their sins before anything else.

After this, Moses and the young men offered peace offerings.

These sacrifices symbolized the reconciliation of man to God.

The animal was killed.

Its best parts — the fat and certain internal organs — were consumed on the altar, and then the priest and the worshiper shared some of the meat in a common meal.

In this case, it seems that those who went up on the mountain with Moses probably took some of the meat with them.

After they saw the glory of God in verse 10, verse 11 says that they /did eat and drink/.

They understood that their fellowship with God had been restored.

One of the main points in this account thus far is that both atonement for sin and fellowship with God require blood, i.e., death.

There is no other way to draw near to God.

Moses wrote, /For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul/ (Lev.

17:11).

The writer of Hebrews, in a passage that specifically elaborates on our present text, tied the shedding of blood to the enacting of the first covenant.

He wrote, /For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.

Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.

For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.

Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.

And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission/ (Heb.

9:16–22).

The problem with the Old Testament ceremonial law was that it did not really have the power to take away sin.

The same sacrifices had to be offered day after day and year after year because they could not cancel man’s guilt.

Hebrews 10:4 says, /For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins/.

These animals were reminders of the fact that God himself had pledged to provide a sacrifice that would really take away sin, and those who offered their sacrifices with that expectation were forgiven on the basis of the sacrifice yet to come.

Nonetheless, the sacrifices of the Old Testament truly bore witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Galatians 3:8 says, /And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed/.

Abraham had the gospel — not a pre-gospel or something like the gospel, but the gospel itself.

God himself preached the gospel to Abraham when he promised to bless all the nations through him.

Now, the gospel that God gave to Abraham consisted of shadows, types and promises, but it was still the gospel.

And if Abraham had the gospel, then so did Moses.

This elaborate ritual with burnt offerings and peace offerings bore witness to God’s eternal purpose to save a people for himself.

Unlike the Jews of old, we live in the days of gospel feast.

The types and shadows have been fulfilled.

We have the reality.

God has made a new and better covenant with us in the person and work of his Son.

/We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all/, according to Hebrews 10:10.

Everything that was prefigured and foreshadowed in the ceremonial law has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who after he /offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God/ (v.