Today's Verse
Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.
Exodus 24:9-11
Historical Context
Exodus 24 is the covenant ratification scene. Moses has come down from Sinai with the words of the Lord, read them to the people, and received their vow: 'All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.' Blood from the sacrificed oxen is thrown half against the altar and half on the people. The covenant is sealed. Only then do the leaders ascend.
The original readers, Israelites shaped by the wilderness and later by life in the land, knew what every ancient Near Eastern culture knew: covenants between a king and his vassals were ratified with a shared meal in the king's presence. What makes this scene astonishing is not the meal but the King. Pagan neighbors told stories of gods who struck men dead for seeing them, and Israel's own Scripture will later say plainly that no one can see God and live (Exodus 33:20). Yet here are seventy-four men, eating in his presence, unharmed.
The sapphire pavement matters. Sinai is wrapped in cloud and fire from below; from above, the elders see translucent blue, the floor of heaven itself. Ezekiel will later describe God's throne using the same stone (Ezekiel 1:26). The elders are not looking at a symbol. They are standing, as it were, on the threshold of the throne room.
Moses writes this down for a people who need to know that their God is not a distant lawgiver who hands down tablets and withdraws. He is a covenant Lord who brings his servants up the mountain and sits down to eat with them. The law and the meal belong together.
Reflection
Notice the order. First the blood, then the sight of God, then the meal. The elders do not climb Sinai on the strength of their resumes. They climb on the strength of sacrifice already offered at the foot of the mountain. Without the blood on the altar and the blood on the people, verse 11 would read very differently: 'And he laid his hand on the chief men of Israel, and they died.'
This is the pattern of the whole Bible, and it is the pattern of your life with God. You do not come into his presence because you are a chief man or a seventy-year-old elder or a person who has kept his vows. You come because blood has been shed. In Exodus it was the blood of oxen, a shadow. At the cross it was the blood of Christ, the substance. Hebrews says it plainly: we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.
And what do we do once we are there? We eat and drink. Every Lord's Day, in every faithful church around the world, the covenant meal continues. The Table is not a sentimental remembrance. It is the sign that the God who could righteously strike you down has instead invited you to sit.
If you have grown casual about this, Sinai should sober you. Seventy-four men ate in the presence of consuming fire and lived only because of sacrifice. If you have grown fearful, Sinai should steady you. The God who did not lay his hand on them will not lay his hand on you. The blood has been thrown. The pavement is sapphire. Come up and eat.
For Reflection
Where in your life have you started treating access to God as something you have earned rather than something bought for you at great cost?
Prayer
Father, we have no right to stand before you except the right your Son has won for us. Forgive us for approaching you casually, and forgive us for approaching you fearfully, as though the blood were not enough. Lift our eyes to the sapphire pavement and the risen Christ who sits above it. Teach us to eat and drink at your table with reverence and with joy, knowing that the hand that could have struck us has instead been pierced for us. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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