Exodus 24:1-11

1 The LORD said to Moses, "You and Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 of Israel's leaders come up the mountain to me and worship at a distance.

2 Moses may come near the LORD, but the others may not. The people must not come along with Moses."

3 Moses went and told the people all the LORD's words and legal decisions. Then all the people answered with one voice, "We will do everything the LORD has told us to do."

4 So Moses wrote down all the LORD's words. Early the next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain and [set up] 12 sacred stones for the 12 tribes of Israel.

5 Then he sent young Israelite men, and they sacrificed bulls as burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the LORD.

6 Moses took half of the blood and put it into bowls, and he threw the other half against the altar.

7 Then he took the Book of the LORD's Promise and read it while the people listened. They said, "We will obey and do everything the LORD has said."

8 Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, "Here is the blood which seals the promise that the LORD has made to you based on everything you have just heard."

9 Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 of Israel's leaders.

10 They saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made out of sapphire as clear and blue as the sky itself.

11 God didn't harm these leaders of the Israelites. So they saw God, and then they ate and drank.

Exodus 24:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 24

In this chapter we have an account that Moses was ordered to come up to the Lord alone, Ex 24:1,2, but that before he did go up, he related to the people all the above laws delivered to him, which they promised obedience to, and so a covenant was made between God and the people by sacrifice, and by the sprinkling of blood, Ex 24:3-8, upon which he and Aaron, and his two sons and seventy elders of Israel, went up part of the mountain, and had a vision of God, Ex 24:9-11, when Moses with Joshua was called, and went up higher, until at length he entered into the cloud where the Lord was, and continued forty days and forty nights, Ex 24:12-18.