Exodus 24:8-18

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.

12 The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain. Stay there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the teachings and the commandments I have written for the people's instruction."

13 Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up on the mountain of God.

14 He said to the leaders, "Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are here with you. Take all your disagreements to them."

15 So Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered it.

16 The glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered it, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from inside the cloud.

17 To the Israelites, the glory of the LORD looked like a raging fire on top of the mountain.

18 Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain. He stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights.

Exodus 24:8-18 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.