the covenant sealed

Good morning sisters and brothers,
As this section of legal material fleshing out the Ten Commandments comes to a close, Moses and the leaders of Israel ratify a covenant with God that includes these laws. Covenants in that time were sealed with sacrifices and here both the people and the altar that symbolized the covenant with God were splashed with blood. As we remember each month at Christ's communion table, the new covenant based on God's grace in Jesus is sealed in his blood. We are still a people of covenant, tied to God by love and calling.

God bless,
Sam

Exodus 24:1-8

Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship at a distance. 2Moses alone shall come near the Lord; but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.” 3Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” 4And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord.



He rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and set up twelve pillars, corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5He sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed oxen as offerings of well-being to the Lord. 6Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he dashed against the altar. 7Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” 8Moses took the blood and dashed it on the people, and said, “See the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”