Text: Exodus 24: 3-11 Series: Pentecost 10 B
Author: Rev. Charles F. Degner August 17, 2003
"When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, "Everything the LORD has said we will do." Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey." Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words." Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank." NIV
Sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand words. There is a picture that is hanging on the wall in Katie Hermel’s room in the nursing home. Katie can’t communicate anymore, so my pastoral visit consists of reading portions of God’s Word to her, praying with her, and singing hymns. As I am doing this by her bedside, the picture is in my line of vision. It’s a picture of an elegant table set in a flat and arid place – probably the salt flats of Utah. It is a very long table, and the way the camera has taken the picture, it looks as if the table goes on forever into the distance. As I look at that table, it reminds me that God has set a table for us in the presence of our enemies, a heavenly table. And one of those places at that table has my name on it.
In our text for today, God gives Moses and the elders of Israel more than a picture. He gives them a moment when they can sit at that table and eat a meal before the Lord, prepared by God for his people. As we study this story, we want to remember that
THERE IS A PLACE AT GOD’S TABLE FOR YOU.
1. Do we deserve a place at God’s table?
The answer to that question is obviously, “NO!” Our text says, "When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, "Everything the LORD has said we will do." Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said. We have to give the people of Israel credit. They said they would do EVERYTHING God wrote down in the law. Would people today in our culture say as much? I don’t think so. You hear people today treating the Bible as if it were an ancient document that has to be rewritten and reinterpreted according to the laws of our culture today. Since our culture today doesn’t recognize homosexuality as a sin, we’d better rip out those pages that say it is. And what about sex before marriage? People like to fudge on that one, too, don’t they? And should we take this third commandment so seriously? Do you realize that God said that someone who worked on the Sabbath Day should be stoned? Isn’t that much to harsh? But the people of Israel said, “EVERYTHING the LORD has said we will do.” We cannot fault the children of Israel for picking and choosing which commandments they wanted to obey, and which ones they would ignore.
But did they follow through with what they said? This is chapter 24 of Exodus. In chapter 32, the people became impatient when Moses didn’t come down the mountain for a long time, and they asked Aaron to make them a golden calf to worship instead of God. It is easy to SAY that you will keep the commandments. It is not so easy to do.
We know that by experience, don’t we? We have stood before this altar of God in this sanctuary, and we have confessed our sins before God, and we have pledged that we will put our sins behind us. And how long did it take for us to go back to our sins? Children, when you left church, did you ever get into an argument with your brother or sister in the car, fighting over something so silly as who gets to sit next to the window? How many of us have asked God to create a clean heart in us, and then went back to watching the same filth on television that makes our hearts unclean? Did you ever gossip about your neighbor on the way home from church, a fellow Christian who joined you at the communion table and shared the body and blood of Jesus with you? How quickly we forget God’s commandments and follow our sinful hearts!
No, we don’t deserve a place at God’s table – unless the blood the Lamb of God has washed away our sins!
II. It takes a sacrifice!
Listen to our text. “He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey." Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words." We know that “Not all the blood of beasts / On Israel’s altars slain / Could give the guilty conscience peace / Or wash away the stain.” These sacrifices only pointed ahead to the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross. But we can learn something from the sacrifice.
The blood of the sacrifice was first sprinkled on the altar. It was poured out before God, who required that a payment of blood had to be made to atone for the sins of the people. This is what Jesus did when he poured out his blood on the altar of the cross. That blood was poured out before God, who said that those who sinned should die. When Jesus died on the cross, we died, too. Paul wrote that we have been “crucified with Jesus” (Galatians 2.20). When Jesus died for you, you died on the cross, too. His blood atoned for your sins. Your penalty was paid.
Notice that after the blood was sprinkled on the altar, Moses took the other half and sprinkled it on the people. The writer to the Hebrews explained to us what this means from a New Testament point of view. “The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” Dear friends, I know that you don’t feel clean enough before God to sit at God’s table. That’s what your conscience is telling you this morning. But the Word of God and the blood of Jesus is telling you something else – and it is true whether you feel clean not. You are clean. Jesus’ blood has cleansed you from your sins.
Dear friends, today in our service we have the opportunity to be renewed again by the blood of Jesus. He offers in this sacrament the very body and blood which was sacrificed on the cross to save us. This is the blood of the New Covenant, which is poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins.
Do we deserve a place at God’s table? No. But I can look at that picture in Katie’s room and imagine that there is a place for me, as there is for you, because the blood of Jesus has brought us into fellowship with God!
And will you notice how the people responded to the sacrifice? One again, this time covenanted to God by the blood of the sacrifice, they respond by saying, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey." That is our response, too. The blood of Jesus, which has cleansed you from your sins, sends you out that door today renewed in your resolve to keep God’s commandments. We will obey, not because the Law says so, but because we are redeemed by the blood of Jesus!
But let’s take a moment to escape this life and imagine what it will be like when we take our place at God’s table.
III. Your place at the table
“Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank." I have to confess that I don’t quite understand these words. Later, Moses asked to see God face to face. This is what God told him. "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live." It says that Moses and Aaron and the elders of Israel saw the God of Israel, but that God did not raise his hand against them. But he told Moses that no one could see God’s face and live. How do you reconcile this apparent difference? I think there is a clue in our text. It says that they saw God, but there is no description of God in the words we have before us. It only tells us that before God’s throne was a pavement like sapphire – a deep blue, shiny gem. Why did they describe only the pavement? I don’t think they ever really looked up to see God in his glory. Because you cannot see God’s face, and live.
But they didn’t just catch a glimpse and leave. They ate and drank before God. They sat down at the feast which God had prepared for them. The book of Revelation describes heaven in the same way. It says, REV 19:9 “Then the angel said to me, "Write: `Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ "
Should it surprise us that heaven is described as a feast that God has prepared for us? Think of some of the feasts that you’ve enjoyed. I enjoyed the wedding feast after my son’s marriage. I enjoyed an elegant dinner prepared by our district president’s wife in here home. We ate and we talked and we enjoyed each other’s company. Multiply that by a hundred million times, and perhaps you will have an idea of what heaven must be like. We will sit down and see God face to face. We will talk with Jesus and enjoy this heavenly fellowship with God. Wow! Wow!
But the biggest “wow” of all is that you and I have a place at that table. Yes, we do. Because Jesus died for us, and because it says so in his Word, and because we’ve been baptized into his death and resurrection, and because it is sealed for us in this sacrament that we are about to receive, we know we have a place at the Lord’s Table. It is all by the grace of God. Wow! Amen.
