Blood of the Covenant

Thank you for reading this sermon from Christ Fellowship. I hope and pray that this sermon will be a blessing of grace and truth to you. With that said, let me encourage you not to use this sermon as a replacement for your local church. Christ Jesus did not establish his Church simply for us to consume content. Instead, He calls us to be part of a real, covenant family.

Have you ever signed a contract you weren’t sure you could keep? A cell phone plan, a mortgage, or even just a gym membership—you sign your name, you make a promise, and deep down you wonder if you can actually follow through. That’s a picture of what’s happening when we get to Exodus 24.

God has given His law, Moses reads it to the people, and they eagerly say, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do!” They sign on the dotted line with their voices. But God, in His wisdom, knows they won’t keep it.

So, before they even leave the mountain, God provides a sign—the blood of the covenant. They build a big altar, kill a bunch of animals, and put the blood in a basin. Half the blood is thrown on the altar. Now watch what Moses does with the other half.

8 And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Blood on the altar, blood on the people. It was God’s way of showing them: “You will break this covenant, but I will provide the blood that will cover you.” From that moment forward, everything about their worship—the tabernacle, the priests, the sacrifices—was designed to point them beyond themselves to the Savior who would come.

This is all symbolic of atonement. At the Last Supper, Jesus calls his own blood the “blood of the covenant”. The people of Israel believed they were making a covenant to keep the law, but in reality, this ceremony is symbolic of the fact that they cannot keep the law and they will need to be covered in the blood of the covenant – the blood of Jesus.

Notice also that the people are sprinkled with blood, a sort of baptism ritual (hint, hint Presbyterians). After the ceremony, God calls Moses back up to Mt Sanai for forty days and forty nights, the same amount of time Jesus spent in the wilderness after His own baptism.

This second meeting with God is all about worship. God gives Moses instructions for the building of the tabernacle, the altar, and the garments of the priests. Look at the first paragraph:

1 The Lord said to Moses,

2 “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me.

Notice that their giving here was not under compulsion. God asks for it; He doesn’t demand it. This fits with the New Testament, where Paul says, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

3 And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze,

4 blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats’ hair,

5 tanned rams’ skins, goatskins, acacia wood,

6 oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense,

7 onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.

8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.

9 Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.

According to God, what is the purpose of the tabernacle? “That I may dwell in their midst.” God wants His people to know His presence. But there is a tension here. In the ancient world, people believed that gods lived in temples.

The New Testament corrects this idea, saying that the God of heaven and earth does not dwell in temples made by human hands. Why then does God command Moses to build a tabernacle?

This tension is resolved when we consider the many ways that the tabernacle itself was symbolic of Jesus. Let’s look at some of these, starting with the priests.

(slide) Aaron and his sons served as the priests. They handled all the rituals associated with worship. Hebrews 7 tells us that all of their work pointed ahead to the work of Jesus, our Great High Priest.

Even the clothing they wore pointed to Christ. They wore special stones on their shoulder and on their breastplates, symbolic of Christ bearing his people on His shoulders and close to His heart.

Now let’s look at the tabernacle. (slide) In the outer courtyard, there was an altar. Many, many animals would be killed on that altar. The blood that was spilled pointed directly to the work of Jesus on the cross.

Closer to the entrance was a basin filled with water. The priests used the water to wash their hands and feet before entering the tabernacle. Look at the instructions:

20 When they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn a food offering to the Lord, they shall wash with water, so that they may not die.

Don’t forget to wash up or you may die! That’s pretty serious. All of this was serious. There are a few stories of priests doing something wrong and God actually did kill them immediately.

The point was that holiness was required to enter into God’s presence, and really there is only One person qualified to do that… Jesus.

Now, let’s look inside. (slide) The first thing you would notice is a table of bread called the bread of the presence. Jesus called Himself the bread of life.

Then you would notice a large golden lampstand. Jesus called Himself the light of the world.

Further in you would see an altar of incense. The incense represented the prayers of the people, and it was never supposed to stop burning. Hebrews 7 tells us that Jesus prays for us continually.

Then you would come to a veil separating the inner room. This veil symbolized the separation between God and men. It was torn by God from top to bottom when Jesus died on the cross.

Inside that room was the Ark of the Covenant. (slide) This was God’s throne of grace. Touching it meant death. It had to be carried with two wooden poles. John tells us that Jesus carried his own cross, two wooden beams upon which he died.

Above the Ark were two angels with their wings stretched out. This was called the Mercy Seat. Once a year, and only once a year, the High Priest would sprinkle blood on it. This was symbolic of the atonement provided by Jesus.

All these details, their entire system of worship, was meant to communicate the need for a Savior. It was a heavy and potentially deadly responsibility. It screams to them and to us that God is Holy and that the separation between God and sinful men is vast.

But something crazy is happening back down the mountain while Moses is receiving all of these instructions. The people got together and decided to come up with their own worship strategy.

7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.

8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’”

9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.

10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

It has been less than a month and already the people are breaking the first and second commandments! God is ready to rain fire down on the whole assembly and that is clearly what they deserve. This is nothing less than a rejection of God and the leader whom God appointed.

But this is also the most important part of the story. Watch what happens.

11 But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.

13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’”

14 And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

Moses makes three arguments. First, he reminds God that these are His people. Second, he appeals to God’s glory and reputation among the nations. And finally, he reminds God of the covenant promises He made to Abraham.

There are striking similarities between this prayer and the prayer of Jesus in John 17. Jesus also prays specifically for God’s chosen people and for God to be glorified.

Later in Exodus 32, Moses even offers his own life in exchange for God’s mercy. What happens here is an example of mediation. Moses becomes a mediator. He stands between God and his people, pleading for mercy. And it works!

The people had failed before they even started. They had profaned the worship of God before they even tried doing it God’s way. There’s no way they would ever be acceptable to God on their own merit.

But that was never the point. The purpose of their worship was always to demonstrate their great need of a Mediator.

God appeared to Moses one last time on Mt Sanai in Exodus 34. Look was what He says:

6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

The question we are meant to ask is how can this be? How can God forgive sins while also punishing sins? The answer can only be Jesus – the One who stood in the place of both God and men, bearing our sins upon Himself.

Israel failed before they even started, and we fail too. Every single day… But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus has succeeded where we could not. He is the true tabernacle, the true priest, the true sacrifice, the true mediator. And now, instead of God’s wrath, we have God’s presence—“I will dwell in their midst.”

So, the question is not whether you can keep the covenant—you can’t. The question is whether you are covered by the blood of the covenant, the blood of Christ. If you are, then God Himself dwells with you and in you, and you can worship Him in Spirit and in truth, not with golden calves of your own making, but through Jesus Christ, the Lamb who was slain, the High Priest who intercedes, the Savior who reigns forever.

As we come to the Lord’s table this morning, which holds the obvious echoes of the old covenant – the bread of presence and the blood of the altar – we come not because we are worthy. In fact, we are also guilty of making idols for ourselves. And we should examine our hearts this morning to identify the golden calves we have created for ourselves.

Who or what are we trusting besides God? Who or what do we think we can’t possibly live without? What gets our devotion, our commitment, our time, and our money? Lay at all down at the feet of Jesus this morning. Come to the table both guilty and forgiven in Christ alone.