EX 24:8 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."
The covenant –a covenant of blood. Blood speaks to us about life, it reminds us that we depend on God alone for our life. Blood speaks to us also about death, that death is the penalty for our sin. Blood speaks to us about sacrifice, because sacrifice is God’s means of forgiveness.
But here is a question: what possible connection could there be between the blood of animals and heaven? On the one hand we have something which is very material, very earthly, very limited: the blood of animals, which was spilled in an earthly ritual, and sprinkled on the people. On the other hand, we have a spiritual crisis of cosmic proportions: the alienation of man from God. What possible connection can there be between the two? Before trying to answer this question, let’s read what happened next:
EX 24:9-19 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.
After the covenant was announced, and the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled on the people, God called Moses and elders up to the mountain. And there they saw God. How can this be? The Bible says no one can see God.
I believe that nobody can truly see God in all His infinity; God is beyond the comprehension of any of His created beings. There’s only one who truly knows God in all His infinity--it’s the Son who came from God. But here the Bible tells us that Moses and the elders saw the God of Israel. So, they must have seen God in some measure, as God allowed Himself to be seen. What is interesting, though, is that the Scripture here doesn’t explain what God Himself looked like; instead of that, there is an amazing description of something under the feet of God, something like a pavement of sapphire, and clear as the sky. What that was, we don’t know, but clearly it was something not of this world. I can’t interpret it for you, except to suggest that it tells us that God is not part of this world; He is the Creator, He is not part of the Creation. And again this forces me to ask: how could earthly sacrifices be effective in closing the spiritual rift between man and such a God as this? But before we answer that, let’s read the end of this account:
11 But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.
Here is the mercy of God. No man can see God and live. But these men saw God and lived. Again, as we said, no man can see God, no man can comprehend Him in all His infinite nature. But God somehow allowed these men to see Him, to see a true representation of Him, let’s say a “side” of Him, and even to eat and drink in His presence. He did not raise His hand against them: this speaks to us of the mercy of God, it reminds us that the true desire of God is to freely fellowship with man, without any hindrance, without any alienation.
This is a wonderful picture. But of course, Moses and the elders came down from the mountain. They lived the remainder of their lives, they died and were buried. And what then? That glorious moment on the mountaintop was only a moment. But what about eternity? There were only about 70 men up there on the mountain. For them it was wonderful. But what about all the rest of the people who ever lived in human history? What hope do they have to fellowship with God, to eat and drink in His presence? Who can truly bring heaven and earth, God and man, together?
Yes, it was a wonderful vision, but it leaves us with these questions: What possible connection can there be between earthly sacrifices and the eternal God? How can the alienation between God and man be solved once and for all?
Let’s look into the New Testament, at one place where the writer deals with this problem, the problem of the terrible distance between the earthly and the heavenly:
HEB 8:1-2 The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.
Jesus Christ is our High Priest; He is not like the other high priests – why? Because he doesn’t have to offer a new sacrifice every day for his own sins and the sins of the people. He has no sins himself, and His sacrifice is the perfect sacrifice accomplished once for all. His sacrifice is actually that one true sacrifice that all creation was waiting for. All the other sacrifices were only representations, they were like photographs which cannot be the actual thing itself. But ultimately, just as there is only one true God, there could only be one true sacrifice, there could only be one true means of reconciliation between man and God.
Jesus became that one true sacrifice, offering up His own blood in the sanctuary of the one true God. He doesn’t serve as high priest in an earthly temple, which is only a representation; he serves in the true sanctuary of God. What is that sanctuary? Where is it? How can we possibly say? I am sure only of this: the true heavenly sanctuary is the place of closest fellowship with God. Perhaps it is God Himself. Jesus doesn’t bring the blood of animals to God. He offers his own blood as the price of our salvation.
And so we ask: how could an earthly sacrifice could solve an eternal, spiritual problem? How could physical blood seal the spiritual rift between man and God? In Christ the answer is miraculously revealed to us: It’s because He who died on the cross was the One from Heaven. In the cross we see heaven dying so earth might live. The blood of Christ was the blood of the incarnate God. His death was the sacrifice of God for the forgiveness of sins. In Christ, God Himself exhausted the pain of our sin, and released us from our debts. If you really stop to think about it, there was no other possible way. That was the only way God could have forgiven our sins: He suffered the consequences of our sins Himself.
This is the amazing revelation of Jesus Christ – what no one could have imagined; that in Christ, God Himself was reconciling the world to Himself. This is how an earthly sacrifice could reconcile man and God.
I think that’s what the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews is trying to tell us. He says that the earthly sanctuary is only a representation. The priests and the animal sacrifices are only a picture. But Christ is the actuality. A weak analogy would be to compare when we were little children and we played house, pretending to be the papa and mama, and real marriage. Real marriage is the thing itself; there is no more picture. You cannot even compare children playing house to real married life.
It is like this with our Lord Jesus Christ: His life is our true salvation; His death is our true forgiveness; His blood is the true price fully paid.
And the deeper we unite our hearts with this truth, the better we understand reality itself.
Jesus said, “I have come to bear witness of the truth.” Jesus knew about all reality. When he gathered his disciples for the Last Supper in the upper room, He knew perfectly what was about to happen, and why, and what it would cost Him to carry it out.
MT 26:26-30 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body."
Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom." When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Remember Moses and the elders up the mountain top, sitting in the presence of God Himself, and eating and drinking. Here again, God has called his servants to sit with him, to eat and drink. And as Moses sprinkled the people, with the blood, sealing God’s holy covenant with them, in the same way, Jesus presents the blood of the covenant to his disciples.
But there are differences. Moses sprinkled the people with the blood of animals. It was external, and temporary. But Jesus says, “Drink.” He also says, “Eat. This is my body, this is my blood.” With these few simple words, Jesus reveals the true depth of the sacrifice He will make. He will give himself up totally for our life. He will make Himself our true spiritual food and drink forever and ever. “I am the Bread of Life”, Jesus says. But the bread must be broken before you can eat it. Jesus was ready to be broken. He longed for the fulfillment of the Father’s plan; He looked ahead to the ultimate joy of His Father’s kingdom, when people from east and west, north and south would come and sit down at His table and fellowship with Him forever-- not only 70 elders on a mountaintop or twelve disciples in an upper room.
When we look at Jesus with His disciples around the table, we see a picture of God’s kingdom, the kingdom which is coming. Jesus gave Himself up to the cross and death, so that you and I could join Him at His fellowship table forever.
In the book of Revelation, we are allowed to catch a glimpse of this unimaginable glory, in chapter four when John was taken to heaven and he saw the throne of God. Someone was sitting on the throne; the one sitting there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian; a rainbow the color of emerald encircled the throne. And around the throne were 24 other thrones, with an elder sitting on each of them, all dressed in white and wearing golden crowns. Lightning and thunder came from the throne and seven lamps burned in front of the throne, and there was something like a sea of glass in front of the throne, as clear as crystal. Again we see elders sitting in the presence of God. Do you think that when God called Moses and the elders up to the mountain, that by this God let them understand a little bit what heaven was really like? I think so. And when Jesus gathered his disciples together for the Last Supper, was that also a picture of God fellowshipping with His people? I think so.
But there was only way to realize this reality.
(Read Revelation 5:1-14)
Today we are called to the table of the Lord, to share His body and blood, to recognize the price of our salvation in the death of Jesus Christ, and to confess Him as our true Savior and coming King. The Lord Himself is with us when we obediently observe this ordinance. God is with His people, and He is worthy of all glory, honor and praise. This table is a representation of reality, of deep spiritual reality that exceeds our comprehension, and yet God invites us to take part and understand. When we participate in this supper, we taste in a small way the future exultation when people will come from east and west, north and south to sit at the table of the Lord Jesus Christ.
