THE GLORY OF GOD ( PART 8.2 )
Pastor Christopher Choo
Lesson 3306
THE GLORY OF GOD ( PART 8.2 )
What about The Magnificent Meal on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 24:1-18)?
The text we are about to study is one of the most fascinating passages in the Old Testament.
One of the attractions of this passage is its uniqueness. The God who cannot be seen is seen, not only by Moses, along with Joshua, his servant, but by Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, the priests, and also by seventy of the elders of Israel.
In addition to seeing God, the nobles of the nation Israel also sat and ate a meal in His presence.
What is unusual is that men saw God and did not perish and that the vision of God is indeed rare, unlike all other manifestations of God in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible).
Scholars have wrestled with this exceptional incident trying to describe its importance.
Here are some of the many scholarly views of this one-off experience of seeing God:
1. It was prophetic of what John will later see in the Book of Revelation - the Sea of Glass.
2. God invited these elected representatives of the 12 tribes of Israel to ratify the Mosiac Covenant at Mt.Sinai where He gave them the Ten Commandments through Moses.
The 75 leaders (70 elders, Nadab and Abihu, Aaron, Moses, and his servant Joshua) were representatives who acted on behalf of the entire nation. These were also the leaders of the nation who would teach, interpret, and apply the Law which God was giving Israel.
3. There was a Covenantal Meal to memorialize the event.
In addition to seeing God, the nobles of the nation Israel also sat and ate a meal in His presence.
The covenant meal, eaten by the 75 leaders of Israel in the presence of God, is the final act of ratification. As God had summoned them in verses 1 and 2, now Moses (attended by Joshua) and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the 70 elders went up on the holy mountain. Here, we are told, they “saw the God of Israel” (v. 10), and yet He did not strike them dead (v. 11).
But some say they saw God from a distance.
4. The "Distant View" adherents claim that they were mere invitees who kept their distance.
This distant view of God may explain why we do not read of any fear on the part of the elders (perhaps only wonder).
God invited the seventy elders to come up to worship Him (24:1). Worship is not practiced among equals. The inferior always worship the superior being.
(3) God invited the elders to worship Him “from a distance” (v. 1), allowing only Moses to come near to Him
So precisely what did these leaders see?
Well, we know that they saw God. We also know that the God they saw had feet (cf. v. 10). All that is described, to our dismay, is the feet of God and the sapphire-like clear blue pavement under them. Why does our text describe only the feet of God and the pavement under them?
Abba Father, there are unanswered questions in the Word. In our finite minds, we cannot understand nor imagine the fullness of Your manifestation among sinful human beings. If Moses was closest to You, then the others in the entourage had a distant view of You. But it is so wonderful that You manifested Your presence among them and even prepared a covenantal meal for them in the wilderness to impress them of their sacred duty in leading Your people in the true worship of their one true God.
