Exodus: Unity of Law and Grace

The Covenant Meal

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: The Covenant Meal

Genre: Lessons with Q & A

Track: 87

Dictation Name: RR171AV87

Location/Venue:

Year: Early 70’s

Let us worship God. Serve the Lord with gladness, come before His presence with singing, enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless His name for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and His truth endureth to all generations. Let us pray.

O Lord, our God, we give thanks unto thee that thy truth endureth to all generations. That yesterday, today, and forever thou art the same. Grant therefore that in a world of change and evil, our hearts may surely always there be fixed where our true joys are to be found, even in Jesus Christ, our Lord, that thy word may govern us, be a light upon our way and a joy to our lives. Bless us this day and always by thy word and by thy spirit, and grant that we may grow and rejoice in our growth in thee. In Christ’s name, amen.

Our scripture is Exodus 24:9-18. Our subject: The Covenant Meal. Exodus 24:9-18. The Covenant Meal. “Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink. And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them. And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God. And he said unto the elders, Tarry ye here for us, until we come again unto you: and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you: if any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them. And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount. And the glory of the LORD abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.”

After the covenant was ratified in blood with all the people as we saw last week, a further ceremony took place. A covenant establishes a community of law between its participants, and to witness to that covenant community, a covenant is followed by a meal together of the parties involved. The sacrament of communion is such a covenant meal in ritual form. It testifies to a community in which the participants are ready to live and die for one another in terms of the covenant law. The covenant dinner is thus, basic to the making of a covenant.

In this instance, verse 11 tells us of that meal. The participants were the seventy elders representing all of Israel. Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu represented the priesthood, and Moses and Joshua its civil government. At this time, all present had a vision of God, not of his person but of His presence. It was, in those days, common to the throne rooms that the floor be made of some kind of blue stone to signify the sky, heaven. All that the men now saw was this throne room, sapphire-like blue pavement, signifying the presence of the great king, Almighty God. They ate and drank of the ceremonial meal.

Moses and Joshua were then summoned to go higher on Mount Sinai in order to receive the Ten Commandments engraved on two tables, or tablets, of stone. The commandments had been given earlier, now they are given in permanent form.

A covenant, when written or engraved, was in two copies; one for each party, like a contract which is what a covenant is. More over, in order to prevent anyone from adding anything to a covenant or contract, the entire parchment, tablet, or paper was entirely covered with the covenant law, or in the case of a contract, the contract, or if it were a will it was completely covered so that there could be no space for anything to be added. No further word, in other words.

Now, meals are an aspect of family life. In Antiquity, to participate in a meal with someone else was to establish thereby a bond of community and mutual obligation. As long as no meal bound two men together, they were actual or potential enemies, but if they ate together, they then had a bond. They could not defraud one another, the penalty was death. They could not even talk unfavorably about the other, under any circumstances, once they ate together. This was very rigidly observed in many parts of the world until very, very recently.

According to Exodus 33:20, God says, “There shall no man see me and live.” John 1:18 declares, “No man has seen God at anytime. The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” The visions of God described here are of His glory, rather than His full and open presence. Calvin said of this passage, “For if the mountains melt at the sight of him, what must needs happen to a mortal man than whom there is nothing more frail and feeble.” Keil and Delitzsch commented, and I quote, “The sight of the God of Israel was a foretaste of the blessedness of the sight of God in eternity, and the covenant meal upon the mount before the face of God was a type of marriage supper of the lamb to which the Lord will call and at which He will present His perfected church in the day of the full revelation of His glory.” The presence of God to sinful man means death. Here we are told in verse 11 that God laid not his hand on them in his grace and mercy. Many scholars have pointed out, such as Matthew Poole, that this appearance of God was of God the Son. The evidence for this is, in particular, Acts 7:36, where Stephen says of the Christ, “This is He that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel, which spake to him [Moses] in the Mount Sinai, and with our Fathers who received the lively oracles to give unto us.” At Mount Sinai, He was present in all His glory, not veiled as in the incarnation. In verse 10, the vision is described as if it were the body of heaven in its clearness. A clear sky in biblical imagery commonly represents God’s favor and a cloudy sky, His anger. Clouds can also represent the fact that man, in his fallen estate, cannot see God and live. The full vision of God is for the world to come.

Now after the communion meal, Moses was summoned up higher on Mount Sinai. After a point, Joshua was left behind. The period of Moses’ stay on the Mount was forty days and forty nights. We do not know how much time was spent before that with the seventy elders. All the while, the mountaintop was visible to Israel below the mountain where the tribes were, visible as cloud and fire, reminding them of the pillar and cloud which accompanied them on their journey. According to Exodus 34:28 and Deuteronomy 9:9, Moses fasted those forty days and nights. He was alone six days and on the seventh day, was called up higher into the mountain to receive the covenant tablets of stone and instructions from the Lord.

Parker said of the law, and I quote, “When we are most religious, we are most inclined to proclaim the law. It is a poor rapture that does not come down upon legislation with a new force, a firmer grip and a deeper conception of its moral solemnity. No other you have been with God upon the mount by knowing how much law you have brought back with you and when you would read the law, read it after you have been long days and nights with the lawgiver.” That was the kind of preaching that prevailed a century and a half ago.

Law relates a religion to the world around us. According to verse 14, Moses gave instruction to the seventy elders, and to Aaron and his sons. In telling them to tarry, he apparently meant in the plain below with the people because that is where they went subsequently. Moses meanwhile went up into the midst of the cloud where the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire, according to verse 17. Hebrews 12:29 tells us that our God is a consuming fire. By the grace of God, Moses drew near and was only blessed.

The mountaintop was comparable to what in the sanctuary was the Holy of Holies. It was cloud-covered for six days, and on the seventh, when Moses was summoned up, burst into a devouring fire. In Deuteronomy 9:9, Moses refers to his forty days and forty nights on the mountain and says, “I neither did eat bread nor drink water.” This fact is also stressed in Exodus 34:28. It is stressed with good reason. It calls attention to the supernatural character of the experience. To fast forty days can be done, and I’ve know people who have done it, but not to continue so long without water, only a few days, and a man without water is dead. Moses, as a desert sheep herder knew this very well, so he is telling us that God, in His grace, had taken him, Moses, out of the normal realm and emphasized the change by separating him from food and drink for the entire time. Moses lets us know that the presence of God radically alters life for man, even on a desert mountain.

Exodus 24 begins with a sacrifice of expiation, by which the covenant is made. Then there is a peace offering meal to establish the fellowship of the covenant. Now, in modern thought, peace means the cessation of hostilities, the termination of war. It has, in the main, a negative connotation. In the biblical sense, to be at peace with someone means to be loyal to him, to be their friend and ally, to be ready to do what is needed to maintain that bond, to lay down your life for them. This is its meaning in Genesis 34:21.

Peace with God is described in 1 Kings 8:61 in these words, “Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments as at this day.” So here, being faithful to God’s covenant law is a part of the peace. Peace in the biblical sense also means safety. That is, a condition of such covenantal law and life that there is nothing to fear because of the happy community among men. Leviticus 26:6 describes such peace. God says, “And I will give you peace in the land and ye shall lie down and none shall make you afraid, and I will rid evil beasts out of the land and neither shall the sword go through your land.” Moreover, the premise of biblical peace is God’s justice. Zechariah 8:16 tells us, “These are the things that ye shall do. Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor, execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates.” The reference to gates there is to the courts of law, which had to meet in an open and public place, at the gates of the city. The judgment of truth and peace is God’s requirement.

The requirement of a peace offering and communion meal as to the preface to the formal law-giving, and the aftermath of the covenant ratification is very important. It tells us that the ground of our peace with God is His covenant grace and law. Moreover the tablets of stone are also important. The law was not inscribed on parchment nor on paper which can perish, but on stone to indicate its enduring character. The covenant thus, was for all time, and its peace is the goal of our covenant faith and obedience.

As I pointed out, covenant peace is not a negative concept but a very positive one. It means that our lives are free of worry, of fretfulness, of nightmares waking or sleeping, because we have perfect peace because our minds, our hearts the scripture says, are stayed on Him. And this is the goal for all society, as well as the goal beginning in our lives, and this is what the covenant sets forth, and the basis of it. The covenant peace comes from faithfulness to God. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, and this peace, which Paul tells us, passeth all understanding comes through the covenant, the covenant law, the covenant grace, and it is the goal of God for His covenant people. Let us pray.

Grant, O Lord, that our hearts be stayed upon thee, upon thy covenant, thy covenant law, thy covenant grace, thy covenant mercies. Grant, O Lord, that as we face a world filled with evil, we be ever mindful that ours is a peace that is not of this world, that it is a peace we can have in the face of all things, because our destiny is assured in Jesus Christ, that in Him, we are more than conquerors. Teach us, our Father, to walk in peace with thee, and at peace one with another. In Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Audience] {?} the worldwide communications. We’ve probably had the most disturbed century of all.

[Rushdoony] Yes, and everything is done instead of trying to give peace, to give fretfulness and guilt to man. Perhaps some of you noticed in the news yesterday that the National Council of Churches is preparing for the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s discovery of America in 1492, and they’re outspoken statement is that it needs to be a de-celebration, because it introduced the greatest evils the world has ever known; colonialism, imperialism, every kind of racialism and so on and so forth. The statement is in process of formulation, but these people in the World Council, or National Council are not interested in peace, but in creating guilt, which is always a hallmark of false faith and false politics, to lay a guilt trip upon people, and the sad fact is that today, both church and state are involved, and the schools, in placing a guilt trip upon everyone, and it’s not only they, it’s the media. Films, novels, everything, to deny peace to man, to place a guilt trip on man. And the reason, of course, is an obvious one. Guilty men are weak, they have a bad conscience. They are not capable of making a stand, so we’re going to have a guilt-ridden world. One of the saddest thing is to go to any graduation service of a state institution, or many private ones, and talk to the students about world affairs. They have a guilt trip and they’re ready to make sure you do, too, because we should all be guilty. That’s the goal of modern society; to bring all men under condemnation before the humanistic gods, and to offer no real hope. Any other questions? Yes?

[Audience] What is the best way to repudiate that?

[Rushdoony] To tell them that we are, in the sight of God, responsible for what we do, not for what somebody did in the remote past that they are Pharisees, because they are busy confessing the sins of their forefathers, which is disgusting. It’s like a young man Otto and I met in Bristol, England, who immediately let us know what a sensitive conscience he had, because he had both English and American ancestors who were involved in the slave trade, Bristol was a center of the slave trade, and he let us know how sensitive his conscience he was by dirtying his ancestors. Now, that’s Phariseeism. They come out as though they were the sensitive souls, and you and I are not sensitive, but they are Pharisees, hypocrites, and they need to be called that, which I have done on occasion. Any other questions or comments? Yes?

[Audience] I’m struck by, I don’t know whether it’s coincidence or what, but in the passing of time that Moses was called to wait for six days, coincident with the period of the time of the creation until the seventy and then receive God’s word , and also that he was on the mount forty days and forty nights like the flood. Is there any significance to this marking of time?

[Rushdoony] Forty days and forty nights is often a term which appears in scripture. Forty years is regarded as a generation. Now we tend to regard it as twenty years, which says most of us are very quickly passé. But forty years was a generation. Forty days was a sign of a passage of time wherein man had a time to consider things. It was considered a time of meditation very often, so that people would withdraw from society for forty days and forty nights if they were trying to come to a decision. Our Lord spent forty days in the wilderness. So, it was a part of a pattern, and individuals very commonly would set apart that length of time for fasting if they had a personal concern, a great moment. So, it was a convention of the time. Are there any other questions or comments? Yes?

[Audience] Small point. I was wondering if you could reconcile this verse 11 where it says the elders saw God and he didn’t do anything to them, and the passage in 1 John 4:12 it says, “No man has ever seen God.”

[Rushdoony] Yes, and that’s why I point out that Stephen said it was Jesus Christ. God the Son, that is, before His incarnation, whom they met on this occasion, the angel of the Lord. All the theophanies, or appearances of God, before or in the Old Testament, are at some point or another, are identified as the angel of the Lord or by the New Testament, as God the Son. Which is not to say God the Father was not present there also in His glory.

[Audience] The third chapter is mentioned. God say to Moses, you can’t look on my face and live.

[Rushdoony] Yes, that’s right. And we must remember that in biblical terminology we cannot limit God to the Father. It’s God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and it’s a part of the somewhat bad theology of modern evangelicalism that it limits the term “God” to the Father. There is a subordination there that is heretical. Well, if there are no further questions or comments, let us now conclude with prayer.

Our Father, we thank thee that, through the covenant in Jesus Christ, we are at peace with thee and have the premise of peace for our personal lives, and for our community lives. Make us messengers of thy peace, that we may, in all our ways, manifest that grace and mercy, that mutual forbearance that will establish thy peace amongst us. And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.

End of tape.