The Grammar of Approach: God Cuts His Covenant Text: Exodus 24:1-2
Introduction: The Architecture of Worship
We come now to one of the high water marks in the Old Testament. Israel is gathered at the foot of Sinai, having received the Ten Words and the Book of the Covenant, which is the case law applying those Ten Words. They have heard the thunder and seen the lightning. They have trembled before the manifest presence of the holy God. And now, God is going to formalize His relationship with them. He is going to cut a covenant. This is a marriage ceremony. Yahweh is the groom, and Israel is the bride. And like any solemn ceremony, there is a strict protocol. There is an order, an architecture to the whole proceeding. God is the one who sets the terms.
We live in an age that despises protocol. Our generation wants a casual, "come as you are" relationship with God. We want to saunter into His presence as though we were walking into a coffee shop. We want God on our terms, according to our definitions, and subject to our comfort levels. But the God of Sinai is not a tame God. He is a consuming fire. And if we are to approach Him and live, we must approach Him on His terms. We must learn the grammar of His holiness.
Exodus 24 is a foundational text for understanding how a holy God makes it possible for sinful men to draw near to Him. It is a chapter about mediation, representation, and communion. It establishes a pattern of worship that echoes throughout the rest of Scripture. What happens here at the foot of Sinai is a preview of the gospel. It is a dramatic presentation of our problem, which is the infinite gulf between us and God, and God's gracious solution, which is to provide a way for us to come near through a mediator. These opening verses establish the concentric circles of holiness, the tiers of access to the presence of God. Not everyone can get equally close. This is offensive to our egalitarian sensibilities, but it is essential for understanding the nature of true worship.
The Text
Then He said to Moses, “Come up to Yahweh, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, and you all shall worship at a distance. Moses alone, however, shall come near to Yahweh, but they shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”
(Exodus 24:1-2 LSB)
The Gracious Invitation (v. 1a)
The chapter begins with a command that is also a gracious invitation.
"Then He said to Moses, 'Come up to Yahweh...'" (Exodus 24:1a)
The first thing we must notice is who initiates. God does. The entire relationship is based on His sovereign initiative. Man in his sin does not seek God. God in His grace seeks man. The call is always from God to us. "Come up." This is the constant call of God to His people. Come out of the world, come away from your sin, come up to where I am. This is a call to transcendence. Worship is an ascent. We are called to leave the flatlands of our mundane existence and climb the mountain of God.
But this is not a general invitation to the masses. It is specific. It is directed to Moses, who will then relay the message. God works through delegated authority. He establishes lines of communication. This is not a free-for-all. God is a God of order, not of chaos, and this order is reflected in the way He structures His covenant community and the way He summons them to worship.
Concentric Circles of Holiness (v. 1b)
God immediately defines who is permitted to ascend the mountain and how they are to do it.
"...you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, and you all shall worship at a distance." (Exodus 24:1b LSB)
Here we see the principle of representation. The entire nation of Israel cannot ascend the mountain. So, God calls for representatives. First, Moses, the chief mediator. Then Aaron, the high priest, and his two eldest sons, Nadab and Abihu, who are in line for the priesthood. Then seventy elders, who represent the people of Israel at large. This is a federal structure. The people are present on the mountain through their designated heads.
But notice the immediate qualification: "you all shall worship at a distance." Even these chosen representatives, the leaders of the nation, must keep their distance. Proximity to God is a privilege, not a right, and it is governed by His holiness. The closer you get to the consuming fire, the more careful you must be. This is a lesson Nadab and Abihu will tragically fail to learn in Leviticus 10, when they offer unauthorized fire and are consumed by the fire of God. They forgot the grammar of approach. They treated the holy things as common and paid for it with their lives. This is a permanent warning against casual, flippant, man-centered worship. God defines the terms of His worship, and we disregard them at our peril.
The Unique Mediator (v. 2)
Verse two draws the lines even more sharply. There are levels of access, and one man stands apart from all the others.
"Moses alone, however, shall come near to Yahweh, but they shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him." (Exodus 24:2 LSB)
Here the concentric circles are clearly defined. First, you have the people at the foot of the mountain. They are forbidden to come up at all. Second, you have the representatives, Aaron, his sons, and the seventy elders. They are permitted to come part of the way up the mountain, but they must worship "at a distance." Finally, there is Moses. "Moses alone" is permitted to "come near to Yahweh."
This establishes the absolute necessity of a mediator. Sinful people cannot approach a holy God directly. There must be a go-between. Moses functions here as a type of Christ. He is the one who can enter the glorious presence of God on behalf of the people. The author of Hebrews builds his entire argument on this foundation. Moses was a faithful servant in God's house, but Christ is the faithful Son over God's house (Hebrews 3:1-6). Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant, a covenant of shadows and types. But Jesus is the mediator of a New and better Covenant, established on better promises (Hebrews 8:6).
The starkness of this verse is a rebuke to all forms of democratic, egalitarian religion. In God's economy, there is hierarchy. There is structure. There is a necessary distinction between the mediator and the people he represents. This is not to establish a permanent priestly class that lords it over the laity. The New Testament teaches the priesthood of all believers. But it does mean that we cannot come to God any way we please. We must come through the one, appointed, unique Mediator. Moses alone could go near. And now, Jesus Christ alone is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).
The Gospel on the Mountain
So what is being taught here? This is not just a history lesson about ancient Israelite worship protocols. This is the gospel in miniature. This is the architecture of our salvation.
The people at the foot of the mountain, forbidden to ascend, are a picture of all humanity in our natural state. We are alienated from God, separated by our sin. The holiness of God is a terrifying reality that would consume us if we tried to approach on our own merits.
The elders, Aaron, and his sons, who worship from a distance, represent the saints of the Old Covenant. They were brought into a covenant relationship. They were represented. They could see the glory of God, as we will see later in this chapter, but still from a distance. The way into the holiest of all was not yet fully revealed (Hebrews 9:8).
And Moses, who alone goes near, is the beautiful type of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our representative, our federal head, our mediator. He has done what we could not do. He has ascended the holy hill of the Lord. He has entered not a man-made sanctuary, but heaven itself, to appear in the presence of God for us (Hebrews 9:24).
The wonderful news of the New Covenant is that because our Mediator has gone near, we who are united to Him by faith are brought near with Him. The veil has been torn. Through Christ, we have a boldness and access with confidence (Ephesians 3:12). We are no longer kept at a distance. We are invited to "draw near to the throne of grace" (Hebrews 4:16). We have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the assembly of the firstborn (Hebrews 12:22-24). The tiered access of Sinai has been fulfilled and transformed by the finished work of Christ. Moses alone could go near, so that in Christ, all of His people might be brought near. God established these strict protocols of approach, not to keep us out permanently, but to teach us the holiness and grace that would one day bring us in.