EXODUS 24:3-11
THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT PRODUCES PEACE WITH GOD.
In
the name + of Jesus.
There are two testaments in the
Bible. We usually consider them divisions
based on history. The first part is old
stuff; the second is newer stuff. But
the division is more than historical. A testament,
or a covenant, is an agreement made between two parties. The Old Testament was a covenant that the
Lord had made with the people of Israel.
The terms were announced at Mt. Sinai.
Moses had stood in the presence of the Lord. He received the Ten Commandments and other
laws which set Israel apart as God’s chosen people. And as it was done with covenants of a
secular nature, so it was done here: The Old Testament was sealed with blood.
The Hebrew expression for making a
covenant is literally “to cut a covenant.”
When two kings would make a treaty with one another—vowing to do something
for each other, or vowing not to do something against one another—they would
have an animal slaughtered and its body severed. The two pieces of the animal carcass would be
spread a few feet apart. Then the kings
would walk together through the blood trail.
It is as if each king were saying, “May I be slain like this animal if I
fail to live up to my end of the covenant.”
The Old Testament was given by the Lord
and proclaimed by Moses. “All the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words
that the Lord has spoken we will do.”
And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord” (Exodus 24:3-4). Then the covenant was confirmed in
blood. Animals were slaughtered and prepared
for sacrifices. Their blood was
collected. Half was splashed against the
altar, sealing the Lord to his end of the covenant. The other half “Moses took … 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”
(Exodus 24:8). By sprinkling the
people with blood, Moses bound them to the Old Testament.
The blood of the
covenant produced peace with God. Once
the covenant was confirmed, the elders of Israel ascended Mt. Sinai to feast with
God. He did not look upon their sinfulness
or treat them as their sins deserved. He
received them as his beloved people.
They beheld God, although the only thing described was the pavement beneath
God’s feet. They ate and drank with God
as friends. For, they were reconciled to
God by the blood. The blood of the covenant
produces peace with God.
The Old Testament,
however, had a flaw: It was a two-sided covenant. The Old Testament was that God promised Israel:
“I will be your God. I will bless you,
protect you, provide for you, preserve you, and prosper you if you will obey my
words.” The flaw was not on God’s
end. He is ever faithful and always keeps
his word. The problem was this: “if you
will obey my words.”
The Israelites
had vowed: “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we
will be obedient” (Exodus 24:7). I think they meant it. It is like a teenager who makes his or her
confirmation vow. The catechumen vows that
he will be faithful to God’s word and suffer everything, even death, rather
than fall away from it. When that vow is
taken, I believe each catechumen is sincere.
But then temptations come. We
discover how weak we are when we face peer pressure, worldly expectations, and
our own ego-charged cravings. The Israelites
discovered this too, as the pages of Scripture record and repeat. In fact, about a month after the Israelites
vowed their faithfulness to the covenant, they crafted a golden calf and worshiped
it. They were unfaithful to their
faithful God and deserved whatever punishment they got.
But it is no different
for us. We have been chosen as God’s people. We know what God desires of us. Our problem is rarely ignorance. Our problem is sinfulness. We are sincere every morning when we wake up
that we will do the good God wants us to do and avoid the evil God forbids. We will be obedient. We will demonstrate kindness to that obnoxious
brother-in-law who brags about himself.
We will show patience to the other drivers on the road because we all
want to get where we are going. But then
our brother-in-law says something we assume is an insult and we respond with prickly
and vicious words. Our patience with
other drivers lasts until someone takes too long after the light turns
green. We surely do not act like the
children of God or live up to the code God has set for us. It is not because we are unaware of his
word. We do know God’s word. Therefore, we also know his judgment on our
behavior. We deserve to be slain, for
the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
There was one
element in the Old Testament that continued to provide hope for the sinner—blood. The blood of the covenant produces peace with
God. The Old Testament prescribed the
blood of sheep and bulls to be shed daily for God’s people. It was that blood which declared the
atonement for sins. Each animal was presented
as a substitute for the sinner. The priest
would lay his hands on it, signifying that this animal is the substitute. “This one bears the sin of the people. This one dies for me.” And with the fellowship offering, a portion
of the sacrifice was given back to the worshiper. He would stay in God’s presence at the temple
and feast with God in peace. The blood
of the covenant produced peace with God.
As the years went
by, thousands of animals were slaughtered.
Gallons of blood were splashed against the altar. The smoke from the altar continued to declare
peace from God to his people. But none of
those sacrifices actually took away sins or delivered from death. Rather, each of those sacrifices pointed to a
greater sacrifice—a sacrifice which would not need to be repeated because it
would be sufficient for all the sins of all the sinners of all the nations for
all times. This blood would be shed to
establish a new covenant, a New Testament.
This would be a superior covenant because it would be an everlasting testament
which would never fail. The blood of
this covenant produces eternal peace with God.
Unlike the Old
Testament, this New Testament is a one-sided covenant. God the Father sent his own Son to proclaim
the terms, to fulfill those terms, and to seal it with his blood. He does not leave any conditions for you to
fulfill. What if he did? What if Jesus had said, “I have done what is
necessary to make you children of the heavenly Father. All you have to do is act like children of
God, and then you will have eternal life.”
Oh, the anguish and the pressure and the doubt that would have been laid
upon us! And that is on a good day! How could we ever live up to God’s
expectations of us? What hope could we
have? We would be driven to utter despair.
Once again, our problem is not ignorance. It is not even our will. We want to do what is good—God has worked
that desire in us. We want to avoid what
is evil—and yet we still do it. St. Paul
expresses the frustration every Christian has: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but
not the ability to carry it out. For I
do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing”
(Romans 7:18-19). If we know better, and if we want to do
better, why don’t we actually do better?
This struggle bothers us all.
Many Christians have wondered if they really are Christians because we keep
sinning. If the Lord had chosen to make
the New Testament conditional on our performance, we would surely be lost.
But the blood of the New Testament produces
peace with God. It is all in God’s
hands. Every part is put upon Jesus to
fulfill, and he does. He presented himself
as the fulfillment of every sacrifice; for, the Old Testament points to
him. Jesus is the whole burnt offering—consumed
completely in the fiery wrath of God for our sins. Jesus is the guilt offering. The Bible says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse
for us—for it is written, ’Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’”
(Galatians 3:13). He assumed our guilt and took our curse. In exchange,
Jesus gives us his innocence.
The exchange was
made and sealed with blood. Jesus’ blood
was splashed out upon the cross, and his blood was sprinkled upon us in our
baptism. St. Paul reminds us that Jesus “saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness,
but according to his own mercy…” For,
this is not a two-sided covenant in which we have work to do yet, but one-sided
in which Jesus has done all the work.
And how is that covenant applied to us?
St. Paul continues, “by the washing of regeneration
and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly
through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might
become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus
3:5-7). The blood of the covenant
produces peace with God. He does not
treat us as our sins deserve. Rather, “the
blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Since we have been baptized into Jesus’ name,
we have been cleansed of all sin and are dressed in Jesus’ righteousness. God will not condemn that which is righteous
in his sight; therefore, you get to live in peace. It does not mean your sins are okay, but it
does mean they are forgiven.
The blood of the
covenant produces peace with God. After
the covenant was confirmed at Sinai, “Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the
elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. …And he did not lay his hand on the chief men
of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank” (Exodus 24:10-11).
You
and I also get to eat and drink in the presence of the Lord. We not only feast with him, we feast upon him—for he is the fellowship offering. He says, “This cup is the new covenant
in my blood” (1 Corinthians 11:25).
We receive the benefits of Jesus’ death and resurrection. This is what strengthens and keeps us in the
true faith unto life everlasting. We
depart from this altar in peace to live in joy as God’s redeemed. Eventually, we will depart from this life and
enter the glorious, everlasting life with our Lord. He will welcome us in joy and have us sit at
the wedding banquet of the Lamb.
Since the New
Testament is validated entirely by Jesus, it has been accomplished without a
flaw. We receive all the benefits by grace. Nothing has been earned, but all has been
given—mercy, forgiveness, peace, joy, and glory. The precious blood of Christ has won great
riches, and it has redeemed and reconciled you.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
