"And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words” (Ex. 24:8).
The conditions of the covenant are here laid down for the people, the sum of them being, “Obey and be satisfied.” Moses had written down all the laws God had dictated to him so that there might be no confusion or disagreement about what God had actually commanded. He then presented them clearly and fully to the people that they might be informed of the terms of the covenant before they made any kind of commitment. It is not surprising that, once hearing the laws of God’s covenant, the people emphatically agreed to obey everything the Lord had said, for, as Matthew Henry wrote, “God’s covenant and commands are so incontestably equitable in themselves, and so highly advantageous to us, that the more we think of them, and the more plainly and fully they are set before us, the more reason we shall see to comply with them.” This, of course, is exactly what Israel did. If only their hearts had been as true as their words!
The covenant then was sealed by blood of sacrifice, that Israel might receive strong consolations from the ratifying of God’s promises to them and might lie under strong obligations from the ratifying of their promises to God. Thus God devised a way that we may be confirmed both in our faith and in our obedience. The covenant must be made by sacrifice because, since man has sinned and forfeited his Creator’s favor, there can be no fellowship by covenant until there is atonement by sacrifice.
To seal the covenant, Moses built an altar to the Lord, which represented all His perfections and honor. The altar then signified all that God expected from His people, that they should honor Him through praise and worship. Blood of the sacrifice was then sprinkled on the altar, which signified the people’s dedicating themselves, their lives, and beings, to God and to His honor. In the blood, which is the life of the animal sacrifices, all the Israelites were presented unto God as living sacrifices. The blood was then sprinkled on the people, which signified cleansing from sin so the people could enter the covenant relation. It also signified the penalty for breaking the covenant, which was death. Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, offered Himself a sacrifice on the cross to cleanse the people of their sin once and for all, and to secure the benefits of the covenant for His people.
How quick are you to promise your obedience to God’s law? Because Jesus is the Mediator of the new covenant, our redemption is not lost because of our breaking the covenant. We have an advocate in Christ, who intercedes for us. Does this, however, give you freedom to disobey God’s moral law? Why?
