Exodus Chapter 24 Verses 1 – 7

• There are some that say, and you might even be feeling this as well, that the people are over-confident in answering that they will be entirely obedient to all that God has commanded.  Perhaps they didn’t realize the depth or the extent of how comprehensive the laws given by God really were…I’m not so sure we are dealing with over confidence here.
• God alone is the reason they had been released from Egypt. There is no denying the miraculous events that led to them leaving.  God alone is the reason why the armies of Egypt didn’t slaughter them on the beach of the Red Sea…but rather they passed through the midst of the sea on dry ground while the Egyptian army did not.  God alone is the reason they haven’t all perished from hunger.  Undeniable and obvious.  God alone is the reason they aren’t all dead from lack of water. 
• By day they are shielded from the sun and led by a pillar of cloud the stays in lock step with them. By night there is a pillar of fire without earthly fuel warming them and illuminating their camp.  God has done so very much for them and His hand is explicit.  The response I would expect from all of that is prompt agreement!  All that they are, (their mind – all that we are), where we are, the fact that we are at all…is all because of Him.  
• And so what is Your ask? My answer is YES!  I’ll trust You for the strength!  Apparently, I can trust You for everything else!!  I see this response as not a lack of knowledge but rather a good understanding of knowledge!  It’s a response of faith.  I don’t even know how You got me here…if this is what You say You want me to do then YES…not sure I really even care about the how…just YES!  Look at this next verse…

Exodus Chapter 24 Verse 8

• The covenant that the Lord has made with you…the blood wasn’t theirs, the covenant wasn’t theirs…so why would I then expect the strength to be theirs!? This is so subtle but to me it is so amplified…intense…vociferous!!!  Maybe it’s because I am completely sold (because I know me) that anything of strength of faith in me is the work of the Holy Spirit…not the work of me!  The blood of the sacrifice seals the covenant of the requirements of God’s people between us and Him and the covenant owner and maker and author is God…my job is just to agree.
• This reminds me of when Pilate brought Jesus to the crowd of His own people and offered to release Him and they rejected Him…their response to Pilate in the hearing of all heaven found in Matthew 27:25, “His blood be upon us and our children…” As savage as that statement was, God’s mercy should be known and was upon that crowd!  Because Jesus was and is truly the blood of the New Covenant and they and us and we and them…truly the people of God and the recipients of that covenant…not because we are good but because we are not good…that is why He came in the first place!

Exodus Chapter 24 Verses 9 – 11

• Intriguing scripture! What is going on here.  On the surface and to someone who is hunting for it, it appears we have a contradiction.  What am I talking about?  John 1:18, “No one has seen God at any time.”  John 6:46, “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God…”  Exodus 33:20, “But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.””  So what is going on here?  Do they see God or not?
• I want to show you something that I think you will find useful, helpful in discussing with the Mormons, the JWs, the seekers…who exactly Jesus is… Because the Word of God is true…no one can see God and live, it’s true at face value…but we have seen Jesus and Jesus said in John 14:9, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father…” 
• So here’s what I’m going to prove to you. I’m going to prove to you that Jesus is God without a doubt and without question.  Not a God…but God.  And I’m going to prove to you that the Father is God…not a God…but God.  And then I am going to use that to teach that Exodus 24 is a Theophany.  And Old Testament appearance of the pre-incarnate Jesus…and so they indeed see God, they saw Jesus…and yet the Father who is also God, the same God, they did not see which demands that God the Father and God the Son are separate and distinct persons but the scriptures calls them both One God.   
• Thurn to Isaiah Chapter 6. Look at verses 1 – 10.  This verse set describes Isaiah the prophet seeing in a vision, God on the throne.  Holy…the Lord of hosts…the whole earth full of His glory.  This must be God.  Now, turn over to John Chapter 12.  Look at verses 37 – 43.  Without controversy, without any confusion…the reference given in John 12 is a reference to Isaiah 6 which means…without controversy, without any confusion…that God on the throne, holy, the Lord of hosts who fills the whole earth with His glory…is none other than Jesus Christ.  Want to see another one?
• Turn over to Revelation Chapter 1 and look at verse 8. The Alpha and the Omega…and you ask the person who denies the deity of Jesus Christ such as the Mormon, who is this speaking of?  The response demanded, it must be, God the Father.  And you can readily agree.  Now turn over to Chapter 22 Verse 12 and you ask them, “Who is this speaking of…” and they have to say once again…God the Father…then look at verse 16, “I, Jesus…”  Now we have a problem…either there are two beginnings and two ends…two Aphas and two Omegas…or you’ve missed the truth that Jesus is indeed God and He and the Father are indeed One…
• And so back to Exodus Chapter 24, I submit to you that this is God…it is Jesus…before He was the Son of Man and even His feet shone with the clarity of heaven… And notice, their eyes came no further than His feet.  I like that…it shows worship, it depicts reverence…and then they ate.  You don’t eat when you’re terrified.  You don’t eat when you are panicked.  The presence of God however glorious, fascinating, magnificent…is comforting and one of peace…

Exodus Chapter 24 Verses 12 – 15

• This will happen again. A couple of thousand years later Jesus will take Peter, James and John and go up on a mountain there in Matthew 17 and He will be transfigured and who shows up but Moses…Elijah too.  I like that.  Death is a doorway.  It’s not the end.  Moses lived after he passed from this earth and a proof of that is when Moses, thousands of years later, meets God again on the mountain.

Exodus Chapter 24 Verses 16 – 18

• A consuming fire, a sight-blocking cloud and a mountain to ascend…all sound dangerous and even harsh and yet something of the glory of God in it…and God calls out to Moses and says even though the environment is difficult, come near to Me…in the midst of the struggle, the pressure, the worry, I’ll show you such great things…just come up to Me.