A Married People

It was, no doubt, quite a task to put into writing the words that God spoke to Moses. These writings were written as a part of a book called "The Book of the Covenant," or, in other places, "The Book of the Law." Moses read God's words to the people, who agreed to do all that God had commanded - thus affirming the marriage covenant that God made with the nation of Israel (compare Jeremiah 3:14; Jeremiah 31:32), which was then sealed with blood. This covenant, continually broken by Israel, was eventually terminated through the very blood of Jesus Christ - which then initiated the New Covenant.

Dining Before God

God's command in verses 1-2 of this chapter, it should be understood, are not acted on until verse 9, when Joshua, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and 70 of the elders of Israel are allowed to go part of the way up the mountain with Moses to worship God apart from the congregation. Yet only Moses is allowed to come close to God - indeed, the implication of verse 11, that God did not touch any of the nobles, i.e. the elders, seems to be that he did touch Moses. Here, the elders apparently saw a manifestation of God in the person of the preincarnate Jesus Christ. It seems that they were also given a vision of the very throne of God. The sapphire is used in other scriptures to describe God's throne (Ezekiel 1:26; Ezekiel 10:1). Moses then goes with Joshua up into the mountain, leaving Joshua below him at some distance, and he was on the mountain with God for 40 days and 40 nights.