Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/349

Rh and takes their consent to those laws, (v. 3.) writes the laws, and reads them to the people, who repeat their contents, (v. 4..7.) and then, by sacrifice, and the sprinkling of blood, ratifies the covenant between them and God, v. 5, 6, 8. II. He returns to God again, to receive further directions. When he was dismissed from his former attendance, he was ordered to attend again, v. 1, 2. He did so with seventy of the elders, to whom God made a discovery of his glory, v. 9..11. Moses is ordered up into the mount, (v. 12, 13.) the rest are ordered down to the people, v. 14. The cloud of glory is seen by all the people on the top of mount Sinai, (v. 16..17.) and Moses is there with God forty days, and forty nights, v. 18.

ND he said unto Moses, Come up unto the, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off. 2. And Moses alone shall come near the ; but they shall not come nigh, neither shall the people go up with him. 3. And Moses came, and told the people all the words of the, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the hath said will we do. 4. And Moses wrote all the words of the, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5. And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt-offerings, and sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen unto the. 6. And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7. And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the hath said will we do, and be obedient. 8. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the hath made with you concerning all these words.

The two first verses are the appointment of a second session upon mount Sinai, for the making of laws, when an end was put to the first. When a communion is begun between God and us, it shall never fail on his side, if it do not first fail on ours. Moses is directed to bring Aaron and his sons, and the seventy elders of Israel, that they might be witnesses of the glory of God, and that communion with him to which Moses was admitted; and that their testimony might confirm the people's faith. In this approach, 1. They must all be very reverent; Worship ye afar off, v. 1. Before they came near, they must worship. Thus we must enter into God's gates with humble and solemn adorations, draw near as those that know our distance, and admire the condescensions of God's grace in admitting us to draw near. Are great princes approached with the profound reverences of the body? And shall not the soul that draws near to God be bowed before him? 2. They must none of them come so near as Moses, v. 2. They must come up to the Lord, (and those that would approach to God must ascend,) but Moses alone must come near; therein a type of Christ, who, as the High Priest, entered alone into the most holy place.

In the following verses, we have the solemn covenant made between God and Israel, and the exchanging of the ratifications; and a very solemn transaction it was, typifying the covenant of grace between God and believers, through Christ.

I. Moses told the people the words of the Lord, v. 3. He did not lead them blindfold into the covenant, nor teach them a devotion that was the daughter of ignorance; but laid before them all the precepts, general and particular, in the foregoing chapters; and fairly put it to them, Whether they were willing to submit to these laws or no?

II. The people unanimously consented to the terms proposed, without reservation or exception; All the words which the Lord hath said will we do. They had before consented in general to be under God's government; (ch. 19. 8.) here they consent in particular to these laws now given. Oh that there had been such a heart in them! How well were it if people would but be always in the same good mind that sometimes they seem to be in! Many consent to the law, and yet do not live up to it; they have nothing to except against it, and yet will not persuade themselves to be ruled by it.

This is the tenor of the covenant, "That, if they would observe the foregoing precepts, God would perform the foregoing promises. 'Obey, and be happy.'" Here is the bargain made. Observe,

1. How it was engrossed in the book of the covenant; Moses wrote the words of the Lord, (v. 4.) that there might be no mistake; probably, he had written them as God dictated them on the mount. As soon as ever God had separated to himself a peculiar people in the world, he governed them by a written word, as he has done ever since, and will do while the world stands, and the church in it. Moses, having engrossed the articles of agreement concluded upon between God and Israel, read them in the audience of the people, (v. 7.) that they might be perfectly apprized of the thing, and might try whether their second thoughts were the same with their first, upon the whole matter. And we may suppose they were so; for their words (v. 7.) are the same with what they were, (v. 3.) but something stronger: All that the Lord hath said (be it good, or be it evil, to flesh and blood, Jer. 42. 6.) we will do; so they had said before, but now they add, "And will be obedient; not only we will do what has been commanded, but in every thing which shall be further ordained we will be obedient." Bravely resolved! if they had but stuck to their resolution. See here, That God's covenants and commands are so incontestably equitable is 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.

2. How it was sealed by the blood of the covenant, 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 has Infinite Wisdom devised means that we may be confirmed both in our faith and in our obedience; may be both encouraged in our duty, and engaged to it. The covenant must be made by sacrifice, (Ps. 50. 5.) because, since man has sinned, and forfeited his Creator's favour, there can be no fellowship by covenant, till there be first friendship and atonement by sacrifice.

(1.) In preparation, therefore, for the parties interchangeably putting their seals to this covenant, [1.] Moses builds an altar, to the honour of God, which was principally intended in all the altars that were built, and which was the first thing to be looked at in the covenant they were now to seal. No addition to the perfections of the divine nature can be made by any of God's dealings with the children of men, but in them his perfections are