The LORD Yehovah tells Moses to come up to Him with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and the seventy Elders of Israel and worship Him afar off and Moses alone shall come near the LORD but they shall not approach the LORD neither shall the people. Moses tells all the people about this and writes it all in a book, the Torah, and they respond, “All the words which the LORD has said we will do.” Then Moses rose early in the morning and built an altar for prayer, sacrifice and worship and twelve pillars which you can’t find at Mt. Sinai anywhere but you can find them at Mt. Jabal al Lawz in Arabia (we’ll save that for another time). Moses then has young Jewish men, probably Levites sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings to the LORD and put the blood in basins and Moses sprinkled half the blood on the altar. Then in Ex. 24:7, Moses, “Took the book of the covenant and read in the hearing of the people; and they said (again) ‘All that the LORD has said will we do, and be obedient.” They added something this time to their promise, ‘obedience.’ Then in v.8, “Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you concerning all these words.”

Ex. 24:10 says, “They saw the God of Israel:” We know that no man has ever seen God in His spiritual Being or Essence and lived to tell about it. Ex. 33:20 says, “Thou can not see My face, for there shall no man see Me and live.” However, in God’s Old Testament appearances and especially in Jesus Christ’s incarnate appearances, God has been seen by men. What they saw were ‘Theophanies’ or preincarnate appearances of God the Son either in angelic or human form in manifested glory or in a manner not described. (Gen. 32:30; Ex. 33:20; Jud. 6:22; 13:22) Who is the ‘Angel of Jehovah’ in the Older Testament and why don’t you ever see him in the Newer Testament? Under His feet was a sapphire stone as clear as heaven and they ate and drank with Him, they had communion and fellowship with Him based on the shed blood of the covenant. Half of the blood was sprinkled on the altar and half of the blood was sprinkled on the people. But unless the sacrifice was made and the blood was applied there was no atonement, no fellowship, no communion, no worship, no spiritual (yada), no intimacy in prayer, no broken bread, no poured out wine, just cold, dead orthodoxy! Just like today’s cold, dead churches.

In Ex. 24:12 the LORD tells Moses to come up on the Mountain and He will give him the tablets of stone. So, he takes Joshua and leaves the rest behind and goes up and a cloud covered the mountain. “And the glory (kavod – honor, splendor, glory) of the LORD abode on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and the seventh day He called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on top of the mount… and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.” The cloud covers Moses and he waits six days before God speaks, how long would you wait on God for Him to speak to you? Five minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, would you wait for a day in a cabin alone in silence? How about two days or three days, would you wait on God for four days, no food, no water, no voice from God? How long would you wait to hear from Him, most of us can’t wait five minutes. When was the last time you took a Bible, a canteen, a blanket, a concordance found a cabin and got alone with God for three or four days and waited on Him to speak to you? When was it?

Moses went into the cloud (into the kavod) and spoke to God, there is much more than prayer going on here, wouldn’t you agree? Luke 9:34 says, “While He thus spoke, there came a cloud and overshadowed them; and they feared as they entered into the cloud. And there came a voice out of the cloud saying, “This is My beloved Son, hear Him.” This is intimate intercourse with the Creator of the universe and it doesn’t get any more intimate than this! Moses not only saw a preincarnate theophany of God, he entered into the very presence of that ‘Shekinah Glory’ that (kavod abode) for forty days and forty nights, now there is a ‘Prayer-Meeting’ to write home about! Amen? You want to talk about ‘Sweet-Intercession, Sweet-Communion, Sweet-Intercourse’ with The Almighty, there it is. We also can have this same sweet fellowship with the Almighty and enter into the Holiest of the Holies, Hebrews 10:19 through the blood of Yeshua/Jesus, “Having therefore, brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” This is the blood of the ‘New Covenant’ spoken of by Yeshua/Jesus in Matt. 26:28, “For this is My blood of the new testament/covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Jer. 31:31 speaks of this new covenant, “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;” The new covenant accomplished what the Old one could only point too, a child of God living in a manner consistent with the character of God.

In the Newer Testament the word propitiation, ‘satisfying sacrifice’ appears twice as the means of propitiation (hilasmos) in I John 2:2 and in I John 4:10. The means of propitiation is Jesus Christ. It also appears twice as the place of propitiation, ‘satisfying sacrifice’ (hilasterion) Heb. 9:5 and Rom. 3:25. So, by allowing scripture to interpret scripture the word (hilasterion) is translated, ‘mercy seat’ in Heb. 9:5 the place where the blood was sprinkled to make expiation or atonement once a year. Then in Rom. 3:25 we have the word (hilasterion) translated propitiation and as Jesus Christ hung on the cross of Calvary and the blood from the whip, nails, thorns, buffeting and spear sprinkled down on His body and was poured out at the base of the cross, His body literally became our ‘mercy seat’ and it made expiation or propitiation for our sin, giving us immediate access into the ‘Holy of Holies’ and into the presence of Almighty God. Making intercessory intercession, communion, fellowship, worship, prayer possible. Now you can enter into that cloud, so get your Bible, a canteen, a blanket and go find a cabin and wait on God and He will show up. He has never failed to show up for me in 39 years, so why would He fail to show up for you? Prayer is based on the shed blood of the New Covenant, Christ’s Covenant and don’t ever forget that!  “…Between The Lines…”

“Prayer Based On The Blood Covenant” – Exodus 24  8/23/12