Today's Daily Bread

A COVENANT SEALED IN BLOOD

Date : Saturday, June 06, 2026
Passage : Exodus 24:1~18
Keyverse : 8  
1
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance,
2
but Moses alone is to approach the LORD; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him."
3
When Moses went and told the people all the LORD’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, "Everything the LORD has said we will do."
4
Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel.
5
Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD.
6
Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar.
7
Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey."
8
Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words."
9
Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up
10
and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky.
11
But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.
12
The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction."
13
Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God.
14
He said to the elders, "Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them."
15
When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it,
16
and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud.
17
To the Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain.
18
Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
The sealing of the covenant between God and his people was like a wedding ceremony. Moses told the people God's laws; they vowed to live as God's people. Then Moses wrote down God’s word. After sprinkling the blood of sacrificed animals on the altar, Moses read the Book of the Covenant. The people responded, "We will obey the Lord." Then Moses sprinkled them with blood; the covenant was sealed and their sins were forgiven. They became new—God’s holy people. This ceremony looks forward to the new covenant, the blood of Jesus shed for our sins.

Moses, the priests, and the elders of Israel represented the nation as they ate a glorious fellowship meal before the Lord. Real fellowship among God's people must be before the Lord. Then God called Moses back up the mountain to give him the law and the commandments; the Bible is the core of the covenant relationship.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for establishing a covenant sealed in blood. Thank you for the blood of Jesus that makes us your people.
One Word: The covenant sealed in blood