This article is part of a series on Old Testament Christophanies. For important background information, see An Introduction to Old Testament Christophanies–with Justin Martyr.
At the opening of Exodus 24, Moses was ordered to climb up to the Lord once again:
Then He said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, and you shall worship at a distance. Moses alone, however, shall come near to the Lord, but they shall not come near, nor shall the people come up with him” (Exod 24:1–2).
It was Yahweh who told Moses to come up to Yahweh. This could be dismissed as the Lord speaking about Himself in the third person. But because God is later seen on Sinai, it may be better to conclude that the Lord was speaking about God the Son, He who reveals the unseen Father (see John 1:18). Some of the leadership would be permitted to go partway up the mountain, while only Moses would be allowed to approach the Lord.
Before the men began their ascent, Moses went to the Israelites and repeated all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances. The people answered with one voice, agreeing to do all that the Lord had spoken. Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. The next morning, he arose to build an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars for the tribes of Israel. Moses had some young men offer burnt offerings and sacrifice young bulls as peace offerings. Then, he put half the blood in basins, and he sprinkled the other half on the altar. Moses took the book of the covenant, i.e., the collection of God’s promises and laws he recently recorded, and he read it for all the people to hear. Once again, the people agreed to do all that the Lord had spoken, adding “and we will be obedient!” Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people,[1] (and on the book, according to Hebrews 9:19) and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words” (vv. 3–8).
With the sprinkling of the blood completed, the Mosaic Covenant was ratified. Moses’ words on the blood of the covenant make for a striking parallel with Jesus’ words at the Last Supper: “for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins” (Matt 26:28). Jesus’ blood, poured out on the cross, ratified the New Covenant. And from atop Mount Sinai, the Son of God literally oversaw the ratification of the Mosaic Covenant.
With the covenant confirmed, Moses and the rest of Israel’s leaders were ready to meet the Lord:
Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel,and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and they saw God, and they ate and drank (Exod 24:9–11).
The men climbed close enough to the Lord that they could see Him through the cloud of glory. Yes, the leaders of Israel beheld the God of Israel! God’s feet, seen standing on a pavement of sapphire (or lapis lazuli), shows that He appeared in bodily form. The idea seems to be that the leaders looked up, through the sky-colored pavement, to see God. He would later be seen in the form of a man, seated on a throne of what looked like sapphire (or lapis lazuli), when He appeared to the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek 1:26).
Not only did Israel’s leaders avoid death while seeing God, but they ate and drank while doing so. The food from the peace offering was used, making this a covenant meal. Eating from the sacrifice signified that the leaders, representing the nation, were at peace with God by entering into a covenant with Him. This meal, enjoyed in the presence of the Lord, makes for another parallel with the Last Supper. In the presence of the Lord Jesus, the disciples ate what symbolized His body and drank what symbolized His blood—the blood of the New Covenant (Matt 26:26–28). The Son of God was with His people at both covenant meals. The meal on Sinai was a shadow of the feast that Jesus will host soon after the Second Coming (Isa 25:6; see Jer 31:12; Matt 8:11).
Moses was summoned to climb all the way up to the Lord, to remain there with Him and receive the stone tablets with the commandments written on them by God. Joshua would accompany Moses partway up the mountaintop, stopping somewhere short of entering the cloud of glory. Moses ordered the rest of the men to wait there until they returned. For six days, the glory of the Lord rested on Sinai, and on the seventh He called to Moses from within the cloud. Moses entered the cloud of glory as he climbed higher, coming into the presence of the Lord. Meanwhile, to the Israelites at the base of Sinai, the glory of the Lord appeared as a consuming fire on the mountaintop. The chapter concludes by stating that Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights (vv. 12–18).
Note that people perceived the Lord differently based on how far away they were. Only His glory could be seen from the base of Sinai, while He could be seen in a bodily form partway up. Moses would have seen Him even more clearly once he was within the cloud of glory. Proximity wouldn’t affect perception in a vision. Also, the fact that Moses alone was permitted to climb up to the Lord tells us this wasn’t a vision. There was a real and physical threat to the others if they got too close.
According to Deuteronomy 9:9, Moses didn’t eat or drink during his forty days and nights on the mountain. The Lord surely sustained him, as abstaining from food for such a time is extraordinary, while abstaining from water for even a portion of that period would be fatal. The forty-day fast is often compared to the forty-day fast of Jesus (Matt 4:2). Moses’ forty days on the mountain, where he received instruction from the Lord (Exod 25–31), should also be compared with Jesus teaching the apostles on the kingdom of God for forty days (Acts 1:3). Moses and the apostles both received instruction from the Son of God.
No Mere Angel
The rabbinic view that the angel in Exodus 23 is Metatron extends into Exodus 24, where it is said that God didn’t call Moses up to Himself, but to Metatron. Brown explained and reacted to the Talmudic teaching:
According to a story in the Talmud (b. Sanhedrin 38b), a man identified as a schematic—here a clear reference to a Jewish follower of Jesus—was talking to a rabbi about Exodus 24:1, the beginning of the passage we are looking at, in which God said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord [Hebrew, YHWH].” . . . The Jewish believer was trying to argue that it seemed odd that God said to Moses, “Come up to YHWH,” rather than, “Come up to me.” Didn’t this seem to indicate more than one divine person? . . .
Now, the rabbi could have simply replied, “Such usage is not that unusual in the Hebrew Bible.” Instead, because he too sensed that there were some theological issues to be addressed, the rabbi answered that God was not speaking here of himself but rather of Metatron, the most powerful angel in Rabbinic literature, “whose name is as his Master.” In other words, when God said, “Come up to YHWH,” he did not mean, “Come up to me” but “Come up to Metatron whose name is YHWH.” So according to this Talmudic interpretation, Metatron was called YHWH! Talk about going to all kinds of lengths to avoid the obvious.
The simple fact is that when God said, “Come up to the Lord,” that’s exactly what he meant. He was inviting Moses to come into his very own presence—not merely that of an angel.[2]
Even if Metatron were an actual angel from the Bible, it is absurd to think that the Lord would refer to him as Yahweh (see Isa 42:8). A created being cannot be rightly equated with the Creator. Conversely, the eternal Son is rightly named Yahweh.
[1] Not on all the people, but toward them, or on their representatives—the elders standing nearest to Moses. Some suggest that the blood was sprinkled on the twelve pillars representing the people. Without mentioning the pillars, the author of Hebrews wrote that the blood was sprinkled on the people (Heb 9:19).
[2] Brown, Answering Jewish Objections, 2:26.
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