TERMS OF THE CONTRACT

And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD...[they] offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD...Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, "All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient." And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, "This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words." (Exodus 24:4-8)

In the book of Exodus, God made a covenant with the people of Israel, and Exodus 24 was the signing ceremony for the contract. In Exodus 24:3 Israel verbally agreed to a covenant-relationship with God, but there was a sense in which that was simply not good enough. They had to do specific things to confirm their covenant with God. Then as well as now a contract might be valid even if only a verbal contract. Yet to make it more than a verbal contract, God commanded a signing ceremony to emphasize the importance of the covenant.

First, the word of God must be written: "Moses wrote all the words of the LORD." God's word was important enough that it could not be left up to human recollection and the creative nature of memory; it must be written down. As it said in Habakkuk 2:2, "Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it."

Second, the covenant is only made with a sacrifice. They "offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD." Sacrifice admits our own sin and failing before God, and addresses our debt and guilt to God through the death of a substitute.

Third, the covenant is made when God's word is heard and responded to: "he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people." Our covenant with God is based on His words and His terms are not on our own words and our terms. Additionally, there must be a response to God's word. The people answered, "All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient." Just as much as God did not negotiate His covenant with Israel, neither did He force it - they had to freely receive it.

Fourth, the covenant is made with the application of blood: "Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people." As the nation received the blood of the covenant, the covenant was sealed.

There was nothing magical about the blood; it simply represented the life of a being according to Leviticus 17:11: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood." Blood represents the outpouring of life, of one life being given for another.

The only way we can have a relationship with God is through covenant. He makes the terms of a new contract available to us in Jesus.

The night before Jesus died on the cross, He explained how the blood of His covenant saves us: "This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." (Matthew 26:28)

We don't have a relationship with God based on the old covenant, but only on the new covenant - the covenant made because of what Jesus did on the cross.

We must receive the covenant He gives us in Jesus. Thank God for the word of the covenant, the sacrifice of the covenant, the response to the covenant, and the blood of the covenant that rescues you.

IF YOU ARE NOT IN CHRIST, GET SAVED RIGHT NOW!

Believe Jesus is the Son of God, who shed His blood for you, died on the cross for our sins, He was buried and resurrected during the third day, according to the Scriptures, so we can have eternal life with Him.

The moment you believe in Him and that He died for your sins - you're saved, justified, sealed until the day of redemption, and rapture ready!

The Holy Spirit will come to live inside of you - He will help you, guide you, change you, and be with you FOREVER!

📖"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:16-18)