Free Daily Bible Study Podcast

Exodus 33 | John 12 | Proverbs 9 | Ephesians 2

In Exodus 32 we saw the first part of the wrath of God against Israel’s monstrous idolatry, when they fashioned for themselves a golden calf to worship and then dared to call that golden calf Yahweh. In response, Yahweh sent the Levites through the camp to kill their fellow Israelites, and then he sent a plague against Israel. Still, Yahweh relented from wiping out Israel altogether.

In today’s reading, however, the other shoe drops. At first, things sound promising: Yahweh tells Moses to depart from Mount Sinai in order to lead the people of Israel up to the Promised Land in Canaan. Even more, Yahweh says that he will send an angel to drive out the inhabitants of that land so that the people of Israel can settle in the land flowing with milk and honey (Ex. 33:1–3).

But then Yahweh says this: “But I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people” (Ex. 33:3). Immediately, the people understand this word to be disastrous, stripping from themselves any ornaments and going into mourning (Ex. 33:4–6).

But why would this be such a horrible situation for Israel? If Israel still inherits the Promised Land with all its wealth and comfort, and if Yahweh will still send an angel on the way, what more could they ask for?

As we have talked about many times, the story of the Bible is about how God comes to dwell in the midst of his people again. Since the day that Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, shattering the perfect fellowship and communion they enjoyed, God has been working on a plan of redemption to reclaim and restore his people, cleansing them of their sin and death so that he can dwell with them forever in holiness and in peace.

If God gives his people all the material blessings and comfort they could possibly desire but does not give them himself, then everything that has happened so far has been for nothing. It would be like a woman trying to enjoy her wedding reception even though her fiancé had died the day before the wedding.

Never forget that the gospel is not about what God can do for you. The gospel is about God—knowing him, glorifying him, dwelling with him, and enjoying him forever. If God gave you the glory of heaven but he was not there, God would be giving you hell. You were made to glorify God and to enjoy him forever, and anything short of that is death.1

Meditate on the words of Jesus from John 17:3: “And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Eternal life is to know God and to know Jesus Christ, whom God has sent.

1 See John Piper’s wonderful book, God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God’s Love as the Gift of Himself (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005).

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Exodus 32 | John 11 | Proverbs 8 | Ephesians 1

Exodus 32 includes one of the most famous—and most tragic—stories from the history of Israel, the scene where God’s people make for themselves a golden calf to worship while Moses is receiving the law from Yahweh on top of Mount Sinai.

To understand the full significance of this story, we must recognize that Aaron does not technically encourage the people of Israel to worship different gods. Rather, after he fashions the molten gold into the image of a calf, he identifies the calf as “your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (Ex. 32:4). Then, Aaron proclaimed that “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD” (Ex. 32:5)—that is, to Yahweh. 1

The golden calf, then, was not understood as a different god for Israel to worship. Rather, the calf was supposed to be a physical representation of Yahweh, even though Yahweh had explicitly forbidden Israel from making any graven image to represent him (Ex. 20:4–6). So, Yahweh tells Moses to leave him alone so that he may consume Israel in his wrath and then start a new nation from Moses alone (Ex. 32:10).

Moses, for his part, rises up to play the role of a faithful mediator between Yahweh and his people. He pleads with Yahweh to avoid bringing mockery from the Egyptians (Ex. 32:11–12) and to remember the covenant that he had sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel to multiply and bless Israel forever (Ex. 32:13). Yahweh still commissions the Levites to strike down about three thousand Israelites for their sins (Ex. 32:25–29) and sends a plague on Israel (Ex. 32:35), but he relents from destroying Israel altogether (Ex. 32:14).

This story should stand as a stark warning against our own prideful desires to worship Yahweh in the ways that we choose. Whenever we say things like “Jesus just wants me to be happy” or “Jesus is all about grace—he doesn’t really care about this or that sin in my life,” we are fashioning for ourselves a false god to worship, just like the Israelites did with the golden calf. Calling this god Jesus doesn’t make the idolatry better—it makes it far worse.

The reality, however, is that we all make false images of God, in both big and small ways. We need, therefore, a greater mediator than even Moses. The gospel, then, is that Jesus Christ did not talk God out of destroying us, but rather he submitted to be killed in our place, taking upon himself our plagues from the wrath of God for our sin. By doing that, Jesus became our great Mediator, standing between God and us, and securing an eternal redemption through his death and resurrection.

How should the reality of our idolatry and the mediation of Jesus inform the way we approach and worship God?

1 English Bibles translate the proper name of God in the Old Testament “Yahweh” as “LORD” in all capital letters.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Exodus 31 | John 10 | Proverbs 7 | Galatians 6

In Exodus 31, we find some of the clearest teaching in all the Bible about the purpose and importance of the Sabbath. In recent history, the fourth commandment to keep the Sabbath holy has been largely forgotten among Christians. A lot of this is not willful disobedience but instead has to do with confusion surrounding the nature of the Sabbath under the new covenant. Jesus often corrected the Pharisees for their misguided views about the Sabbath, but what can we glean today from the Old Testament that is still applicable for the New Testament Christian?

In this context, Exodus 31:13 is so refreshing: “Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you.” In today’s meditation, we will look at (1) what it means that the Sabbath is a sign, and (2) what the sign of Sabbath teaches us about the relationship of Yahweh to his people.

A sign is a symbol that points to another reality. So, when Yahweh says that his Sabbath is a sign between Israel and him throughout their generations, he is saying that the Sabbath points to something bigger than just the Sabbath. Every time Israel keeps the Sabbath, their behavior is pointing to the fact that their lives are governed by the covenant relationship that they enjoy with Yahweh, the living God of heaven and earth.

But more specifically, Yahweh gives the exact meaning of his sign: “that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you.” The word sanctify literally means “to make holy.” In other words, the purpose of keeping the Sabbath was to teach Israel that Yahweh alone would make his people holy. There was nothing that they could do, no work that they could perform or duty they could keep to sanctify themselves. Rather, they were to rest from all their work on the seventh day as a perpetual reminder that only Yahweh could make them holy.

This is why Jesus criticized what the Pharisees did on the Sabbath—they turned Sabbath-keeping into a work that would make themselves holy, which is the exact opposite of Yahweh’s intention for Sabbath-keeping.

Seen this way, Christians have good reason to rest from their work on Sunday, the Lord’s Day. Jesus finished his work on the cross on Good Friday, and on Saturday (the Sabbath) he rested from his work, lying dead in the grave. Then, on Sunday, he rose from the dead as the fulfillment of God’s Sabbath promise to make his people holy.

So, resting from our work on Sunday isn’t a legalistic rule we keep to make ourselves holy. It is a perpetual reminder that only Yahweh can make us holy and that he did make us holy through the life, death, and resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Exodus 30 | John 9 | Proverbs 6 | Galatians 5

Much of Exodus 30 is focused on an important aspect of tabernacle worship: the altar of incense (Ex. 30:1–10) and the recipe for the incense that would be burned on the altar (Ex. 30:34–38). After teaching the law and offering sacrifices, burning incense was the most important aspect of a priest’s duties before Yahweh and on behalf of the people of Israel (Deut. 33:10).

The Altar of Incense was placed in the Holy Place, just in front of the veil that would lead to the Most Holy Place (Ex. 30:6). Every morning and evening, Aaron and his priestly sons were to enter into the tabernacle and burn fragrant incense on the Altar of Incense (Ex. 30:7–8). Because this incense was holy, Yahweh explicitly prohibited offering “unauthorized” (lit. “strange” or “foreign”) incense on the Altar of Incense.

Tragically, Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu later ignored this commandment and offered unauthorized fire and incense in the tabernacle. For their crime, Yahweh struck them dead with fire that came out from the Most Holy Place to consume them (Lev. 10:1–2).

So, we might ask, what is the point of offering incense? Why must it happen so regularly, in the morning and in the evening, and why is the incense so holy? Allen Ross helpfully explains that burning incense “was the accompanying ritual for making intercession in the sanctuary.”1 So, when the priests were offering incense, they were doing so while offering up something that God finds even more pleasing: prayers for the people of Israel.

In Revelation 5, this connection between incense and prayer is made explicit. There, the Apostle John is given a vision inside the heavenly temple of God, and he sees the twenty-four elders (representing all of God’s people: the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles of Jesus) fall “down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Rev. 5:8).

Intercessory prayer was a crucial component of priestly ministry. Yahweh commanded that the priests make such prayers for the Israelites whom they represented before Yahweh regularly, twice every day, while burning a pleasing aroma through incense. Prayer was not burdensome and unpleasant but the sweet aroma of incense offered to Yahweh as a regular part of priestly duties.

And since we who live under the new covenant are called to be God’s holy priesthood (1 Pet. 2:5), we too have the responsibility of lifting up prayers like incense to God. We are called to intercede for one another with the confidence that those prayers are held in golden bowls in the temple of heaven by the twenty-four elders who worship the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb day and night (Rev. 4:8–11).

Do you recognize the value of your own prayers?

1 Allen P. Ross, Recalling the Hope of Glory: Biblical Worship from the Garden to the New Creation (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2006), 213.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Exodus 29 | John 8 | Proverbs 5 | Galatians 4

In Exodus 29, we read about three distinct processes to prepare priests to be set apart for ministry, each with a unique and important theological value. The priests were to be washed with water (Ex. 29:4), anointed with oil (Ex. 29:7), and sprinkled with the blood of a sacrifice (Ex. 29:21).

To start, the washing of water signified cleansing from all worldly defilement,1 a process that underlies the theology of baptism in the New Testament. Peter is the most explicit about this, suggesting in 1 Peter 3:21 that baptism symbolizes the washing away of spiritual dirt: “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

Next, it is important to keep in mind that anointing with oil was not limited to the priests only but was something that also happened to prophets (e.g., 1 Kgs. 19:16) and kings (e.g., 1 Sam. 10:1) as well. Anointing with oil was a symbol for the ministry of the Holy Spirit—see, for example, what happened immediately after David was anointed with oil as king: “the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward” (1 Sam. 16:13). For the priests to be anointed with oil meant the Holy Spirit himself would be actively involved in sanctifying their ministry.

In the New Testament, we are told that we too have the anointing of the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:20, 27). Our anointing (chrisma), however, is connected to the anointing of the ultimate Anointed One, the christos—that is, “the Christ,” who is the final Prophet, Priest, and King.

Finally, the priests were to be sprinkled with the blood of an animal sacrifice. Specifically, the blood of the ordination ram was to be smeared on the priest’s right ear, the thumb on his right hand, and the big toe of his right foot. Before the priests could atone for the sins of Israel, their own sins had to be covered by the blood of a sacrifice.

Of course, the author of Hebrews points to this as a besetting problem of the Old Covenant sacrificial system: as long as priests must remain so busy offering their own sacrifices—not to mention washing themselves with water and anointing themselves with oil—they can never offer a final, once-for-all sacrifice to purify God’s people.

For this reason (among many others), we see that the priesthood of Jesus Christ is enacted on better promises: “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God….For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Heb. 10:12, 14).

While the old covenant priesthood was glorious, the glory of Jesus is much, much better.

1 Allen P. Ross, Recalling the Hope of Glory: Biblical Worship from the Garden to the New Creation (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2006), 211.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Exodus 28 | John 7 | Proverbs 4 | Galatians 3

The garments described in Exodus 28 are holy garments (Ex. 28:2) for a holy priesthood, even down to the plate that they wore on their turbans with the inscription “Holy to the LORD” (Ex. 28:36). The purpose of these garments was “for glory and for beauty” (Ex. 28:2, 40)—that is, they were created to reveal something about the glory and beauty of Yahweh and also of his covenant relationship to his people.

First, these garments reveal that the priests served as the representatives of Israel before Yahweh. So, their ephods contained two onyx stones with each tribe of Israel engraved on them (Ex. 28:9–12), and their breastpieces included twelve precious stones with the names of the tribes of Israel (Ex. 28:15–21). Additionally, the Urim and Thummim, which Aaron would carry on his heart inside the breastpiece, represented the judgment of the people of Israel when Aaron entered into ministry before Yahweh (Ex. 28:30).

Second, these garments were designed to reveal that the priests served as the representatives of Yahweh before Israel. Part of this relationship is mediated through the Urim and Thummim, which would be used to cast lots to determine Yahweh’s direction and guidance for his people. But another part of how the priests would represent Yahweh to the people of Israel is by giving Israelites a glimpse of life lived out in the beauty of Yahweh’s glory. Priestly ministry represented the work that Adam had been given in the Garden of Eden, when he had been commanded to “to work it (‘abad) and keep it (shamar)” (Gen. 3:15), words that are used constantly in the Pentateuch to describe priestly duties.1

So, the pomegranates embroidered on the priestly garments (Ex. 28:33–34) recalled the Garden of Eden. The tabernacle was built to recreate Eden, with the priests picking up the priestly (gardening!) duties that Adam himself failed to complete.

But the priestly garments didn’t simply look backward to Eden—they also look forward to the New Jerusalem that we read about in Revelation 21. The same precious stones used in the breastpiece to represent the twelve tribes of Israel we see adorning the foundations of the wall of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:19–20.2

The reason for this is simple: Yahweh designed the priestly garments to tell us not only something about the old covenant ministry that he was entrusting to the priests but also about the New Covenant ministry that he would inaugurate in our Great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one who represented Israel before Yahweh, offering himself up as a once-for-all sacrifice, and Jesus is the one who represented God to us when he took on flesh and dwelt in our midst.

The entire tabernacle—right down to the priestly garments—points us to the ultimate “Holy to the LORD” priest, our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 G. K. Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: 2004), 81.

2 Ibid., 39.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Exodus 27 | John 6 | Proverbs 3 | Galatians 2

Despite the fact that normal Israelites were not allowed into the holy places, the tabernacle was nevertheless supposed to be the place where Yahweh dwelt in the midst of all his people. So in Exodus 27, Yahweh made a provision for his people to approach his tabernacle in a very specific way: the Israelites would bring sacrifices to the tabernacle to offer on the bronze altar in the court of the tabernacle, outside of the holy places.

The court was built to accommodate hundreds of worshipers as they filed through to offer their sacrifices, both in the size and the relative holiness of the area.1 So, the court was larger than the two holy places, but it was also classified at a lower degree of holiness so that Israelites could safely come to seek atonement for their sins.

The gradations of holiness in the whole tabernacle, then, worked like this: only the high priest could enter the Most Holy Place and only once each year, but all the priests ministered regularly in the Holy Place. All other Israelites were permitted to enter the court but only to bring their sacrifices, which the priests would offer up on the bronze altar.2

It seems that later on, yet another partition was added to the temple, keeping Gentiles separated farther back from where the Jews were permitted to go. Paul refers to this area as the “dividing wall of hostility” in Ephesians 2:14, since that barrier became fuel for hostilities between Gentiles and Jews.3 But then, Paul explains in Ephesians 2:14–16 that Jesus, through his death on the cross, tore down that dividing wall. Jesus did this, Paul explains, to kill the hostility (Eph. 2:16) but also to preach “peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near” (Eph. 2:17).

The divisions to keep distance between various degrees of holiness served a purpose in the old covenant—that is, to bring as many people as close to God’s holiness as possible—but Jesus achieved that purpose in totality when he died on the cross. The gospel announces that Christ has made peace on our behalf—both with the holy, consuming-fire God and also with our fellow believers.

In fact, Paul finishes that passage in Ephesians 2 by explaining that all of us—Jews and Gentiles, saints and strangers—are being joined together into God’s new holy temple, the dwelling place for God by his Spirit (Eph. 2:19–22). What God accomplished in part through the tabernacle, he has accomplished to a much further degree through the work of Jesus Christ.

And one day, the need for the temple will be abolished forever, since the New Jerusalem’s “temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (Rev. 21:22). All distance and division will be put away, and we will all dwell together with God in perfect holiness forever.

1 Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus, TNAC, vol. 2 (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2006), 597–98.

2 For a much deeper exploration of this theme, see Philip P. Jenson, Graded Holiness: A Key to the Priestly Conception of the World, JSOTS 106 (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 1992).

3 For more detailed exegesis of this passage, see Frank Thielman, Ephesians, BECNT (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010), 161–86.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Exodus 26 | John 5 | Proverbs 2 | Galatians 1

In Exodus 26, Yahweh describes the two different places in the tabernacle where his holiness would dwell most fully on earth: the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. Those two places would be separated only by a veil made out of blue, purple, and scarlet fabrics, with figures of cherubim skillfully embroidered into it, with the mercy seat and the ark of the covenant alone residing inside the Most Holy Place (Ex. 26:33–34).

Other furniture—furniture that Yahweh described in Exodus 25 and that we will read more about in Exodus 37—would remain in the Holy Place, just outside of the Most Holy Place. All the tabernacle is holy, but still we see that certain areas within the tabernacle are more holy than others.

So, even the priests who will regularly minister in the Holy Place are nevertheless forbidden from entering the Most Holy Place. Only the high priest may enter, and even he may enter only once a year for the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16).

Protecting these boundaries is so important that Yahweh appoints guards to keep the wrong people from encroaching on his holiness beyond their clearance. This is why figures of cherubim are embroidered into the veil between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, since it was the cherubim who were stationed as guards outside the entrance to the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve were expelled (Gen. 3:24).

In the book of Numbers, we will also see that the nonpriestly Levites will be similarly appointed as guards to keep the rest of Israel from coming too near to the tabernacle (e.g., Num. 3:5–10). In fact, Yahweh solemnly charges the Levites multiple times to execute any “outsider”—that is, an unauthorized person—who comes too near to the tabernacle (Num. 1:51, 3:10, 3:38, 18:7), and even the nonpriestly Levites were threatened with death if they themselves transgressed Yahweh’s boundaries (Num. 4:15, 19–20).

Taken together, these instructions help us understand the serious nature of Yahweh’s holiness. Yahweh is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29) whose holiness would destroy us if we came near to him without being cleansed from the impurities of the sin and death that cling to us in the world—or even if we came near to him without an appropriate invitation.

The gospel of Jesus, then, announces shockingly good news: We have been brought near to God in his holiness by the blood of Christ (Eph. 2:13). Through the cleansing, purifying power of Jesus’ blood, God calls us to draw near to God in the splendor of his holy places with confidence, in the full assurance of faith (Heb. 10:19–22).

For those covered by the blood of Jesus, the holiness of God is no longer a threat; rather, it is the source of our blessing, inheritance, and hope.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Exodus 25 | John 4 | Proverbs 1 | 2 Corinthians 13

For modern readers, the detailed instructions that Yahweh gives for the construction of the tabernacle can become a bit tedious—something like reading a complex instruction manual without any pictures. This is our problem, though, and not the text’s. If we pay careful attention to what is written here, there is a huge theological payoff.1

To understand the theology of the tabernacle, we must recognize that Yahweh is explicitly rebuilding the Garden of Eden here. Consider each element of the tabernacle that we read in Exodus 25:

Yahweh’s stated intention for building the tabernacle is “that I may dwell in their midst” (Ex. 25:8), just as he had dwelt in the midst of Adam and Eve in the Garden.

Just as the Garden contained a source of wisdom (the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil), now Yahweh instructs Israel to place a better source of wisdom (his law) within the ark of the covenant (Ex. 25:16).

Protecting the ark are two cherubim (Ex. 25:17–22), just like the cherubim that were placed as guards at the entrance of the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve were expelled because of their sin (Gen. 3:24).

The table for the bread of the Presence is to be adorned with pure gold, just as there was gold in the land of Havilah, which was watered by the rivers that came out of Eden (Gen. 2:11–12).

The golden lampstand is described with tree language, such as “stem,” “calyx” (a part of the flower), “flower,” “branches,” and “almond blossoms” (Ex. 25:31–40). Therefore, in the golden lampstand we are clearly meant to see a new Tree of Life.

The tabernacle would be the place where God’s presence could dwell in his full holiness, a place untouched by sin and death. Where Yahweh had enjoyed perfect fellowship and communion with Adam and Eve in the Garden, so now he is commanding the construction of a place where he can enjoy partial fellowship and communion with his people.

The tabernacle is the entire reason that Yahweh had redeemed his people, bringing them up out of the land of Egypt. He promised to take his people to himself as a husband takes a bride, and now he is doing exactly that. He will dwell in the midst of his people, physically taking up residence in the very center of their camp. In this way, he would be their God and they would be his people.

All of this, of course, paved the way toward the ultimate Tabernacle, when the Word would become flesh, tabernacling among us (John 1:14). In Jesus, God dwelt physically among his people, and when Jesus returns, he will again dwell with his people for all eternity as their God (Rev. 21:3).

We will continue to consider the theology of the tabernacle in tomorrow’s meditation.

1 For this meditation, I am heavily indebted to the work of G. K. Beale in his masterpiece book The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2004), 66–80.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Exodus 24 | John 3 | Job 42 | 2 Corinthians 12

Exodus 24 is a covenant renewal worship ceremony. Because we also meet weekly on the Lord’s Day to renew the one new covenant that Jesus himself inaugurated through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension—and not to inaugurate new covenants each week—Exodus 24 is uniquely valuable to serve as a pattern for us. Here, we see three principles that ought to shape our own weekly worship.

First, the word of Yahweh must be at the center of our corporate worship. Notice how Moses read and proclaimed all the words and rules of Yahweh from the Book of the Covenant (Ex. 24:3, 7). In response, the people vow to obey: “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient” (Ex. 24:3, 7). In the same way, we ought to hear God’s word read, read his word out loud, sing his words in our songs, and listen to his word preached. Christian worship is word-based.

Second, corporate worship requires sacrificial blood. After Moses reads all the words of Yahweh and after the people vow their obedience, Moses throws half of the sacrificial blood on the altar (Ex. 24:6) and half of it on the people (Ex. 24:8). Importantly, Moses offers two kinds of sacrifices: burnt offerings and peace offerings. Burnt offerings made atonement for the sins of the people (Lev. 1:4), and so this blood ritually cleanses them from sin.

Christian worship also requires sacrificial blood—not the blood of bulls, lambs, and goats, but the better sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ, shed once for all. Christian worship must exalt Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2) as we gather together.

Third, the goal of corporate worship is to enjoy communion with God by eating and drinking with him. Peace offerings, the other sacrifice that Moses makes, celebrated communion with Yahweh. The whole congregation would eat the peace offering as a great communal feast (Lev. 7:11–18). It is the peace offering that the elders of Israel eat with God without fear in Exodus 24:9–11.1

What a privilege for them to eat in the presence of God—and astonishingly, this is a privilege we share today. Just like for them, the height of Christian worship is to eat and drink with Jesus Christ at the Lord’s Table.

At the beginning of creation, God’s people ate and drank with him freely in the Garden of Eden, and our eternal rest in glory will be marked by a feast at the wedding supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:6–9). Until then, we gather weekly to listen to the word of the Lord, to proclaim salvation through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and to eat and drink with Jesus at his table, just like we see in the pattern laid out for us in Exodus 24.

1 Allen P. Ross, Recalling the Hope of Glory: Biblical Worship from the Garden to the New Creation (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2006), 180.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.