Exodus 24

ESTABLISHING THE COVENANT

"This chapter with its account of the ratification of the covenant could well be called the climax of the Book of Exodus. N.T. passages (Hebrews 9:10,18-21) use this scene as the prototype of the ratification of the New Covenant."[1] This is true, and the most important deductions derive from it.

1. The true understanding of the passage appears especially in the N.T., not in the O.T. This also accounts for the astounding blindness of the critical scholars to the most obvious features of the chapter. Only "in Christ" is the veil taken away in the interpretation of the O.T.

2. There are not two ratifications here, only one. This passage cannot be a garbled amalgamation of diverse "traditions" from different sources. Critical affirmations to that effect are essentially naive and unlearned. "They became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools!" (Romans 1:21,22).

As we have seen, the critics are especially infuriated by those unusually important portions of the O.T., such as this chapter, and redouble their foolish efforts to confuse or deny. As Fields said, "Those chapters of the deepest spiritual significance and meaning are the very ones upon which the critics concentrate their attacks. `The devil has blinded the minds of the unbelieving' (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)."[2] Allegations of foolish, blinded men are unworthy of any detailed examination. "The Exodus account is too harmonious with itself to permit us to accept extreme ideas about its production"[3]