And Moses took half the blood, and put [it] in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
At Sinai, God and Israel enter an agreement, and blood seals it. The questions this verse raises are why Moses divides the blood, and whether the sprinkling means forgiveness or something far more sobering.
The altar and the twelve stone pillars stand for the two sides of the agreement. The blood is split between them.
The next morning early, Moses built an altar under the burning mountain, and set up twelve pillars. The altar stood for the Lord's presence, the pillars stood for Israel. On the altar Moses placed the confirming blood, the death-bond — sealing, in a sense, the covenant on God's part. On the twelve pillars he threw some of the same blood, confirming the covenant on Israel's part.
The blood in the basins is not left over. It is the people's share. Moses will sprinkle it on them after they promise to obey.
It is natural to assume this blood covers sin. It does not, and the reason lies in who gets sprinkled.
The first question must be what the blood means. It cannot be atonement, because the people and the book are sprinkled just as the altar is; nor, for the same reason, could it be cleansing. The life is in the blood (Lev. 17:11). So the blood — the shedding of it — stands for death. And death, when connected with sacrifice, stands for the penalty of sin. So here the sprinkling of the blood signifies death as the penal sanction of the law. The people promised obedience, and then they, as well as the book, were sprinkled to teach that death would be the penalty for breaking the law.
Nobody sprinkles a scroll to forgive it. The blood on the book is a witness that the words written there carry the death penalty.
God had already given Israel two pictures of rescue before Sinai. That is why this blood must mean something else.
The first covenant was inaugurated with blood, as we read in Ex. 24. This is not redemption. It stands in the strongest contrast with it. The picture of redemption had already been given (Ex. 12, 14) in the blood of the passover lamb, followed by the crossing of the Red Sea. The blood sheltered them from the judgment of God. The power that came next set the people free from their enemies, who were destroyed for ever… It was the old covenant, not the new; the law, not redemption… So it was in no way propitiatory but penal.
The lamb in Egypt sheltered them from judgment. This blood exposes them to it, should they fail.
The half thrown against the altar is God's portion. Commentators see in it the one death that would meet every claim of the law.
The witness of death is deeply stamped on this chapter. The blood sprinkled on the altar pictures the work by which God has been glorified. Christ died under the solemn curse of a broken law. In this way He established the will of God, walking a path of unswerving obedience to that will. That path led only to the cross, where the authority of the law was upheld and every penalty for breaking it was borne.
The same writer presses this home. Anyone today who makes law the ground of blessing, or who trusts good works as the condition of it, steps into Israel's position under that curse without knowing it.
Another writer sets Sinai's blood beside the blood of Christ.
The blood at Sinai was meant as the sign of death which must be Israel's portion if the covenant was violated. But what a different voice the blood of Christ has! It not only speaks better things than that of Abel, but also better things than that of Sinai. It speaks of atonement made, of redemption accomplished.
Commentators differ here. One writer holds that this blood, limited as it was, still did real work for the people.
The apostle teaches us that it was "impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." Yet it did "sanctify for the purification of the flesh." As "a shadow of the good things to come," it served to keep the people in relationship with the Lord.
- Divided. Half the blood goes on the altar, God's side of the agreement. Half waits in basins for Israel's side. One blood binds two parties.
- Penal. The scroll and the people are sprinkled too, not just the altar. So this blood cannot mean cleansing. It means death as the penalty for breaking the law.
- Not rescue. The passover lamb and the Red Sea had already pictured redemption. This blood is the old covenant — the law, not redemption.
- Fulfilled. The altar's half points to the cross. There the law's authority was upheld, and Christ bore every penalty for breaking it.
- Better. The blood of Christ speaks in a different voice from Sinai's. It tells of atonement made and redemption accomplished, not of a death sentence waiting for those who fail.
And he took the book of the covenant, and read [it] in the ears of the people; and they said, All that Jehovah has said will we do, and obey!
Moses had written down the words of the Lord, built an altar, and had sacrifices offered. Now he reads the covenant aloud to the whole nation. The people answer with a pledge. But did they know what they were promising, or what the blood sprinkled on them right afterwards meant?
The book in Moses' hand held what God had already spoken. The New Testament names it again.
When Moses came to the people and told them "all the words of the LORD and all the rules," they all answered with one voice: "All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do." Moses then wrote all these words in a book. Exodus 24:7 calls it "the book of the covenant," and Hebrews 9:19 calls it "the book itself." The terms recorded in this book were to govern how the covenant relationship began and continued.
They answered fast and sure. Commentators say that confidence came from not knowing themselves.
From the first, they fooled themselves into thinking it was easy to keep all the Lord's commands. They were a self-satisfied and self-deceived people. They needed to learn the truth about themselves; and "through the law comes knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20)... The people's response was unanimous: "All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient." But they were not obedient. Sin within them was too strong... God said, "You shall have no other gods." They said, "We will have them. Aaron, make us a golden calf."
Everything they had received so far came as a gift. Their pledge changed the ground they stood on.
Up to that time, since their redemption from the land of Egypt, they had been under grace. God had borne them on eagles' wings, and brought them to Himself. Grace had set them free... and grace had sustained, provided for, borne with, and guided them, until that moment... They accepted the condition offered to them. The sprinkled blood declared the penalty for breaking it: death. From then on they stood on a new footing and relationship with God. Already they were God's people by redemption. Now they forgot the three months since they crossed the Red Sea, and their continual sins. They said they were ready to abandon the ground of grace, and to accept that of responsibility.
The blood sprinkled straight after their answer is easy to misread. It was not the blood of redemption.
It was the old covenant, not the new; the law, not redemption. As Hebrews states, the blood was sprinkled on the book and all the people. It only set forth death as the penalty of disobedience. So it was in no way propitiatory but penal.
The same principle reaches anyone today who offers obedience to God as the price of blessing.
The people promised obedience, and then they, as well as the book, were sprinkled to teach that death would be the penalty of transgression... It is the same now in principle with all who accept the ground of law as the way of life, all who are trusting to their own works as the condition of blessing. They know it not, but by doing so they are really binding on their shoulders the curse of the law, like the Israelites in this scene.
Hebrews adds that the book was sprinkled too. The two sprinklings say different things.
The sprinkling of the people seems to have reminded them that death was the penalty of disobedience. The sprinkling of the book, on the other hand, shows that death was necessary as the basis of everything.
So how can God dwell with a people like this?
It is striking that in Exodus 20, after God had given the ten commandments, He speaks at once of the altar, and of burnt offerings and peace offerings; and it is the same in this chapter. God's desire is to dwell with His people. That could not happen on the ground of man's own obedience in the flesh. It could only come by the obedience of the true Mediator, even to death, the death of the cross.
The same two elements — obedience and sprinkled blood — meet the Christian, and they mean the opposite.
Israel stood pledged to obey the law and sprinkled with the blood which declared death the penalty for breaking it. The Christian shares the life of Christ, and that life lives in obedience — the obedience of a son, of which Christ was the perfect expression. He is also sprinkled with His blood, and that blood declares him perfectly cleansed from his sins before God.
- Read — The book of the covenant carried God's own terms; Hebrews calls it "the book itself."
- Promised — Israel answered at once, sure of themselves and blind to their own hearts. The golden calf soon proved them wrong.
- Exchanged — Grace had carried them from Egypt to Sinai. Here they stepped off grace onto their own responsibility.
- Sealed — The blood that followed was penal, not propitiatory. It declared death as the penalty for breaking what they had just promised to keep.
- Reversed — For the Christian the same two elements return: the obedience of a son, and blood that says he is cleansed, not condemned.