It is not possible to read this week's Torah portion and not be completely overwhelmed with joy! The Eternal God of Israel sweeps across these passages in Exodus 24 and once again we go "back to the future!"
In Exodus 24:7 Moses takes the book of the Covenant (the Torah, or the "ketuvah, which means marriage covenant) and reads it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the Lord has said. We will obey." Then in verse 8, he takes blood from the sacrifices and sprinkles it on the people. He says, "This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words." The Israelites had to be covered with blood before they could enter into covenantal relationship with God. How beautifully prophetic this scene is of Yeshua our Messiah, whose own sacrificial blood is now covering those of us who choose to be in marriage covenant with the God of Israel!
Yeshua, our Bridegroom, is coming soon to gather up His pure Bride and bring her to the Wedding Supper. But it won't be the first wedding supper of the Lamb! Exodus 24:9-11 says, "Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the 70 elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise His hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank."
Does that not take your breath away? And does it not cause you to wonder who it was that they saw that day? After all, Yahweh makes it very clear that no one can look upon His face and live. And in John 6:46 Yeshua Himself tells us, "No one has seen the Father except the One who came from the Father." So who did they see? With whom did they share food and drink?
I believe they were with the Anointed One, Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah - the very same One who was called Melchizedek and brought bread and wine to Abraham. He is the manfestation of Yahweh to His people. He shared this wedding banquet with the 70 elders of Israel in an awesome prophetic picture of His final redemptive wedding supper in the Millennial Kingdom.
Mary and Joseph were not the first to behold the Messiah. Simeon was not the first to prophesy of His glorious future! He was in the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. He was the Living Bread who gave manna to eat, and the Rock that gave the people water in the wilderness. He is "the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together" (Col. 1:15-17).
John the Revelator gives a description of the heavenly places that sounds a great deal like the place where Moses and the 70 elders dined with the Lord: "At once I was in the Spirit and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the One who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow resembling an emerald encircled the throne. Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal." (Rev. 4:2-3,6)
Hallelujah! My spirit is alive with anticipation!! What He did before He will do again. And as we go through the increasingly difficult days ahead, we must keep this joy and anticipation burning within us. We must recall the glorious experience of the 70 elders of Israel eating and drinking with the King of the Universe, and marvel that we too will behold His face and dine with Him over a sea of crystal and sapphire - if we respond to His Torah with the words the Israelites spoke that day: "We will do everything the Lord has said. We will obey" (Exodus 24:7).
