Israel Makes a Covenant with God

God told Moses to come up to him with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel. They were to worship from a distance. Moses alone could come near, and the rest of the people were not to go up.

Moses told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, and together they answered that they would do what the Lord had said. Moses wrote down these words. Early the next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.

Young men from Israel offered sacrifices to the Lord. Moses put some of the blood in basins and sprinkled some on the altar. Then he read the book of the covenant aloud to the people. Again they said they would obey, and Moses sprinkled blood on the people as the covenant sign.

Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders went up. They saw the God of Israel, and under his feet was something like clear sapphire stone, bright like the sky. God did not strike these leaders of Israel. They saw God, and they ate and drank.

After that, the Lord called Moses up on the mountain to receive the stone tablets with the law and commands for teaching the people. Moses set out with Joshua his servant. He told the elders to wait there, and said that Aaron and Hur could help anyone with a dispute.

A cloud covered the mountain, and the glory of the Lord settled on Sinai. For six days the cloud remained there. On the seventh day God called to Moses from within it. The people saw God’s glory like a fire on the mountain top. Moses entered the cloud and stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. When God finished speaking with him, he gave Moses the two stone tablets of the covenant, written by God’s own finger.