Two very important things happen in Exodus chapter 24. Both are designed to encourage the people of Israel that God is serious about having them as his people.
First, the covenant God has made with them is confirmed with blood. Animals are killed, and the blood is literally thrown over the people. The book of Hebrews tells us that no covenant is made without blood. We have to wait for Leviticus to find out why. There we will discover that animals must die in place of the people, who are too sinful otherwise to have fellowship with God. The blood is applied to them, so that they are marked with it. The necessary blood has been shed, and these people have had its benefits applied to them. They are therefore the people of God.
Second, they eat and drink with God. It's easy to skip past this detail in verse 11. Through their 74 representatives, the people of Israel were able to see God, and to eat and drink, "and he did not lay his hand on" them. The goal of God's covenant and his rescue is that we might have fellowship - not only with one another, but together with him.
The covenant is sealed with blood, and enjoyed with a meal.
Just before he died, Jesus passed around a cup of wine. This, he said, is "the new covenant in my blood". Again, blood is shed. This time, it is not an animal, but Jesus himself. Again, we must appropriate that blood. It has to be sprinkled on us. John chapter 6 makes clear that the main way this happens is as we trust in him. That is how we drink of his blood. Having done that, they then ate and drank with Jesus, to celebrate the fact that they are the new covenant people of God.
Jesus commanded us to do this as often as we drink it, in memory of him. Each time we share bread and wine together in church, we are remembering the blood that was shed to make us the people of God. But we are doing so much more than that. For, in Exodus, the very goal of that blood was a meal with God. The meal we share in church reminds us of this. We have fellowship with God and with one another around a table. It's also a token meal, looking forward to the day when Jesus returns and his people will see him, and eat and drink with him together.
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