Moses is called up onto the mountain, 1-2. The people promise obedience, 3. Moses builds an altar and twelve pillars, 4, 5. He sprinkles the blood of the covenant, 6-8. The glory of God appears, 9-13. Aaron and Hur have the charge of the people, 14. Moses goes onto the mountain, where he continues forty days and forty nights, 15-18.
1 And he said to Moses, "Come up to the LORD—you, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel—and worship afar off. 2 And Moses alone shall come near the LORD, but they shall not come near, neither shall the people go up with him."
3 And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, "All the words which the LORD has said we will perform." 4 And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose early in the morning and built an altar under the hill and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the children of Israel who offered burnt-offerings and sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen to the LORD. 6 And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 And he took the book of the covenant and read in the audience of the people. And they said, "All that the LORD has said we will do and be obedient." 8 And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, "Behold, the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you concerning all these words."
9 Then Moses went up, along with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, 10 And they saw the God of Israel, and there was under his feet something like a paved work of a sapphire-stone and like the body of heaven in its clearness. 11 And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he did not lay his hand. They also saw God and ate and drank.
12 And the LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and be there, and I will give you tablets of stone with the law and the commandments which I have written so that you may teach them." 13 And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua, and Moses went up upon the mountain of God. 14 And he said to the elders, "Wait here for us until we come back to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. If any man has any matters to do, let him come to them." 15 And Moses went up upon the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain. 16 And the glory of the LORD stayed upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. 17 And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. 18 And Moses went into the midst of the cloud and ascended the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Matthew Henry Commentary - Exodus, Chapter 24[➚]
[v.2] - In the same manner that Moses alone was to go near the Lord, Christ was and is the only Mediator between God and man. See 1st Timothy 2:5.
[v.3] - Reference, Jeremiah 42:6.
[v.4] - From Robert Hawker's Commentary: "Perhaps this altar was designed to represent God's covenant, and the twelve pillars the twelve tribes of Israel. Moses standing between the altar and the pillars, perhaps represented the Lord Jesus as the Mediator."
[v.5] - Reference, Psalm 50:5.
[v.6-8] - The sprinkling of the blood of sacrifices was a type and shadow of the shedding of the blood of Christ on the cross. See Hebrews 9:19-28.
[v.8] - Quoted in Hebrews 9:20. The whole of Hebrews, ch. 9 details the two covenants and explains how Christ fulfilled the first covenant and established the second covenant.
[v.9-10] - Robert Hawker intimates that they saw God the Son, Jesus Christ. Reference, John 1:18. Also, from John Gill's Exposition: "They saw the Son of God, the God of Israel, in a human form, as a pledge and presage of his future incarnation, who is the Angel that spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, as Stephen says, and the Lord that was among the angels there, who afterward became incarnate, and having done his work on earth, ascended on high (Acts 7:38; Psalm 68:17-18)."
[v.12] - Reference, Psalm 147:19-20.
[v.15] - Reference, Matthew 17:5.
[v.16] - The seventh day is the Lord's day. Reference, Revelation 1:10.
[v.17] - Reference, Hebrews 12:29.