Daily Devotions
Beholding God in the Lord's Supper
Reading for January 23rd: Exodus 24-27
There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.
Exodus 24:10-11
One of the most remarkable narratives in Exodus is in chapter 24 when the covenant was confirmed. Moses read the Book of the Covenant to the people and the people vowed to keep it. He then took blood from the animals they had sacrificed and threw it on the people declaring to them, "Behold the blood of the covenant." (Exodus 24:7-8)
Then Moses, Aaron, Aaron's sons, and the elders of Israel went up and saw God! They ate a meal together, thus symbolizing their union together in this covenant.
When Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper he explained that the fruit of the vine is the blood of the covenant that God has made with us. Our hearts have been "sprinkled clean from an evil conscience" with this blood and because of this we have the right to "draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith." (Hebrews 11:22)
Jesus promised his disciples that he would not drink again of the fruit of the vine until he drank it new with us in the kingdom of the Father (Matthew 26:29) This promise has been realized each first day of the week when the saints gather to remember his death.
We should approach the table with reverence and awe! We are beholding the face of God (in Jesus) and eating and drinking.
Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to face;
Here would I touch and handle things unseen;
Here grasp with firmer hand eternal grace,
And all my weariness upon Thee lean.
Feast after feast thus comes and passes by;
Yet, passing, points to the glad feast above,
Giving sweet foretaste of the festal joy,
The Lamb's great bridal feast of bliss and love.
