In the foregoing message we placed great emphasis on the fact that it was not God’s intention to have His people observe the law He decreed. It is impossible for fallen, sinful, and corrupted people to keep the law. They simply do not have the ability to observe the law of God. Even though God did not intend for the people to keep the law, they presumed that since God had given them His law, they were expected to keep it. Exodus 24:3 says, “All the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which Jehovah hath said will we do” (lit.). According to verse 7, the people promised, “All that Jehovah hath said will we do, and be obedient” (lit.). Here we see two different intentions. The intention of God in decreeing the law was different from the intention of the people who received it. These two intentions did not correspond to each other.
If it was not God’s intention that His people observe the law decreed by Him, then what was His intention in giving them His law? In decreeing the law, God’s intention was to reveal to His chosen and redeemed people what kind of God He is. This is the reason the law of God is called the testimony. As the testimony of God, the law is a portrait or photograph of God. Therefore, the first function of the law is to reveal God.
The second function of God’s law is to cause His people to realize that they are fallen and far away from God. As a sinful and corrupt people, it is not possible for them to please God. They need the Lord’s redemption. Only through the redeeming blood can they have contact with God. If through redemption God’s people are brought to Him and have contact with Him, they will then have God infused into them. The more contact they have with God, the more they will receive the infusion of God.
As the representative of the children of Israel, Moses was brought into the presence of God and stayed there for quite a time. If the redeeming blood had not been in view, God could not have tolerated a fallen, sinful, corrupted man remaining in His presence. Do you think that Moses was perfect? Do you think that he was not fallen, sinful, or corrupt? Moses was fallen, sinful, and corrupt, just as all the other children of Israel were. Then how could such a sinful person stay in the presence of God on the mountaintop for a period of forty days? Moses could remain in God’s presence because God had the redeeming blood in view. The blood was the ground which enabled God to permit Moses to come into His presence and stay there. This means that under the redeeming blood Moses could come into the presence of God.
We can prove that it was through the redeeming blood that Moses came into the presence of God by considering the various aspects of the tabernacle and the outer court. Inside the Holy of Holies was the ark with the propitiatory cover (mercy seat). God was on the propitiatory cover, which was over the ark. The law was in the ark. In the Holy Place there were the showbread table, the lampstand, and the incense altar, and in the outer court there were the brass altar and the laver. The children of Israel were not permitted to come into the Holy Place, much less to pass through the veil and enter into the Holy of Holies to stand before the propitiatory cover. The propitiatory cover equals the throne of grace spoken of in Hebrews 4:16: “Let us therefore come forward with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace for timely help.” Although we may come forward boldly to the throne of grace, the children of Israel were not permitted to touch the propitiatory cover. The penalty for doing so would have been death. Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, were slain because they “offered strange fire before the Lord” (Lev. 10:1). In burning incense, they used fire from a source other than the altar. Who then was qualified to enter the Holy of Holies and touch the propitiatory cover? The only one qualified to do this was the one who brought with him the redeeming blood from the altar in the outer court. First the blood of the sin offering was shed on the altar. Then this blood was brought into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled on the propitiatory cover. This blood, which is the blood of the covenant, brought God’s people into His presence.
I repeat, in giving the law to the children of Israel God had no intention that they keep it or observe it. His intention was to show them what a wonderful God He is. His aim was to reveal to them that He is holy, righteous, and full of light and love. It was also His intention to cause the people to realize that, whereas He was holy, righteous, and a God of love and light, they were altogether unrighteous, unholy, and filled with hatred and falsehood. Then if they would realize their sinfulness and fallen condition, they would repent and receive God’s redemption. By means of this redemption they, as sinful persons who had been redeemed, would be brought into God’s presence and remain there to be infused with Him.
Moses’ experience with the Lord illustrates this. Although he was a fallen, sinful, and corrupted person, through the blood he was ushered into the presence of God. Staying in God’s presence for a period of forty days, Moses was infused with God and even became His reflection. This was the reason the skin of Moses’ face glowed when he descended from the mountain (34:29). It was shining with the element of God infused into him. Because Moses had been infused with God, he became the reflection of God. God’s intention in giving the law was to make all the children of Israel such a reflection of Himself.