The covenant promise between God and His people is confirmed with blood when the people promise to obey His word. The blood seals the covenant, just as blood was spilled when God and Abraham made their covenant.

Jesus’ blood was spilled to make the New Covenant, and we are covered with His blood if we make the same promise to live by His word.

God does something remarkable at this point in the story. He invites the leaders of His people to come and eat with Him, sort of. The elders of Israel see God and eat and drink, and they don’t die. Since we are told that no one has seen God and that even Moses can’t see God’s face and live, it might very well be they only saw His feet.

They are warned to keep their distance. They will die if they try to get close to God. Only Moses is invited to draw near. Moses will be called God’s friend.

In Psalm 25:14, it says that God has intimacy with those who fear Him; they are confidants, the closest of friends.

Moses knew God and knew who he was next to God. Moses was humble. He’s called the meekest man on earth. He remembered who He was without God.

His proper view of God didn’t lead to being separate from Him but joined to Him. If your view of God doesn’t draw you near to Him, then seek Him, seek Him in His word, and ask for a true understanding of who He is.

We need to have a right view of God, and that includes a right view of Jesus. In our rush to call Jesus our “friend,” we’ll get into trouble if we don’t get there through the fear of the Lord.

Jesus tore the veil in the temple so that we can approach the Father with confidence. But that confidence has to first come through the filter of the fear of the Lord. He is holy, demanding, awesome, just as much as He is our good and loving Father.