“Under His feet there appeared to be sapphire tilework, as clear as the sky itself.
Yet He did not lay a hand on these chosen Israelites. They saw God, and they ate and drank.”
Exodus 24:10-11 (NAB)
Moses wrote about an awesome mountain top experience he had around 1400 BC. After he chose seventy men, elders from all the tribes of Israel, along with his brother Aaron, and two nephews, Nadab and Abihu, they all went up the holy mountain of Sinai. Moses, his brother and nephews, being from the priestly tribe of Levi, offered the blood sacrifice on behalf of all the Israelite people.
After they made the sacrifice, it says that as they ate and drank, they saw the feet of God on a magnificent floor of sapphire. As beautiful as the glistening blue sapphire floor sounds, I can’t help but be more fixated on the feet that were on it. God is a Spirit and He doesn’t have a body, so whose feet did they see? Scripture does say that Jesus is the “image of the invisible God.”
(Colossians 1:15)
The feet they saw on the sapphire floor had to be the feet of Jesus, the second person of the divine Trinity. Though Jesus rarely appeared to people in the Old Testament, before His incarnation, it’s called a Theophany when He does. Were the feet seen on the sapphire floor, the feet of Jesus?
The elders beheld God as they ate and drank in His Presence. Who prepared the food they ate? Are there angels who serve as master chefs to prepare meals for special occasions? Was it a complete meal or only bread and wine, as a foreshadowing of the sacrament of communion that Jesus initiated later?
I certainly have more questions than answers, but one thing is clear, those men were given a limited glimpse of God, through a theophany of Jesus, and lived to tell about it.
So, there was a chosen group of men who ate and drank, dining in God’s Presence, on Mount Sinai after offering a sacrifice for sins. I’m beginning to see something strangely familiar about this whole scene.
The twelve apostles were chosen men who also ate and drank in God’s Presence, at the last supper meal with Jesus. Moses and his men were on the mountain top and the twelve apostles were in an upper room. While there, Jesus spoke about His blood of the new covenant, that will be offered for forgiveness of sins, once and for all.
The last supper seems like the fulfillment of the Mount Sinai event, except there was no sapphire floor in the upper room. It’s estimated that Jesus walked 1,968 feet, carrying a heavy cross up a hill, until being nailed to it, with Roman spikes driven through His hands and feet.
These images are meant to reflect on as we participate in holy communion. We are privileged to eat and drink in the Presence of God, just as the chosen men on Mount Sinai and the apostles in the upper room did. Every time we receive communion, it becomes our upper room and mountain top moment, because if communion were only a meal, then the crucifixion was only an execution. It’s a sacred moment to worship and cherish Jesus, who is now seated at the right hand of God, the Father.
Today, His nail scarred feet rest on that beautiful sapphire floor in Heaven, the same one that appeared to Moses and the elders. Though we cannot see Him now, we know how beautiful His feet are, because they brought us good news and paid the cost of our salvation.
In Heaven, we will see everything clearly. We will see His face shining like the sun, a glorious throne, angels singing, gates of pearl, streets of gold, fragrant incense, and all who have ever believed, worshipping the Lamb of God who now lives to intercede for us.
Until that day, His Spirit dwells in us, as His living Temples, which may not have sapphire floors, but the more we surrender our hearts to Him, the more we beautify our Temple for Jesus to dwell in.
Lord, thank you for the privilege to dine in your Presence through the new covenant made perfect by your precious blood. Help us keep our inward Temples beautiful for you to dwell in. Amen
