What Does Exodus 23:29 Mean?

The elders' vision of YHWH at Sinai is among the Old Testament's most audacious theological descriptions: they "saw the God of Israel. 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." The vision is given to the seventy elders and the three leaders (Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu): the covenant community's full leadership sees YHWH at a foundational moment. They see, they are not destroyed, and they eat and drink before him.

The sapphire pavement beneath YHWH's feet is the theophany's most exquisite visual element: the clear-blue crystalline surface that forms the floor of YHWH's throne-room, "like the very heaven for clearness." Ezekiel's chariot-vision (Ezekiel 1:22-26) uses identical imagery: "over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of an expanse, shining like awe-inspiring crystal." In Revelation 4:6, "before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal." The sapphire-heaven surface glimpsed by the Sinai elders is the same crystalline throne-floor visible in every subsequent theophany-vision.

The heavenly geography is consistent across the canon's theophanies.

"He did not lay his hand on the chief men": the explicit statement that YHWH did not strike these elders who saw him is the theophany's theological surprise. The fear throughout the Sinai preparation narrative has been the danger of seeing YHWH without adequate holiness. Yet these seventy-four men see YHWH and survive to eat and drink in his presence. The meal-before-YHWH is the covenant community's most intimate communion with the divine: the shared table as the covenant relationship's highest expression.

John 1:14's "we have seen his glory" and 1 John 1:1's "which we have looked at and our hands have touched" are the new covenant's equivalent claim: the disciples who ate with Jesus across the resurrection appearances are the Sinai elders' antitype: those who see and eat before the LORD and are not destroyed.