What Does Exodus 24:11 Mean?

The explicit "he did not lay his hand on them" note is the theologian's acknowledgment and its resolution simultaneously: these seventy-four men saw YHWH, which the Sinai preparation narrative warned was dangerous without adequate consecration, yet they were not struck. They ate and drank before him. The covenant-ratification meal in the divine presence is the covenant's highest relational moment: rather than a legal ceremony but a fellowship meal with the covenant God himself.

The "ate and drank" at YHWH's presence is the covenant's most intimate communion act: the covenant community's leadership shares a meal in YHWH's presence. The peace-offerings whose blood was split between altar and people in the ratification ceremony were Peace (shalom) offerings: the type of sacrifice whose flesh is eaten by the worshipers as part of the worship (Leviticus 7:15-18). The ratification ceremony's peace-offering and the elders' meal before YHWH are the same liturgical event: the covenant ratification sacrifice and the communion meal are one continuous act of covenant-entering.

The Lord's Supper is the new covenant's direct fulfillment of the Sinai covenant-ratification meal. The covenant blood formula (Mark 14:24), the covenantal meal (bread and cup), and the promise of eating and drinking at the Father's table in the kingdom (Luke 22:30) are all present in the upper room context. The Sinai elders who "beheld God, and ate and drank" before him are the type of the new covenant community that eats the Lord's Supper in anticipation of the banquet they will share with the risen Christ in the kingdom "until he comes" (1 Corinthians 11:26).