Then he said to Moses: come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance. The covenant ratification ceremony begins with a specific invitation: Moses, Aaron, Aaron's two sons who will later die for offering unauthorized fire (Leviticus 10), and seventy elders — the same seventy who represent the fullness of Israel at Sinai. The invitation comes in grades of proximity: Moses goes nearest, the priests and elders at a middle distance, the people at the base. The graduated approach to the holy that has characterized the Sinai narrative — from the boundary around the mountain to the thresholds of the tabernacle — is here enacted in human bodies ascending the mountain. Hebrews 10:22 says let us draw near to God with a sincere heart — the drawing near that was gradual and partial at Sinai becomes complete in Christ.

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