Exodus 24:8

Moses took the blood. It is improbable that Moses sprinkled the blood on each individual of that vast multitude; he must have done so upon the leaders as their representatives. The “elders” and other chief men of each tribe and family were perhaps included in this part of the ceremony.

Behold the blood. Among the nations of antiquity it was a common custom to seal a covenant with blood (see on Genesis 15:9-13, 17). Sometimes the blood was that of a victim, the two parties solemnly affirming that if they broke the covenant, the victim’s fate would be theirs. Sometimes, among the heathen, it was the blood of the two parties themselves, each of whom drank of the other’s blood and thereby contracted a blood relationship. This was presumed to make the breaking of the covenant of life-and-death matter. Moses chose simply to sprinkle the blood upon the altar and the people (see on verse 6), thus bringing the contracting parties together in solemn covenant union. Applied to the people, the blood also symbolized cleansing from sin and consecration to divine service. Thereafter, God claimed them as His special property; they were His (Isaiah 43:1). Made free from sin, we too become servants of God (Romans 6:22; 1 Peter 2:9, 10).